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iPlanet Directory Server Resource Kit 5.1 Tools Reference



About This Guide


This guide covers the installation of the iPlanet™ Directory Server Resource Kit (iPlanet DSRK) and contains the command-line reference for all of its tools. The LDAP APIs are part of the installation but are documented separately in the iPlanet LDAP SDK for C Programming Guide and the iPlanet LDAP SDK for Java™ Programming Guide. These programming guides are available from the same source as this document (see "Where to Find Additional Information").

This chapter contains the following sections:



What You Are Expected to Know

Before using the tools of the iPlanet DSRK, you should be familiar with the concepts of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and common directory architecture. The books and guides described in "Where to Find Additional Information" provide a good introduction to this background information.

In addition, you should be familiar with the command-line syntax for your shell and platform and with the deployment details of the specific LDAP directories you wish to access.


Shell Syntax

The tools of the iPlanet DSRK are command-line utilities whose functionality is available through options and parameters. You should be familiar with the syntax of commands for your particular shell and platform.

For example, you may need to specify values that contain characters with special meaning to the command-line interpreter, such as space " ", asterisk "*", backslash "\", and so forth. Most shells require you to use quotation marks around values that contain special characters. One example is the space character in DNs (distinguished names):

"cn=Barbara Jensen,ou=Product Development,dc=siroe,dc=com"

Depending on your command-line interpreter, use either single or double quote marks for this purpose. Refer to your operating system documentation for more information.

The command examples given in this book are valid for most UNIX® shell environments. However, they rely on basic shell syntax and are usually applicable to all platforms with little modification.


Directory Deployment

This reference guide documents only the tools of the iPlanet DSRK. It is not intended to be a deployment, testing, or maintenance guide for your directory installation. You should be aware of the following characteristics of your directory when using these tools:

  • Size and number of entries.

  • Directory structure and access permissions.

  • Virtual attributes, class of service, and indexing.

  • Usage, types of access, and access patterns.

Please refer to the iPlanet Directory Server Deployment Guide for information on how to determine the influence of these factors and take them into consideration.

Many other issues are beyond the scope of the product documentation. For example, when designing performance tests, you must be able to isolate your directory from external influences, yet simulate real usage conditions. iPlanet Professional Services can help you with these and other directory deployment issues (see "Where to Find Additional Information").



Organization of This Guide


This guide explains how to use each of the iPlanet DSRK tools by giving its command-line syntax, listing all options and their functionality, listing all return values when applicable, and providing examples of usage. Each tool is covered in a separate chapter and chapters for like tools are grouped within parts of the book:

Chapter 32 may be printed separately to provide a complete reference to the commands within the ilash shell.



Documentation Conventions


This book uses the following font conventions:

  • Monospace type is used within paragraph text to represent command and option names, filenames, and literal text.

  • Monospace type is also used for all command examples and code listings.

  • Monospace bold type shows text that a user would type at a command prompt.

  • Italic type is used within filenames, options, and parameters to indicate text placeholder. For example, when typing the following command, substitute your file's actual name for the filename placeholder:

       $ gunzip filename .tar.gz

  • Italic type is also used within paragraph text for book titles, emphasis, and placeholder names.



Where to Find Additional Information

The tools in the iPlanet DSRK interact with iPlanet Directory Server, and the following documents are referenced throughout this guide:

All iPlanet Directory Server documentation and directory-related documents are available in PDF and HTML formats at the following URL. The latest API documentation for the iPlanet LDAP SDKs for C and the Java programming language is also available here:

http://docs.iplanet.com/docs/manuals/directory.html

If you still have questions after reading this guide, the official forum for asking questions about the iPlanet DSRK is the iplanet.server.idsrk public newsgroup. We encourage you to contribute your LDAP client tools and directory maintenance utilities. Information about updates and new releases of the product will also be posted to this newsgroup.

The iPlanet LDAP SDKs for C and Java are also released through the Mozilla™ open source project. Visit the following site for instructions on obtaining the source code and contributing to the development of these APIs:

http://www.mozilla.org/directory

The Internet standards documents for LDAP and its APIs are published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Work on these standards is ongoing, and the latest information may be found at the URL for the LDAP Extension charter:

http://ftp.ietf.org/html.charters/ldapext-charter.html

Many of the tools in the iPlanet DSRK are Perl scripts that rely on the perl interpreter. For information about the Perl language and other Perl resources, visit the following web sites:

The new web-based gateway demonstrated in the jdgw phonebook application relies on JavaServer Pages™ (JSP™) technology and the Tomcat application of the Jakarta project from the Apache Software Foundation:

Finally, other helpful iPlanet information can be found at the following URLs:



Acknowledgements

This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org/).

This product also includes software developed through Mozilla (http://www.mozilla.org/).

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Copyright 2002 Sun Microsystems, Inc.. All rights reserved.

Last Updated April 15, 2002