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LDAP Data Interchange Format

LDIF (LDAP Data Interchange Format) is a standard plain text format used for representing LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) directory content and update requests.

It is commonly used for importing, exporting, and updating data within LDAP directories.

Here are some key points about LDIF:

History and Development:

LDIF was designed in the early 1990s by Tim Howes, Mark C. Smith, and Gordon Good while at the University of Michigan.
It was initially created for use with Version 2 of LDAP and was later updated and extended for use with Version 3 of LDAP.
The later version of LDIF, known as LDIF version 1, is formally specified in RFC 2849, an IETF Standard Track RFC authored by Gordon Good and published in June 2000.
LDIF version 1 is currently classified as a Proposed Standard.

Content Record Format:

LDIF represents directory content as a set of records, where each record corresponds to an object (entry) in the directory.
Each content record consists of attributes represented as "name: value" pairs.
Records are separated from each other by blank lines.
If a value contains characters outside a portable subset of ASCII, it is encoded using base64 encoding and marked with '::' after the attribute name.

Examples of LDIF Usage:

Exporting Data: LDIF is used for exporting data from LDAP servers to LDIF content records. Tools like ldapsearch in OpenLDAP can be used for this purpose.
Importing Data: LDIF is used to import data from LDIF content records into LDAP servers. The ldapadd command is commonly used for this.
Modifying Data: LDIF represents update requests, such as Add, Modify, Delete, and Rename, as a set of records. The ldapmodify command is used to apply LDIF change records to LDAP servers.
Microsoft Active Directory: Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003 include an LDIF-based command-line tool named LDIFDE for importing and exporting information in Active Directory.