RFC 2849 specifies LDIF directives that you can use within your LDIF files. The most commonly used directive is changetype, which follows the dn: directive and defines the operation on the entry. The main advantage of using this method in an LDIF file is that you can combine add and modify in one file.

  1. Open a text editor and create an entry that conforms with your schema.

    This example uses changetype: add to add the following entry in the file and saves the file as add-user2.ldif.

    dn: uid=user.2001,ou=People,dc=example,dc=com 
changetype: add 
objectClass: top 
objectClass: person
objectClass: organizationalPerson 
objectClass: inetOrgPerson 
postalAddress: Seely Dorm$100 Apple Street$Cincinnati, OH 50563 
postalCode: 50563 
description: This is the description for Seely Dorm. 
uid: user.2001 
userPassword: pleasantry 
employeeNumber: 2001 
initials: SPD 
givenName: Seely pager: +1 596 665 3344 
mobile: +1 039 686 4949 
cn: Seely Dorm 
sn: Dorm 
telephoneNumber: +1 097 257 7542 
street: 100 Apple Street 
homePhone: +1 214 521 4883 
l: Cincinnati 
mail: user.2001@maildomain.net 
st: OH
  2. To add the entry specified in the LDIF file, run the ldapmodify tool.

    In this example, you do not need to use the --defaultAdd or its shortform -a option with the command.

    $ bin/ldapmodify --filename add-user2.ldif
    A confirmation message displays confirming the addition.