The import-ldif command line tool imports data from an LDIF file. You can import all or a portion of the entries contained in the LDIF file, including a subset of the entries, a subset of the attributes within entries, or both. The command also supports importing data that has been compressed, encrypted or digitally signed, or both.

You can run the import-ldif utility with the server offline or online. If the server is online, administrators can initiate the import from a local or remote client. The LDIF file that contains the import data must exist on the server system. During an online import, the target database repository, or backend, is removed from service and data held in that backend is not available to clients.

The import-ldif tool has been modified to help guard against accidental overwriting of existing backend data with the addition of the --overwriteExistingEntries option. You must include this option when performing an import into a backend with a branch that already contains entries. If a branch contains just a single base entry, the --overwriteExistingEntries option is not required.