Net::LDAP::LDIF(3)

NAME
Net::LDAP::LDIF - LDIF reading and writing

SYNOPSIS
 use Net::LDAP::LDIF;

 $ldif = Net::LDAP::LDIF->new( "file.ldif", "r", onerror => 'undef' );
 while( not $ldif->eof ( ) ) {
   $entry = $ldif->read_entry ( );
   if ( $ldif->error ( ) ) {
     print "Error msg: ", $ldif->error ( ), "\n";
     print "Error lines:\n", $ldif->error_lines ( ), "\n";
   } else {
     # do stuff
   }
 }
 $ldif->done ( );

DESCRIPTION
Net::LDAP::LDIF provides a means to convert between Net::LDAP::Entry objects and LDAP entries represented in LDIF format files. Reading and writing are supported and may manipulate single entries or lists of entries.

As when reading an entire file into memory with perl normally, take into account the possibility of memory use when loading an LDIF file in one go.

CONSTRUCTOR

new ( FILE )
    Open the file read-only. "FILE" may be the name of a file or an already open filehandle. If "FILE" begins or ends with a "|" then "FILE" will be passed directly to "open".

new ( FILE, MODE, OPTIONS )
    Open the file with the given "MODE", eg "w" or "a". "FILE" may be the name of a file or an already open filehandle. If "FILE" begins or ends with a "|" then "FILE" will be passed directly to "open".

    encode => 'none' | 'canonical' | 'base64'
        Some values in LDIF cannot be written verbatim and have to be encoded in some way:

        'none'
            The default.

        'canonical'
            See "canonical_dn" in Net::LDAP::Util.

        'base64'
            Use base64.

    onerror => 'die' | 'warn' | undef
        Specify what happens when an error is detected.

        'die'
            "Net::LDAP::LDIF" will croak with an appropriate message.

        'warn'
            "Net::LDAP::LDIF" will warn with an appropriate message.

        undef
            "Net::LDAP::LDIF" will warn with an appropriate message if "-w" is in effect. The method that was called will return "undef".

    change => 1
        Write entry changes to the LDIF file instead of the entries itself. I.e. write LDAP operations acting on the entries to the file instead of the entries contents.

    lowercase => 1
        Convert attribute names to lowercase when writing.

    sort => 1
        Sort attribute names when writing entries according to the rule: objectclass first then all other attributes alphabetically sorted

    version => '1'
        Set the LDIF version to write to the resulting LDIF file.

        According to RFC 2849 currently the only legal value for this option is 1.

        The default is undef meaning no version information is written to the LDIF file.

    wrap => 78
        Number of columns where output line wrapping shall occur.

        Default is 78. Setting it to 40 or lower inhibits wrapping.

METHODS

read_entry ( )
    Read one entry from the file and return it as a "Net::LDAP::Entry" object.

eof ( )
    Returns true when the end of the file is reached.

write_entry ( ENTRIES )
    Write the entries to the LDIF file.

version ( [ VERSION ] )
    If called without arguments it returns the version of the LDIF file or undef if no version has been set. If called with an argument it sets the LDIF version to VERSION.

    According to RFC 2849 currently the only legal value for VERSION is 1.

done ( )
    This method signals that the LDIF object is no longer needed. If a file was opened automatically when the object was created it will be closed. This method is called automatically via DESTROY when the object goes out of scope.

error ( )
    Returns error message if error was found.

error_lines ( )
    Returns lines that resulted in error.

current_entry ( )
    Returns the current "Net::LDAP::Entry" object.

current_lines ( )
    Returns the lines that generated the current "Net::LDAP::Entry" object.

next_lines ( )
    Returns the lines that will generate the next "Net::LDAP::Entry" object.

AUTHOR
Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>.

Please report any bugs, or post any suggestions, to the perl-ldap mailing list <perl-ldap@perl.org>.

COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1997-2004 Graham Barr. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.