OpenLDAP SLAPD configuration file

Once you have successfully compiled and installed the software, you will be ready to configure SLAPD (8) for your site. The SLAPD runtime configuration is done primarily through the slapd.conf (5) file, which is typically installed in the/USR/LOCAL/ETC/OPENLDAP directory. You can also use command-line options for additional configuration files for SLAPD (8) or SLURPD (8). This chapter describes the general format of the configuration file, followed by a detailed description of the common configuration file directives.

Configuration file format

The slapd.conf (5) file consists of three parts of configuration information: Global, background-specific, and database-specific. The first is to specify global information, followed by the associated information for a specific background type, followed by the associated information for a particular database instance. Global directives can be overridden by specific background and database directives, and background directives can be overwritten by database directives.

Blank lines and comment lines starting with "#" are ignored. If a line starts with a space, it is considered a continuation of the previous line (even the previous line is a comment line)

The slapd.conf common format looks like this:

# Global Revisit Directives
<global Config directives>

# backend Definition
Backend <typeA>
<backend-specific directives>

# & Config directives
Database <typeA>
<database-specific directives>

# Second database Definition & config directives
Database <typeB>
<database-specific directives>

# Second database Definition & config directives
Database <typeA>
<database-specific directives>

# subsequent backend & database Definitions & config directives
...

The configuration statement can have parameters, and if so, the arguments are delimited by whitespace. If the argument contains a blank character, the argument is enclosed in double quotes: "Just like this." If the arguments contain double quotes or backslash "\", then precede them with a "\".

The release contains a sample configuration file that is installed in the/USR/LOCAL/ETC/OPENLDAP directory. The software also provides a number of schema definitions (attribute type attributes types and object class inject classes) files, which are in the/usr/local/etc/openldap/schema directory.

Configuration file Directives

This section describes the common configuration directives in detail. For a complete list, see the man page for slapd.conf (5). This section divides the configuration file directives into global, background-specific, and specific data categories, describes each instruction and its default value (if any), and gives an example of its use.