Re: problem importing cn=config

[Howard Chu <hyc@symas.com>]

Greg Martin wrote:
> Howard Chu wrote:
> > Greg Martin wrote:
> >
> > > 1) to
> > > convert slapd.conf to ./slapd.d, and the second to "initialize" it.
> > > Since slapadd is used to add things to the database, I figured it was
> > > being imported into the database.  Is the slappadd not necessary?
> > If you have a plain LDIF file produced by slapcat'ing a database, you
> > can slapadd it to use it.
> >
> > A slapd.d directory tree produced by converting a slapd.conf file is
> > not a flat LDIF file, it's a tree of related files. It is in fact an
> > LDAP database that uses a hierarchical filesystem as its underlying
> > data store. Since it is an actual LDAP database, slapd reads it directly.
> OK, I think I get that.  Can you help me understand what the manpage is
> trying to tell me to do with this:
>
>  "Assuming the above data was saved in a  file  named  "config.ldif"
> and  the /etc/openldap/slapd.d   directory   has  been  created,  this
> command  will initialize the configuration:
>               slapadd -F /etc/openldap/slapd.d -n 0 -l config.ldif"
>
> After I ran slaptest to convert my slapd.conf to ./slapd.d, these
> instructions indicate to me there is more to do.  What am I missing?
>
> No, wait.  Now I see.  If I build the config.ldif from scratch, then I
> would run slapadd to construct the LDAP database.  But since I used
> slaptest to convert my existing slapd, that construction was done as
> part of the conversion.

Yes, that's pretty much correct. You converted your *slapd configuration* from 
the old slapd.conf format to the new slapd.d format. In either the old or the 
new format, slapd just reads what you have, there's no extra "load" step needed.

Converting to an intermediate format (plain LDIF) that then requires manual 
loading would just be a waste of time, and one thing I utterly detest is 
software that wastes my time.

> Perhaps the man page could be clarified a bit.  The explanation of the
> conversion process is part of the EXAMPLES section.  Maybe a SLAPD.CONF
> CONVERSION section could be added that says something like:
> SLAPD.CONF CONVERSION
>     Conversion from slapd.conf to the slapd.d config directory can be
> accomplished using slaptest or any of the slap tools:
>               slaptest -f /etc/openldap/slapd.conf -F ETCDIR/slapd.d
>     This command will construct the config.ldif and construct the LDAP
> configuration database.

You're still not seeing it. We don't "construct the config.ldif." We only 
convert the old config file format to the new config directory format. *You* 
might write a "config.ldif" file by hand, if you're bootstrapping a 
configuration from scratch, but that's entirely different. There is no 
"config.ldif" unless you created that yourself, and that has nothing to do 
with slapd's config directory.

> Once completed, change the slapd startup command
> to reference the directory by using the -F ETCDIR/slapd.d in lieu of -f
> ETCDIR/slapd.d

--
  -- Howard Chu
  Chief Architect, Symas Corp.  http://www.symas.com
  Director, Highland Sun        http://highlandsun.com/hyc/
  Chief Architect, OpenLDAP     http://www.openldap.org/project/