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Re: make output of ldapsearch readable (disable base64)

Zhang Weiwu wrote:
Michael StrÃder wrote:
Zhang Weiwu wrote: 
Since I have been working on a Chinese language based directory the
ldapsearch tool was difficult for me to use, the result is always not
readable.

This is because if an attribute value contain Chinese, it's
automatically displayed using base64. I had to copy & paste the result
to 'base64 -d' to read every result, which kills my efficiency.
This LDIF output is supposed to be ASCII-clean. 
Yes I know, and is the only command line tool currently on my computer
that doesn't output Chinese in UTF-8, given the console (both
framebuffer and X11 terminals) supports UTF-8...


...and have the necessary fonts installed.

I also don't know what the implications are for BIDI fonts. E.g. the attribute type (ASCII) would be output from left to right, and the LDIF is normally read top-down like western-oriented console terminals are designed. But if there's a language read right-to-left or even bottom-up how should that be handled by the console?

(I do most things on
commandline except browsing, e.g. using SQL client)

You should seriously consider a LDAP UI client meeting your needs for automatically accessing certain tasks.

I would consider being able to produce UTF-8 is a requirement, being
able to output ASCII-only is an option that some user find useful and
can activate or configure/enable, if you can think from a non-western
oriented view.

Indeed I can think from non-western oriented view. But having implemented web2ldap I know that producing UTF-8 would only suitable for strings of Unicode characters. web2ldap is schema-aware, OpenLDAP's command-line tools are not.

One possibility which could easily implemented would be that one specifies with a command-line option which attributes to output as UTF-8. The user is responsible for all the mess which could be output at the console.

You can easily pass it around in e-mails. 

As easy as I pass command-line output that contain Chinese to email?
I've been doing such things for years:)

Well, the amount of information transferred is what the receiver understands. ;-)

Serious: If you post LDIF dara one can add it to the directory for testing without having the necessary fonts installed.

Ciao, Michael.