Q: "stable" slapcat / slapadd?

["Ulrich Windl" <Ulrich.Windl@rz.uni-regensburg.de>]

Hi!

I used to dump the OpenLDAP databases using slapcat (as suggested for backup). As an optimization I avoid storing identical databases.
However I had seen changes that actually were not made, so my question:

Is slapcat expected to be stable, i.e. report entries and attributes in a specific ordering?
Is slapadd expected to be stable, i.e. add entries and attributes the same way when they come from the same LDIF file?

I had just removed the entryCSN on cn=config, and I see differences after removing and rebuilding the config database that were not made in the LDIF file:

--- /tmp/1      2013-07-12 14:49:35.000000000 +0200
+++ /tmp/2      2013-07-12 14:49:35.000000000 +0200
@@ -4,6 +4,10 @@
 olcArgsFile: /var/run/slapd/slapd.args
 olcAuthzRegexp: {0}gidNumber=0\+uidNumber=0,cn=peercred,cn=external,cn=auth dn
  :cn=config
+olcLogLevel: config
+olcLogLevel: stats
+olcLogLevel: sync
+olcLogLevel: none
 olcPidFile: /var/run/slapd/slapd.pid
 olcServerID: 1 ldap://rksapds1.site
 olcServerID: 2 ldap://rksapds2.site
@@ -19,10 +23,6 @@
 entryUUID: db3f4d44-7c0e-1032-81c4-d54356bd918f
 creatorsName: cn=config
 createTimestamp: 20130708113956Z
-olcLogLevel: config
-olcLogLevel: stats
-olcLogLevel: sync
-olcLogLevel: none
 entryCSN: 20130712095650.995134Z#000000#000#000000
 modifiersName: cn=config
 modifyTimestamp: 20130712095650Z
@@ -2152,12 +2152,12 @@
 dn: olcDatabase={2}monitor,cn=config
 objectClass: olcDatabaseConfig
 olcDatabase: {2}monitor
+olcAccess: {0}to dn.subtree="cn=monitor" by dn.base="cn=Admin,dc=censored
+ ,dc=uni-regensburg,dc=de" write by users read by * none
 structuralObjectClass: olcDatabaseConfig
 entryUUID: 20f4a254-7f1a-1032-9c35-67ae7acd0417
 creatorsName: cn=config
 createTimestamp: 20130712083810Z
-olcAccess: {0}to dn.subtree="cn=monitor" by dn.base="cn=Admin,dc=censored
- ,dc=uni-regensburg,dc=de" write by users read by * none
 entryCSN: 20130712085712.643156Z#000000#000#000000
 modifiersName: cn=config
 modifyTimestamp: 20130712085712Z

Regards,
Ulrich