Re: newbie: ADD vs. MODIFY

[Lillith Lerien <lillith@xpresschex.com>]

On Fri, 1 Sep 2000, Ron Newman wrote:

> ldapadd chokes if the entry exists already, 
> ldapmodify is meant for existing entries.
> 
> So to add a new entry I first search the entire database to see if it
> exists, then call either ldapadd or ldapmodify accordingly?  This is very
> slow, but I understand that LDAP is meant for fast recall, not fast
> entering.

ldapmodify -a should also add entries (though I should think it would
choke if it already existed, too).  If you are putting this in a script,
the -a could simplify things.*

If you need to add a lot of people, you probably want to look at the ldif
format and do all your searches first, then a big ldapmodify/add.  If you
only need to add one person every once in a while, searching first doesn't
seem like a big hardship.  (Of course, we've only got about 150 entries,
so searches are quick.)

Lillith Lerien

Systems Administrator				e: lillith@xpresschex.com
XpresscheX, Inc.				v: 505-998-3141 x3712

* Such as this perl-like pseudocode;

$a = "";
if (`ldapsearch`) {
	$a = -a;
}
ldapmodify $a blah blah blah;