NAME

ldapsh - an interactive LDAP shell

SYNOPSIS

ldapsh [--help] [-D <dn>] [--source <source>] [--uid <uid>] [--base <search base>] [--password <password>] [--server <server>] [--debug <debug level>]

DESCRIPTION

ldapsh is an interactive LDAP shell, written entirely in perl and using Net::LDAP. It's extensible in that it is relatively easy to add new commands to it. It is largely modeled after the Unix shell, but does not at this point allow multiple tokens through a mechanism like pipes.

OPTIONS

help: Prints out help page.
source: Select the source to authenticate to, as defined by Net::LDAP::Shell::Config. By default, the source 'default' is used.
server: Select the individual server. If this server is not configured in Net::LDAP::Shell::Config, you will also have to specify the base.
D: Select the DN to authenticate as. If you do not provide this, you will be prompted for it. Once this information is provided once for a server or a source (either through a flag or through prompting) it will be cached and not required again.
uid: Select the unqualified uid to bind as; this is actually equivalent in functionality to -D, because they do the same thing on the back end.
base: Select the search base to start at. This will also be your effective root once you are in the shell, and you will not be able to go to a higher level of the directory.
password: Uh, the password. If this is not provided, it is prompted for.
debug: The debug level. At this point, any number will suffice.

Example

        ldapsh --server ldap.domain.com -D uid=me,ou=People,dc=domain,dc=com
        password:
        default:dc=madstop,dc=com> ls
        ou=People
        ou=Hosts
        ou=Group
        ou=Config
        default:dc=madstop,dc=com> cd ou=people
        default:ou=People,dc=madstop,dc=com> ls
        uid=luke
        uid=hostmaster
        uid=testing
        uid=admin
        default:ou=People,dc=madstop,dc=com> ls -l
        Creator       Created             Modifier      Modified            Sub  Name
        ------------------------------------------------------------------------
        cn=Manager    05/06/2004 21:47:58 -             05/06/2004 21:47:58 -    uid=luke
        uid=luke      07/21/2004 11:36:29 -             07/21/2004 11:40:57 -    uid=hostmaster
        uid=luke      07/26/2004 21:57:39 -             07/29/2004 16:03:19 -    uid=testing
        uid=luke      07/26/2004 23:59:14 -             07/26/2004 23:59:14 -    uid=admin
        default:ou=People,dc=madstop,dc=com> cat uid=luke
        dn: uid=luke,ou=People,dc=madstop,dc=com
        objectClass: top
        objectClass: inetOrgPerson
        uid: luke
        cn: Luke Kanies
        sn: Kanies

        default:dc=madstop,dc=com> edit uid=luke
        [...]
        default:dc=madstop,dc=com> cd ..
        default:dc=madstop,dc=com> search objectclass=iphost
        cn=host,ou=Hosts,dc=madstop,dc=com
        cn=host2,ou=Hosts,dc=madstop,dc=com
        cn=host3,ou=Hosts,dc=madstop,dc=com
        cn=host4,ou=Hosts,dc=madstop,dc=com
        cn=host5,ou=Hosts,dc=madstop,dc=com
        cn=host6,ou=Hosts,dc=madstop,dc=com
        cn=host7,ou=Hosts,dc=madstop,dc=com
        cn=host8,ou=Hosts,dc=madstop,dc=com
        cn=host9,ou=Hosts,dc=madstop,dc=com
        default:dc=madstop,dc=com>

USING IT

ldapsh was modeled as closely as possible after a normal Unix shell. It currently supports ReadLine (meaning command editing) but without command completion just yet. RSN, hopefully.

Just like the normal shell, it has two classes of commands: builtin commands and commands found via a search path. Builtin commands can be listed by running 'builtins' at the ldapsh prompt. Non-builtin commands are currently only listed in the COMMANDS file included in this distribution, but hopefully that will be fixed soon.

Unlike the normal shell, there is not a real parser just yet, which means you can't do things like set variables on the CLI. This is likely to be one of the features in 2.0, with the main other one being command completion. Feature requests are welcome.

CONFIGURATION

ldapsh relies on the Net::LDAP::Config library, which is useful for configuring one or more LDAP sources. You can use it to store the server name(s), base DNs, whether or not to use SSL, and a few other things. ldapsh searches for its config at /etc/ldapsh_config, /usr/local/etc/ldapsh_config, and ~/.ldapsh_profile.

An example is included with the distribution, but here's another:

        [primary]
        servers: ldap.domain.com ldap2.domain.com
        base: dc=domain,dc=com
        ssl: prefer

        [external]
        servers: ldap.otherdomain.com
        base: dc=otherdomain,dc=com
        ssl: require

        [main]
        default: primary

head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

LDAPSH_HISTFILE: Where ldapsh stores its history. This only works if you have a Term::ReadLine other than 'Stub' installed (e.g., Perl or Gnu). Defaults to ~/.ldapsh_history.
LDAPSH_PROFILE: Where ldapsh looks for its initial configuration, just like a "real" shell. Also just like a real shell, this should contain commands you want ldapsh to execute as it is starting up (they will be executed after connecting to the server).
This file is probably not incredibly useful just yet, but watch this space. Defaults to ~/.ldapsh_config.

EXTENDING

If you want to add your own commands, you can use the stub.pm file as an example. Please send me any commands you add, and I'll include them in the distribution.

TODO

Add completion support. I'm working on this, but I just can't get it to work... Help is appreciated. Everything is theoretically set up correctly, but tabs just don't do anything.

Create a real parser using YAPP et all, so that I can add things like variable storage and stuff like that.

Write better documentation.

BUGS

Thousands, millions. Oh my god this has so many bugs I don't even think I can count that high. Because of my lack of counting ability, I need each and every one of you to spend some time tracking down some of these bugs, so that I can begin figuring out exactly how many there are.

Oh, and I'll try to fix them too.

AUTHOR

Luke A. Kanies, luke@madstop.com

$Id: ldapsh,v 1.4 2004/07/26 22:33:08 luke Exp $