3.3. Adding an Entry

To add a new entry to the directory, use the ldapadd or ldapmodify utility. Note that ldapadd is a symbolic link to /bin/ldapmodify. Therefore, ldapadd performs the same operation as ldapmodify -a.

Note

You can only add a new directory entry, if the parent entry already exists. For example, you cannot add the cn=user,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com entry, if the ou=people,dc=example,dc=com parent entry does not exist.

3.3.1. Adding an Entry Using ldapadd

To use the ldapadd utility to add, for example, the cn=user,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com user entry: 
# ldapadd -D "cn=Directory Manager" -W -p 389 -h server.example.com -x

dn: uid=user,ou=People,dc=example,dc=com
uid: user
givenName: given_name
objectClass: top
objectClass: person
objectClass: organizationalPerson
objectClass: inetorgperson
sn: surname
cn: user

Note

Running ldapadd automatically performs a changetype: add operation. Therefore, you do not need to specify changetype: add in the LDIF statement.
For further details on the parameters used in the command, see the ldapadd(1) man page.

3.3.2. Adding an Entry Using ldapmodify

To use the ldapmodify utility to add, for example, the cn=user,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com user entry: 
# ldapmodify -a -D "cn=Directory Manager" -W -p 389 -h server.example.com -x

dn: uid=user,ou=People,dc=example,dc=com
uid: user
givenName: given_name
objectClass: top
objectClass: person
objectClass: organizationalPerson
objectClass: inetorgperson
sn: surname
cn: user

Note

When passing the -a option to the ldapmodify command, the utility automatically performs a changetype: add operation. Therefore, you do not need to specify changetype: add in the LDIF statement.
For further details on the parameters used in the command, see the ldapmodify(1) man page.

3.3.3. Creating a Root Entry

To create the root entry of a database suffix, such as dc=example,dc=com, bind as the cn=Directory Manager user and add the entry.
The DN corresponds to the DN of the root or sub-suffix of the database.
For example, to add the dc=example,dc=com suffix: 
# ldapmodify -D "cn=Directory Manager" -W -p 389 -h server.example.com -x

dn: dc=example,dc=com
changetype: add
objectClass: top
objectClass: domain
dc: example

Note

You can add root objects only if you have one database per suffix. If you create a suffix that is stored in several databases, you must use the ldif2db utility with the -n back_end option to set the database that will hold the new entries. For details, see Section 6.1.2, “Importing Using the Command Line”.