Directory Overlays

As the OpenLDAP project has grown, more and more features have been added. Initially, these features were added directly to the SLAPD server's code base. But as features were rolled into OpenLDAP, both the code and the configuration became increasingly complex.

To address this problem, OpenLDAP developers introduced a new concept in OpenLDAP 2.2 that made it easier to introduce new features while reducing the complexity of the underlying code. The developers introduced a modular system called overlays. An overlay is a chunk of code that can modify the behavior of the SLAPD.

When SLAPD receives a request for a database configured to use an overlay, the overlay is given an opportunity to perform processing on the request before ...

Get Mastering OpenLDAP now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.