The Relative Distinguished Name (RDN) refers to the part of an
entry's DN that distinguishes it from all other DNs at the same level
in the directory tree. For example uid=bjensen is
the RDN of the entry having DN
uid=bjensen,ou=People,dc=example,dc=com.
With the ldapmodify command, authorized users can rename entries in the directory.
When you change the RDN of the entry, you are renaming the entry, modifying the value of the naming attribute, but also modifying the entry's DN.
Example 6.16. Rename: Modifying the DN
Sam Carter is changing her last name to Jensen, and changing her
login from scarter to sjensen.
The following example renames and changes Sam Carter's entry accordingly.
Notice the boolean field, deleteoldrdn: 1, which
indicates that the previous RDN, uid: scarter, should
be removed. (Setting deleteoldrdn: 0 instead would
preserve uid: scarter on the entry.)
$ cat /path/to/scarter-sjensen.ldif dn: uid=scarter,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com changetype: modrdn newrdn: uid=sjensen deleteoldrdn: 1 dn: uid=sjensen,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com changetype: modify replace: cn cn: Sam Jensen - replace: sn sn: Jensen - replace: homeDirectory homeDirectory: /home/sjensen - replace: mail mail: sjensen@example.com $ ldapmodify --port 1389 --bindDN "uid=kvaughan,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com" --bindPassword bribery --filename /path/to/scarter-sjensen.ldif Processing MODIFY DN request for uid=scarter,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com MODIFY DN operation successful for DN uid=scarter,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com Processing MODIFY request for uid=sjensen,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com MODIFY operation successful for DN uid=sjensen,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com
