OpenLDAP is an open-standard, open source and freely distributed software project that provides users with a protocol for accessing X.500 directory services, which run over popular Internet transport protocols, such as TCP (Transmission Control Protocol).
An Open Source LDAP implementation
As its name suggests, OpenLDAP is an open source implementation of LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), which is a lightweight alternative to the X.500 Directory Access Protocol (DAP) for use on the Internet.
What’s included?
The OpenLDAP software suite comprises of several projects, including slapd, a stand-alone LDAP daemon (server), libraries that implement the LDAP protocol, as well as various useful tools, utilities and sample clients that help you get started with OpenLDAP.
Under the hood and availability
The entire OpenLDAP software suite is written in the C programming language. It’s a command-line program that runs in the background, as a daemon. Users can download OpenLDAP from Softpedia as a universal sources archive, requiring you to configure and compile the software prior to installation.
However, the best way to install this software is to use the packages from the default software repositories of your GNU/Linux distribution.Both 32-bit and 64-bit systems are supported at this time. Detaled installation instructions can be found on the source tarball.
The OpenLDAP Project
OpenLDAP is distributed as part of the OpenLDAP Project, which is also responsible for many other great software, such as the Fortress role-based IAM (Identity Access Management) Java SDK, JDBC-LDAP Java-based JDBC – LDAP bridge driver, as well as JLDAP, which offers several LDAP class libraries for the Java programming language.
