Observations - LdapPro : A dedicated professional forum 0f LDAP

4.9. Modify DN Operation The Modify DN Operation allows a client to change the leftmost (least significant) component of the name of an entry in the directory, or to move a subtree of entries to a new location in the directory. The Modify DN Request is defined as follows: ModifyDNRequest ::= [APPLICATION 12] SEQUENCE { entry LDAPDN, newrdn RelativeLDAPDN, deleteoldrdn BOOLEAN, newSuperior [0] LDAPDN OPTIONAL } Parameters of the Modify DN Request are: - entry: the Distinguished Name of the entry to be changed. This entry may or may not have subordinate entries. - newrdn: the RDN that will form the leftmost component of the new name of the entry. - deleteoldrdn: a boolean parameter that controls whether the old RDN attribute values are to be retained as attributes of the entry, or deleted from the entry. - newSuperior: if present, this is the Distinguished Name of the entry which becomes the immediate superior of the existing entry. The result of the name change attempted by the server upon receipt of a Modify DN Request is returned in the Modify DN Response, defined as follows: ModifyDNResponse ::= [APPLICATION 13] LDAPResult Upon receipt of a ModifyDNRequest, a server will attempt to perform the name change. The result of the name change attempt will be returned to the client in the Modify DN Response. For example, if the entry named in the "entry" parameter was "cn=John Smith,c=US", the newrdn parameter was "cn=John Cougar Smith", and the newSuperior parameter was absent, then this operation would attempt to rename the entry to be "cn=John Cougar Smith,c=US". If there was already an entry with that name, the operation would fail with error code entryAlreadyExists. If the deleteoldrdn parameter is TRUE, the values forming the old RDN are deleted from the entry. If the deleteoldrdn parameter is FALSE, the values forming the old RDN will be retained as non-distinguished attribute values of the entry. The server may not perform the operation and return an error code if the setting of the deleteoldrdn parameter would cause a schema inconsistency in the entry. Note that X.500 restricts the ModifyDN operation to only affect entries that are contained within a single server. If the LDAP server is mapped onto DAP, then this restriction will apply, and the resultCode affectsMultipleDSAs will be returned if this error occurred. In general clients MUST NOT expect to be able to perform arbitrary movements of entries and subtrees between servers.

/**
 * 
 * ModifyRDN .java
 * Sample code to demostrate how ModifyRDN/ModifyDN works.
 * 
 */
 
import javax.naming.*;
import javax.naming.directory.*;

import java.util.Hashtable;

public class ModifyRDN 
{
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    {
	Hashtable env = new Hashtable();
	env.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY,"com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory");

	env.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL, "ldap://myLdapServer:389/dc=myDomain,dc=com");
        env.put(Context.SECURITY_AUTHENTICATION, "simple");
        env.put(Context.SECURITY_PRINCIPAL, "cn=directory manager");
        env.put(Context.SECURITY_CREDENTIALS, "password");

        /*
          Whether the old RDN attribute values are to be retained 
          as attributes of the entry, or deleted from the entry
        */
        env.put("java.naming.ldap.deleteRDN", "true");  // default is 'true'
        
	try {
	    /* Create the initial context */
	    DirContext ctx = new InitialDirContext(env);

            ctx.rename("cn=John Smith,ou=Sales,ou=People", 
                       "cn=John Cougar Smith,ou=Sales,ou=People");

	    /* Close the context when it's done */
	    ctx.close();
	} catch (Exception e) {
	    e.printStackTrace();
	}
    }
}

# Modify an entry's relative distinguished name dn: cn=Paul Jensen, ou=Product Development, dc=airius, dc=com changetype: modrdn newrdn: cn=Paula Jensen deleteoldrdn: 1 # Rename an entry and move all of its children to a new location in # the directory tree (only implemented by LDAPv3 servers). dn: ou=PD Accountants, ou=Product Development, dc=airius, dc=com changetype: modrdn newrdn: ou=Product Development Accountants deleteoldrdn: 0 newsuperior: ou=Accounting, dc=airius, dc=com

changeNumber: the change number, as assigned by the supplier. This integer MUST strictly increase as new entries are added, and must always be unique within a given server. Syntax: INTEGER targetdn: the distinguished name of the entry which was added, modified or deleted. In the case of a modrdn operation, the targetdn gives the DN of the entry before it was modified. Syntax: DN changeType: the type of change. One of: "add", "delete", "modify", "modrdn". Later RFCs may define additional values for changeType. Syntax: DirectoryString changes: the changes which were made to the directory server. These changes are in LDIF format, which is described in [1]. Syntax: OctetString newRDN: the new RDN (Relative Distinguished Name) of the entry, if the changeType is "modrdn". If the changeType attribute does not have the value "modrdn", then there should be no values contained in the newRDN attribute. Syntax: DN deleteOldRDN: a flag which tells whether the old RDN of the entry should be retained as a distinguished attribute of the entry, or should be deleted. A value of "FALSE" indicates that the RDN should be retained as a distinguished attribute, and a value of "TRUE" indicates that it should not be retained as a distinguished attribute of the entry. If any value other than "TRUE" or "FALSE" is contained in the deleteOldRDN, the RDN should be retained as a distinguished attribute (that is, "FALSE" is the default if no values are present, or if illegal values are present). Syntax: BOOLEAN newSuperior: if present, gives the name of the entry which becomes the immediate superior of the existing entry. This optional attribute reflects LDAPv3 functionality, and MUST NOT be generated by LDAPv2 servers [2]. Syntax: DN

A changeLogEntry representing a modrdn operation performed on an entry in the directory dn: changenumber=10042, cn=changelog changenumber: 10042 targetdn: cn=Bjorn Jensen, ou=Product Development, o=Ace Industry, c=US changetype: modrdn newrdn: cn=Bjorn J Jensen deleteoldrdn: FALSE