=head1 NAME

Net::LDAP::LDIF - LDIF reading and writing

=head1 SYNOPSIS

  use Net::LDAP::LDIF;

  $ldif = Net::LDAP::LDIF->new( "file.ldif", "r", onerror => 'undef' );
  while( not $ldif->eof() ) {
     $entry = $ldif->read_entry();
     if ( $ldif->error() ) {
        print "Error msg: ",$ldif->error(),"\n";
        print "Error lines:\n",$ldif->error_lines(),"\n";
     }
     else {
        # do stuff
     }
  }
  $ldif->done();

=head1 DESCRIPTION

B<Net::LDAP::LDIF> provides a means to convert between
L<Net::LDAP::Entry> objects and LDAP entries represented
in LDIF format files. Reading and writing are supported and may manipulate
single entries or lists of entries.

As when reading an entire file into memory with perl normally, take into
account the possibility of memory use when loading an LDIF file in one go.

=head1 CONSTRUCTOR

=over 4

=item new ( [ FILE [, MODE [,OPTIONS ]]] )

FILE may be the name of a file or an already open filehandle. If a filename
is passed in then it will be opened with the mode specified.

MODE defaults to "r" for read. You may specify "w" to for write+truncate or
"a" for write+append.

OPTIONS is a list of key-value pairs. Valid options are:

=over 4

=item encode

Some values in LDIF cannot be written verbatim and have to be encoded
in some way. This option lets you specify how. Valid encoding options
are 'none' (the default), 'canonical' (see
L<Net::LDAP::Util/canonical_dn>), or 'base64'.

=back

=item onerror

If set then Net::LDAP::LDIF will check all responses for errors on all methods.
If an error is detected then the specified action will be taken. Valid values
and their actions are.

=over 4

=item die

Net::LDAP::LDIF will croak with an appropriate message.

=item warn

Net::LDAP::LDIF will warn with an appropriate message.

=item undef

Net::LDAP::LDIF will warn with an appropriate message if C<-w> is in effect.
The method that was called will return C<undef>

=back

=back

=head1 METHODS

=over 4

=item read_entry

Read one entry from the file and return it as a Net::LDAP::Entry object.

=item eof  

Returns true when the end of the file is reached.

=item write_entry ( ENTRIES )



=item done

This method signals that the LDIF object is no longer needed. If a file was
opened automatically when the object was created it will be closed. This
method is called automatically via DESTROY when the object goes out of scope.

=item error

Returns error message if error was found.

=item error_lines

Returns lines that resulted in error.

=item current_entry

Returns the current Net::LDAP::Entry object.

=item current_lines

Returns the lines that generated the current Net::LDAP::Entry object.

=item next_lines

Returns the lines that will generate the next Net::LDAP::Entry object.

=back

=head1 AUTHOR

Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>.

Please report any bugs, or post any suggestions, to the perl-ldap mailing list
<perl-ldap-dev@lists.sourceforge.net>.

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1997-2000 Graham Barr. All rights reserved. This program is
free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
terms as Perl itself.

=for html <hr>

=cut