Re: new developer's corner
On Tue, 14 Sep 1999, Joey Hess wrote:
> Given how long it's been since thatxearth file was made, and how little data
> is in it anyway, I wonder if the second script is needed at all? (I for one
> have moved 3 times since I provided my coordinates.)
Okay, everything is prepared now. I have written the LDAP -> xearth
script, it is installed on faure (ud-xearth). The web page
(https://db.debian.org/) now has fields for editing one's coordinates.
Here is the man page for the ud-info program that goes into detail about
all the fields, their meaning and in particular discusses how to locate
ones position and the format that is required.
Jason
ud-info(1) ud-info(1)
NAME
ud-info - Command line LDAP user record manipulator
SYNOPSIS
ud-info [options]
DESCRIPTION
ud-info is the command-line tool for end users to manipu-
late their own database information and to view other
users information. It also provides root functions which
when combined with sufficient LDAP privilages allow an
administrator to completely manipulate a users record.
The defined fields are:
o cn - Common (first) name. [root]
o mn - Middle name or initial. [root]
o sn - Surname (last name). [root]
o cn - ISO 3166 country code, see /usr/share/zone-
info/iso3166.tab Should be upper case.
o ircnick - IRC nickname.
o l - City name, state/province. The part of a mail-
ing address that is not the street address. e.g.:
Dallas, Texas
o postalcode - Postal Code or ZIP Code
o postaladdress - Complete mailing address including
postal codes and country designations. Newlines are
seperated by a $ character. The address should be
formed exactly as it would appear on a parcel.
o latitude/longitude - The physical latitude and lon-
gitude. This information is typically used to gen-
erate an xearth marker file. See the discussion
below on position formats.
o facsimiletelephonenumber - FAX phone number, do not
forget to specify a country code [North Armerica is
+1].
o telephonenumber - Voice phone number.
o loginshell - Full path to the prefered Unix login
shell. e.g. /bin/bash
o emailforward - Destination email address.
userdir-ldap 17 Sep 1999 1
ud-info(1) ud-info(1)
o userpassword - Encrypted version of the password.
[root]
o supplementarygid - A list of group names that the
user belongs. This field emulates the functional-
ity of the traditional Unix group file. [root]
o onvacation - A message indicating that the user is
on vacation. The time of departure and expected
return date should be included as well as any spe-
cial instructions.
o comment - Administrative comment about the account.
[root]
o labeledurl - User's web site.
When prompted for a password it is possible to enter a
blank password and access the database anonymously. This
is useful to check PGP key fingerprints, for instance.
SECURITY AND PRIVACY
Three levels of information security are provided by the
database. The first is completely public information that
anyone can see either by issuing an LDAP query or by vis-
iting the web site. The next level is "maintainer-only"
information that requires authentication to the directory
before it can be accessed. The final level is admin-only
or user-only information; this information can only be
viewed by the user or an administrator.
Maintainer-only information includes precise location
information [postalcode, postal address, lat/long] tele-
phone numbers, and the vacation message.
Admin-only/maintainer-only information includes email for-
warding and the encrypted password. Note that email for-
warding is necessarily publicly viewable from accounts on
the actual machines.
LAT/LONG POSITION
There are three possible formats for giving position
information and several online sites that can give an
accurate position fix based on mailing address.
Decimal Degrees
The format is +-DDD.DDDDDDDDDDDDDDD. This is the
format programs like xearth use and the format that
many positioning web sites use. However typically
the precision is limited to 4 or 5 decimals.
userdir-ldap 17 Sep 1999 2
ud-info(1) ud-info(1)
Degrees Minutes (DGM)
The format is +-DDDMM.MMMMMMMMMMMMM. It is not an
arithmetic type, but a packed representation of two
seperate units, degrees and minutes. This output is
common from some types of hand held GPS units and
from NMEA format GPS messages.
Degrees Minutes Seconds (DGMS)
The format is +-DDDMMSS.SSSSSSSSSSS. Like DGM, it
is not an arithmetic type but a packed representa-
tion of three seperate units, degrees minutes and
seconds. This output is typically derived from web
sites that give 3 values for each position. For
instance 34:50:12.24523 North might be the position
given, in DGMS it would be +0345012.24523.
For Latitude + is North, for Longitude + is East. It is
important to specify enough leading zeros to dis-ambiguate
the format that is being used if your position is less
than 2 degrees from a zero point.
So locations to find positioning information are:
o Good starting point - http://www.ckdhr.com/dns-
loc/finding.html
o AirNav - GPS locations for airports around the
world http://www.airnav.com/
o GeoCode - US index by ZIP Code
http://www.geocode.com/eagle.html-ssi
o Map Blast! Canadian, US and some European maps -
http://www.mapblast.com/
o Austrailian Database http://www.environ-
ment.gov.au/database/MAN200R.html
o GNU Timezone database, organized partially by coun-
try /usr/share/zoneinfo/zone.tab
Remember that we are after reasonable coordinates for
drawing an xearth graph and looking for people to sign
keys, not for coordinates accurate enough to land an ICBM
on your doorstop!
Editing Supplemental GIDs
When the root function is activated then the supplemental
GIDs can be manipulated as a list of items. It is possible
to add and remove items from the list by name. Proper
prompts are given.
userdir-ldap 17 Sep 1999 3
ud-info(1) ud-info(1)
OPTIONS
-a Set the authentication user. This is the user whose
authority is used when accessing the LDAP direc-
tory. The default is to use the current system user
name.
-u Select the user whose fields will be dis-
played/edited. The default is to use the current
system user name.
-c Set both the authentication user and the target
user. This option is useful if the login name does
not match the user who is operating the program.
-r Enable root functions. This enables more options to
allow changing any entry in the directory. This
function only has meaning if the authentication
user has the necessary permissions at the LDAP
server.
-n No actions. Anonymously bind and show the informa-
tion for the user and then exit.
FILES
o /etc/userdir-ldap/userdir-ldap.conf Configuration
variables to select what server and what base DN to
use.
AUTHOR
userdir-ldap was written by Jason Gunthorpe
<jgg@debian.org>.
userdir-ldap 17 Sep 1999 4
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