LDAP/nss_ldap adduser script

[martin at orbweavers.co.uk]

Hi all,

   I've been using an ldap directory for quite a while now for my network
logins, and love it. Problem is, it can be quite cumbersome to work
with, any ldap clients I have looked at are either very sketchy or
overly cumbersome for simple tasks (adding/removing users etc.), and
ldif file format is a major pain to work with.

  My first question is - is anyone aware of a good light and stable ldap
client that is easy to setup and use. My own research suggests no, which
leads onto my proposal -

  I'm planning on writing a few basic scripts for working with the system
- a 'ldap_adduser', 'ldap_rmuser' etc. Nothing major, not a full suite
of utilities, just the basics to make life a little easier.

  I've had a look at the adduser script and it should be straight forward
enough to tailer to this purpose, and I can't see any difficulties in
writing them - check /etc/ldap.conf for the location of the users &
groups, pops the details into an ldif and runs it through the ldap
client. The one thing I am not sure about is getting the next available
uid number, but I'm sure the answer will become apparent.

  So before I get into the meat of this, I wanted to check if anyone has
any suggestions or comments.

Cheers,
Martin