This is nss-pam-ldapd, a Name Service Switch (NSS) module and Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) that allows your LDAP server to provide user account, group, host name, alias, netgroup, and basically any other information that you would normally get from /etc flat files or NIS. It also allows you to do authentication to an LDAP server.
The NSS module is a fork from the nss_ldap software by PADL Software Pty Ltd.. This fork was done to implement some structural design changes. These changes were needed because there are some issues with the original design. See the documentation section for more details. The biggest advantages of nss-pam-ldapd are:
- light, simple NSS library
- light, simple PAM library
- simpler internal semantics
- clear separation between NSS, PAM and LDAP code (the server part could easily be implemented in another language)
- less connections to the LDAP server
- better debugging possibilities
See the design documentation for more information.