Hello,

I would like to voice my frustration with the quality of the openLDAP documentation. I am compiling openLDAP from source on Debian 7, and have spent about 2-3 continuous days getting to the point where I can add an LDAP user with a UID. I have been close to giving up with the software, but need it for the LDAP functionality, and as very few viable alternatives exist, have been forced to continue with the installation. I have however almost lost confidence in the product, and am concerned that if there are any problems with it in the future, or I want to enable another feature, I will be almost helpless in getting it to work.

The main problem is the Quick-Start Guide. This is anything but quick, and forces the user to consult the less-than-succinct Admin guide. The two together are inconsistent, difficult to follow and do a poor job of explaining what each feature does. The accessibility of information is less than optimal, which means that the user has to look elsewhere, consuming even more time. Unfortunately, there is not much relevant information on the Internet, forcing the user to get stuck in an almost endless loop of checking documentation, testing, reading manuals, and searching on the Internet, in order to get some kind of idea how the software works and what needs to be done to get it working.

I would offer to contribute to the documentation, but due to its lack of usefulness, do not have an understanding of the basic concepts myself. The best I would be able to do is describe my experience and provide the steps that I followed to get a basic installation working.

Hopefully someone can volunteer the time to test the documentation, in the same way a new user would!

Tom