=head1 NAME

X500::DN - handle X.500 DNs (Distinguished Names), parse and format them

=head1 SYNOPSIS

  use X500::DN;

  my $dn = X500::DN->ParseRFC2253 ('cn=John Doe, o=Acme\\, Inc., c=US') or die;
  print $dn->getRFC2253String(), "\n";

  $dn = new X500::DN (new X500::RDN ('c'=>'US'), new X500::RDN ('cn'=>'John Doe'));
  my $rdn0 = $dn->getRDN (0);
  my $c = $rdn0->getAttributeValue ('c');

=head1 NOTE

The RFC 2253 syntax is I<explicitely backwards> in relation to the ASN.1 SEQUENCE.

So the RFC 2253 string C<S<cn=John Doe, c=US>>
has the same meaning as the X.500 string C<S<c=US, cn=John Doe>>.
The X500::DN objects keep the RDNs in X.500 order!

=head1 DESCRIPTION

This module handles X.500 DNs (Distinguished Names).
Currently, it parses DN strings formatted according to RFC 2253 syntax into an internal format and produces RFC 2253 formatted string from it.

=head2 Methods

=over 4

=item * $object = new X500::DN (rdn, rdn, ...);

Creates a DN object from zero or more arguments of type X500::RDN.

=item * $object = X500::DN->ParseRFC2253 ('cn=John Doe, o=Acme\\, Inc., c=US');

Creates a DN object from an RFC 2253 formatted DN string notation.

=item * $object->getRFC2253String();

Returns the DN as a string formatted according to RFC 2253 syntax.

=item * $object->getOpenSSLString();

Returns the DN as a string formatted suitable for C<openssl req -subj> and C<openssl ca -subj>.

=item * $object->getX500String();

Returns the DN as a string formatted according to X.500 syntax.
NOTE: This is a hack, there is no definition for a X.500 string syntax!

=item * $object->hasMultivaluedRDNs();

Returns whether the DN contains multi-valued RDNs.

=item * $object->getRDN (num);

Returns the DN's RDN at position num as an X500::RDN object.
num starts with 0, which will return the first RDN in ASN.1 SEQUENCE order.

=item * $object->getRDNs();

Returns the DN's RDNs, a list of objects of type X500::RDN, in ASN.1 SEQUENCE order.

=back

=head2 EXPORT

None.

=head1 BUGS

=over 4

=item * Due to Parse::RecDescent's greedyness, white space after attribute values gets into the parsed value.
It might be possible to work around this.

=back

=head1 AUTHOR

Robert Joop E<lt>yaph-070708@timesink.deE<gt>

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2002 Robert Joop.  All Rights reserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

=head1 SEE ALSO

L<X500::RDN>,
L<perl>.

=head1 HISTORY

=over 4

=item Early 2002:
First idea, discussed on comp.lang.perl.moderated

=item April 2002:
First public release, 0.15

=back

=cut