all the cool kids are doing it

Main conf file in:

/etc/httpd/conf

Includes in:

/etc/httpd/conf.d

Make your changes, restart httpd:

/etc/init.d/httpd restart

Getting info from LDAP via the command line (in this example, getting list of affiliations):

ldapsearch -x -h ldap.uvm.edu -LLL 'cn=list of uvm affiliations' uvmeduaffiliation

or a specific person:

ldapsearch -x -h ldap.uvm.edu -LLL 'cn=[name]' cn mail ou

This one will limit what comes back to be the full name (cn), their default mail address (mail), and what department (ou) they work in/report to.

To debug a shell script,

sh -n scriptfile.sh

will check for (most) syntax errors without actually executing the script, while

sh -v scriptfile.sh

will echo each command before executing it. Use them together:

sh -nv scriptfile.sh

to get a verbose syntax check.

http://www.linuxtopia.org/online_books/advanced_bash_scripting_guide/debugging.html