In many, if not most, enterprises there are several different e-mail systems, each with their own concept of a directory. Some of these directories are quite sophisticated, others are somewhat simplistic. In any case, there is usually a requirement that the data they contain be as consistent with each other as possible.

PMDF-DIRSYNC provides automated synchronization of such various directories. The directories do not all need to be on the same system; PMDF-DIRSYNC sends directory updates information as e-mail. An overview of PMDF-DIRSYNC's automated operation can be found in Section 37.1.

PMDF-DIRSYNC also has standalone command line utilities for performing independent stages of directory updating, for manual updates or testing purposes. These utilities are described in Section 37.10.