Hello,
To manage your ldap database you must creat a file and use ldap command.
Then if you want to add, modify.. you must use ldap command line..
example:
If you want to creat a user info you must creat a file with all instruction about him.
And after save it on your disk, you must add info with ldapadd -D "cn=XXX,dc=XXX,dc=XXX" -w -f file
You can found info about cn,dc,dc in /etc/openldap/slapd.conf ( you can see password to...
But if you really want to manage ldap with e-smith command i don't know how to do it..but i'm in the same state that you...i would like to add e-mail alias in ldap database but i don't understand where and how e-smith creat file to populate the database..
For more info about ldap, see
www.openldap.org 
NeL