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NAME

       ldap - OpenLDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol API


LIBRARY

       OpenLDAP LDAP (libldap, -lldap)


SYNOPSIS

       #include <ldap.h>


DESCRIPTION

       The  Lightweight  Directory  Access Protocol (LDAP) (RFC 3377) provides
       access to X.500 directory services.  These services may be  stand-alone
       or  part  of a distributed directory service.  This client API supports
       LDAP over TCP (RFC2251), LDAP over TLS/SSL, and  LDAP  over  IPC  (UNIX
       domain  sockets).   This  API  supports  SASL  (RFC2829)  and Start TLS
       (RFC2830) as well as a number of  protocol  extensions.   This  API  is
       loosely  based  upon  IETF/LDAPEXT  C  LDAP  API draft specification, a
       (orphaned) work in progress.

       The  OpenLDAP  Software  package  includes  a  stand-alone  server   in
       slapd(8), various LDAP clients, and an LDAP client library used to pro-
       vide programmatic access to the LDAP protocol. This man page  gives  an
       overview of the LDAP library routines.

       Both synchronous and asynchronous APIs are provided.  Also included are
       various routines to parse the results  returned  from  these  routines.
       These routines are found in the -lldap library.

       The basic interaction is as follows.  A session handle is created using
       ldap_initialize(3) and  set  the  protocol  version  to  3  by  calling
       ldap_set_option(3).  The underlying session is established first opera-
       tion is issued.  This would generally be a Start TLS or Bind operation.
       A  Start  TLS operation is performed by calling ldap_start_tls_s(3).  A
       LDAP bind operation is performed by calling ldap_sasl_bind(3) or one of
       its  friends.   Subsequently, other operations are performed by calling
       one   of   the   synchronous   or    asynchronous    routines    (e.g.,
       ldap_search_ext_s(3) or ldap_search_ext(3) followed by ldap_result(3)).
       Results returned from these routines are  interpreted  by  calling  the
       LDAP  parsing routines such as ldap_parse_result(3).  The LDAP associa-
       tion   and   underlying   connection   is   terminated    by    calling
       ldap_unbind_ext(3).     Errors    can   be   interpreted   by   calling
       ldap_err2string(3).


LDAP versions

       This library supports version 3 of  the  Lightweight  Directory  Access
       Protocol  (LDAPv3)  as defined in RFC 3377.  It also supports a varient
       of version 2 of LDAP as defined by U-Mich LDAP and, to some degree, RFC
       1777.   Version 2 (all varients) should be viewed as obsolete.  Version
       3 should be used instead.

       For backwards compatibility reasons, the library defaults to version 2.
       Hence,  all new applications (and all actively maintained applications)
       should use ldap_set_option(3) to select version 3.  The library  manual
       pages assume version 3 has been selected.


INPUT and OUTPUT PARAMETERS

       All  character  string  input/output is expected to be/is UTF-8 encoded
       Unicode (version 3.2).

       Distinguished names (DN) (and relative distinguished names (RDN) to  be
       passed   to  the  LDAP  routines  should  conform  to  RFC  2253.   The
       ldap_explode_dn(3) routines can be used to work with DNs.

       Search filters to be passed to the  search  routines  are  to  be  con-
       structed by hand and should conform to RFC 2254.

       LDAP  URL  are  to be passed to routines are expected to conform to RFC
       2255.  The ldap_url(3) routines can be used to work with LDAP URLs.


DISPLAYING RESULTS

       Results obtained from the search routines can be  output  by  hand,  by
       calling  ldap_first_entry(3) and ldap_next_entry(3) to step through the
       entries returned, ldap_first_attribute(3) and ldap_next_attribute(3) to
       step  through an entry's attributes, and ldap_get_values(3) to retrieve
       a given attribute's values.  Attribute values may or may  not  be  dis-
       playable.


UTILITY ROUTINES

       Also  provided are various utility routines.  The ldap_sort(3) routines
       are used to sort the entries and values returned via  the  ldap  search
       routines.


BER LIBRARY

       Also  included in the distribution is a set of lightweight Basic Encod-
       ing Rules routines.  These routines are used by the LDAP  library  rou-
       tines  to  encode and decode LDAP protocol elements using the (slightly
       simplified) Basic Encoding Rules defined by LDAP.  They  are  not  nor-
       mally  used  directly by an LDAP application program except in the han-
       dling of controls and extended  operations.   The  routines  provide  a
       printf  and scanf-like interface, as well as lower-level access.  These
       routines are discussed  in  lber-decode(3),  lber-encode(3),  lber-mem-
       ory(3), and lber-types(3).


INDEX

       ldap_initialize(3)  initialize  the LDAP library without opening a con-
                           nection to a server

       ldap_result(3)      wait for the result from an asynchronous operation

       ldap_abandon_ext(3) abandon (abort) an asynchronous operation

       ldap_add_ext(3)     asynchronously add an entry

       ldap_add_ext_s(3)   synchronously add an entry

       ldap_sasl_bind(3)   asynchronously bind to the directory

       ldap_sasl_bind_s(3) synchronously bind to the directory

       ldap_unbind_ext(3)  synchronously unbind from the LDAP server and close
                           the connection

       ldap_unbind_ext_s(3)
                           equivalent to ldap_unbind_ext(3)

       ldap_memfree(3)     dispose of memory allocated by LDAP routines.

       ldap_compare_ext(3) asynchronously compare to a directory entry

       ldap_compare_ext_s(3)
                           synchronously compare to a directory entry

       ldap_delete_ext(3)  asynchronously delete an entry

       ldap_delete_ext_s(3)
                           synchronously delete an entry

       ld_errno(3)         LDAP error indication

       ldap_errlist(3)     list of LDAP errors and their meanings

       ldap_err2string(3)  convert LDAP error indication to a string

       ldap_first_attribute(3)
                           return first attribute name in an entry

       ldap_next_attribute(3)
                           return next attribute name in an entry

       ldap_first_entry(3) return first entry in a chain of search results

       ldap_next_entry(3)  return next entry in a chain of search results

       ldap_count_entries(3)
                           return number of entries in a search result

       ldap_get_dn(3)      extract the DN from an entry

       ldap_explode_dn(3)  convert a DN into its component parts (deprecated)

       ldap_explode_rdn(3) convert  an  RDN  into  its component parts (depre-
                           cated)

       ldap_get_values_len(3)
                           return an attribute's values with lengths

       ldap_value_free_len(3)
                           free memory allocated by ldap_get_values_len(3)

       ldap_count_values_len(3)
                           return number of values

       ldap_modify_ext(3)  asynchronously modify an entry

       ldap_modify_ext_s(3)
                           synchronously modify an entry

       ldap_mods_free(3)   free array of pointers to mod  structures  used  by
                           ldap_modify_ext(3)

       ldap_rename(3)      asynchronously rename an entry

       ldap_rename_s(3)    synchronously rename an entry

       ldap_msgfree(3)     free results allocated by ldap_result(3)

       ldap_msgtype(3)     return   the   message   type  of  a  message  from
                           ldap_result(3)

       ldap_msgid(3)       return  the  message   id   of   a   message   from
                           ldap_result(3)

       ldap_search_ext(3)  asynchronously search the directory

       ldap_search_ext_s(3)
                           synchronously search the directory

       ldap_is_ldap_url(3) check a URL string to see if it is an LDAP URL

       ldap_url_parse(3)   break up an LDAP URL string into its components

       ldap_sort_entries(3)
                           sort a list of search results

       ldap_sort_values(3) sort a list of attribute values

       ldap_sort_strcasecmp(3)
                           case insensitive string comparison


SEE ALSO

       ldap.conf(5),          slapd(8),         draft-ietf-ldapext-ldap-c-api-
       xx.txt <http://www.ietf.org>


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

       OpenLDAP  is  developed  and  maintained  by   The   OpenLDAP   Project
       (http://www.openldap.org/).   OpenLDAP  is  derived  from University of
       Michigan LDAP 3.3 Release.

       These API manual pages are loosely based upon descriptions provided  in
       the  IETF/LDAPEXT  C  LDAP  API  Internet  Draft,  a (orphaned) work in
       progress.

OpenLDAP 2.2.30                   2005/11/18                           LDAP(3)
See also URI::ldap(3)

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