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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 4510) 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 (RFC 4511), LDAP over TLS/SSL, and LDAP
       over IPC (UNIX domain sockets).  This API supports SASL (RFC  4513)  and  Start  TLS  (RFC
       4513)  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 provide 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 operation is issued.  This would generally be a  Start  TLS  or  Bind
       operation,  or  a  Search  operation  to  read  attributes  of  the Root DSE.  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.  A Search operation is performed by
       calling ldap_search_ext_s(3) or one of its friends.

       Subsequently, additional operations are performed by calling one  of  the  synchronous  or
       asynchronous  routines  (e.g.,  ldap_compare_ext_s(3)  or  ldap_compare_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  association 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 4510.  It also supports a variant of version 2 of LDAP as defined by U-Mich
       LDAP  and,  to  some  degree, RFC 1777.  Version 2 (all variants) are considered 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 4514 UTF-8 string representation.

       Search filters to be passed to the search routines are  to  be  constructed  by  hand  and
       should conform to RFC 4515 UTF-8 string representation.

       LDAP  URLs  to  be  passed  to  routines  are expected to conform to RFC 4516 format.  The
       ldap_url(3) routines can be used to work with LDAP URLs.

       LDAP controls to be passed to routines  can  be  manipulated  using  the  ldap_controls(3)
       routines.

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 displayable.

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.

DEPRECATED INTERFACES

       A number of interfaces are  now  considered  deprecated.   For  instance,  ldap_add(3)  is
       deprecated  in  favor  of  ldap_add_ext(3).  Deprecated interfaces generally remain in the
       library.   The  macro  LDAP_DEPRECATED  can  be  defined  to  a  non-zero   value   (e.g.,
       -DLDAP_DEPRECATED=1)  when compiling program designed to use deprecated interfaces.  It is
       recommended that developers writing new programs, or updating old programs, avoid  use  of
       deprecated  interfaces.   Over  time,  it is expected that documentation (and, eventually,
       support) for deprecated interfaces to be eliminated.

BER LIBRARY

       Also included in the distribution is a set of lightweight Basic Encoding  Rules  routines.
       These  routines  are  used by the LDAP library routines to encode and decode LDAP protocol
       elements using the (slightly simplified) Basic Encoding Rules defined by LDAP.   They  are
       not  normally  used  directly  by  an  LDAP  application program except in the handling 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-memory(3), and lber-types(3).

INDEX

       ldap_initialize(3)  initialize the LDAP library without opening a connection 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(3) and ldap_unbind_s(3) are
                           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_extended_operation(3)
                           asynchronously perform an arbitrary extended operation

       ldap_extended_operation_s(3)
                           synchronously perform an arbitrary extended operation

       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_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   Software   is   developed   and   maintained   by    The    OpenLDAP    Project
       <http://www.openldap.org/>.  OpenLDAP Software 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.