LDAP(3)			   Library Functions Manual		       LDAP(3)



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 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,
       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 con-
       nection 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 con-
       structed by hand and should conform to RFC 4515 UTF-8 string  represen-
       tation.

       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 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.

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	recom-
       mended  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	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(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 opera-
			   tion

       ldap_extended_operation_s(3)
			   synchronously  perform an arbitrary extended opera-
			   tion

       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 Univer-
       sity 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 2.4.40			  2014/09/20			       LDAP(3)