openldap/doc/man/man3/ldap.3

.TH LDAP 3 "13 January 2002" "OpenLDAP LDVERSION"
.\" $OpenLDAP$
.\" Copyright 1998-2002 The OpenLDAP Foundation All Rights Reserved.
.\" Copying restrictions apply.  See COPYRIGHT/LICENSE.
.SH NAME
ldap - OpenLDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol API
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.ft B
#include <ldap.h>
.ft
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
.LP
The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol provides access to X.500
directory services.  The services may be stand\-alone or part of
a distributed directory service.  This API supports LDAP over TCP
(RFC2251), LDAP over SSL, and LDAP over IPC (UNIX domain sockets).
This API supports SASL (RFC2829) and Start TLS (RFC2830).  This
API is based upon IETF C LDAP API draft specification, a work in
progress.
.LP
The OpenLDAP Software package includes a stand\-alone server in
.BR 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.
.LP
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.
.LP
The basic interaction is as follows.  A session handle is
created using
.BR ldap_init (3)
or
.BR ldap_initialize (3).
(The
.BR ldap_initialize (3)
routine is preferred, but is not part of the draft specification.)
The underlying session is established upon first use which is
commonly an LDAP bind operation.  The LDAP bind operation is
performed by calling
.BR ldap_sasl_bind (3)
or one of its friends.  Next, other operations are performed
by calling one of the synchronous or asynchronous routines (e.g.,
.BR ldap_search_ext_s (3)
or
.BR ldap_search_ext (3)
followed by
.BR ldap_result (3)).
Results returned from these routines are interpreted by calling the
LDAP parsing routines such as
.BR ldap_parse_result (3).
The LDAP association and underlying connection is terminated by calling
.BR ldap_unbind_ext (3).
Errors can be interpreted by calling
.BR ldap_err2string (3).
.SH SEARCH FILTERS
Search filters to be passed to the ldap search routines are to be
constructed by hand and should conform to RFC 2254.
.SH DISPLAYING RESULTS
Results obtained from the ldap search routines can be output by hand,
by calling
.BR ldap_first_entry (3)
and
.BR ldap_next_entry (3)
to step through
the entries returned,
.BR ldap_first_attribute (3)
and
.BR ldap_next_attribute (3)
to step through an entry's attributes, and
.BR ldap_get_values (3)
to retrieve a given attribute's values.  Attribute values
may or may not be displayable.
.SH CONTROLS
LDAP operations can be extended through the use of controls. Controls
can be sent to a server or returned to the client with any LDAP message.
Extended versions of the standard routines are available for use with
controls. These routines are generally named by adding
.BR _ext
to the regular routine's name.
.SH UNIFORM RESOURCE LOCATORS (URLS)
The
.BR ldap_url (3)
routines can be used to test a URL to see if it is an LDAP URL, to parse LDAP
URLs into their component pieces, and to initiate searches directly using
an LDAP URL.
.SH CACHING
The
.BR ldap_cache (3)
routines implement a local client caching scheme,
providing a substantial performance increase for repeated queries.
Caching is experiemental.
.SH UTILITY ROUTINES
Also provided are various utility routines.  The
.BR ldap_sort (3)
routines are used to sort the entries and values returned via
the ldap search routines. 
.SH 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
.BR lber\-decode (3),
.BR lber\-encode (3),
.BR lber\-memory (3),
and
.BR lber\-types (3).
.SH INDEX
.TP 20
.SM ldap_open(3)
open a connection to an LDAP server (deprecated, use
.BR ldap_init (3))
.TP
.SM ldap_init(3)
initialize the LDAP library without opening a connection to a server
.TP
.SM ldap_initialize(3)
initialize the LDAP library without opening a connection to a server
.TP
.SM ldap_result(3)
wait for the result from an asynchronous operation
.TP
.SM ldap_abandon(3)
abandon (abort) an asynchronous operation
.TP
.SM ldap_add(3)
asynchronously add an entry
.TP
.SM ldap_add_s(3)
synchronously add an entry
.TP
.SM ldap_bind(3)
asynchronously bind to the directory
.TP
.SM ldap_bind_s(3)
synchronously bind to the directory
.TP
.SM ldap_simple_bind(3)
asynchronously bind to the directory using simple authentication
.TP
.SM ldap_simple_bind_s(3)
synchronously bind to the directory using simple authentication
.TP
.SM ldap_unbind(3)
synchronously unbind from the LDAP server and close the connection
.TP
.SM ldap_unbind_s(3)
equivalent to
.BR ldap_unbind (3)
.TP
.SM ldap_memfree (3)
dispose of memory allocated by LDAP routines.
.TP
.SM ldap_enable_cache(3)
enable LDAP client caching
.TP
.SM ldap_disable_cache(3)
disable LDAP client caching
.TP
.SM ldap_destroy_cache(3)
disable LDAP client caching and destroy cache contents
.TP
.SM ldap_flush_cache(3)
flush LDAP client cache
.TP
.SM ldap_uncache_entry(3)
uncache requests pertaining to an entry
.TP
.SM ldap_uncache_request(3)
uncache a request
.TP
.SM ldap_set_cache_options(3)
set cache options
.TP
.SM ldap_compare(3)
asynchronously compare to a directory entry
.TP
.SM ldap_compare_s(3)
synchronously compare to a directory entry
.TP
.SM ldap_delete(3)
asynchronously delete an entry
.TP
.SM ldap_delete_s(3)
synchronously delete an entry
.TP
.SM ldap_perror(3)
print an LDAP error indication to standard error
.TP
.SM ld_errno(3)
LDAP error indication
.TP
.SM ldap_result2error(3)
extract LDAP error indication from LDAP result
.TP
.SM ldap_errlist(3)
list of LDAP errors and their meanings
.TP
.SM ldap_err2string(3)
convert LDAP error indication to a string
.TP
.SM ldap_first_attribute(3)
return first attribute name in an entry
.TP
.SM ldap_next_attribute(3)
return next attribute name in an entry
.TP
.SM ldap_first_entry(3)
return first entry in a chain of search results
.TP
.SM ldap_next_entry(3)
return next entry in a chain of search results
.TP
.SM ldap_count_entries(3)
return number of entries in a search result
.TP
.SM ldap_get_dn(3)
extract the DN from an entry
.TP
.SM ldap_explode_dn(3)
convert a DN into its component parts
.TP
.SM ldap_explode_rdn(3)
convert an RDN into its component parts
.TP
.SM ldap_get_values(3)
return an attribute's values
.TP
.SM ldap_get_values_len(3)
return an attribute's values with lengths
.TP
.SM ldap_value_free(3)
free memory allocated by ldap_get_values(3)
.TP
.SM ldap_value_free_len(3)
free memory allocated by ldap_get_values_len(3)
.TP
.SM ldap_count_values(3)
return number of values
.TP
.SM ldap_count_values_len(3)
return number of values
.TP
.SM ldap_modify(3)
asynchronously modify an entry
.TP
.SM ldap_modify_s(3)
synchronously modify an entry
.TP
.SM ldap_mods_free(3)
free array of pointers to mod structures used by ldap_modify(3)
.TP
.SM ldap_modrdn2(3)
asynchronously modify the RDN of an entry
.TP
.SM ldap_modrdn2_s(3)
synchronously modify the RDN of an entry
.TP
.SM ldap_modrdn(3)
deprecated - use ldap_modrdn2(3)
.TP
.SM ldap_modrdn_s(3)
depreciated - use ldap_modrdn2_s(3)
.TP
.SM ldap_msgfree(3)
free results allocated by ldap_result(3)
.TP
.SM ldap_msgtype(3)
return the message type of a message from ldap_result(3)
.TP
.SM ldap_msgid(3)
return the message id of a message from ldap_result(3)
.TP
.SM ldap_search(3)
asynchronously search the directory
.TP
.SM ldap_search_s(3)
synchronously search the directory
.TP
.SM ldap_search_st(3)
synchronously search the directory with timeout
.TP
.SM ldap_is_ldap_url(3)
check a URL string to see if it is an LDAP URL
.TP
.SM ldap_url_parse(3)
break up an LDAP URL string into its components
.TP
.SM ldap_sort_entries(3)
sort a list of search results
.TP
.SM ldap_sort_values(3)
sort a list of attribute values
.TP
.SM ldap_sort_strcasecmp(3)
case insensitive string comparison
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR slapd (8)
.BR draft-ietf-ldapext-ldap-c-api-xx.txt \ <http://www.ietf.org>
.SH ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
.B	OpenLDAP
is developed and maintained by The OpenLDAP Project (http://www.openldap.org/).
.B	OpenLDAP
is derived from University of Michigan LDAP 3.3 Release.  
.LP
These API manual pages are based upon descriptions provided in the
IETF C LDAP API Internet Draft, a work in progress, edited by
Mark Smith.