LIBRARY

OpenLDAP LDAP (libldap, -lldap)

DESCRIPTION

ldap_open() opens a connection to an LDAP server and allocates an LDAP structure which is used to identify the connection and to maintain per-connection information. ldap_init() allocates an LDAP structure but does not open an initial connection. ldap_initialize() allocates an LDAP structure but does not open an initial connection. ldap_init_fd() allocates an LDAP structure using an existing connection on the provided socket. One of these routines must be called before any operations are attempted.

ldap_open() takes host, the hostname on which the LDAP server is running, and port, the port number to which to connect. If the default IANA-assigned port of 389 is desired, LDAP_PORT should be specified for port. The host parameter may contain a blank-separated list of hosts to try to connect to, and each host may optionally by of the form host:port. If present, the :port overrides the port parameter to ldap_open(). Upon successfully making a connection to an LDAP server, ldap_open() returns a pointer to an opaque LDAP structure, which should be passed to subsequent calls to ldap_bind(), ldap_search(), etc. Certain fields in the LDAP structure can be set to indicate size limit, time limit, and how aliases are handled during operations; read and write access to those fields must occur by calling ldap_get_option(3) and ldap_set_option(3) respectively, whenever possible.

ldap_init() acts just like ldap_open(), but does not open a connection to the LDAP server. The actual connection open will occur when the first operation is attempted.

ldap_initialize() acts like ldap_init(), but it returns an integer indicating either success or the failure reason, and it allows to specify details for the connection in the schema portion of the URI.

At this time, ldap_open() and ldap_init() are deprecated in favor of ldap_initialize(), essentially because the latter allows to specify a schema in the URI and it explicitly returns an error code.

ldap_init_fd() allows an LDAP structure to be initialized using an already-opened connection. The proto parameter should be one of LDAP_PROTO_TCP, LDAP_PROTO_UDP, or LDAP_PROTO_IPC for a connection using TCP, UDP, or IPC, respectively. The value LDAP_PROTO_EXT may also be specified if user-supplied sockbuf handlers are going to be used. Note that support for UDP is not implemented unless libldap was built with LDAP_CONNECTIONLESS defined. The uri parameter may optionally be provided for informational purposes.

	Note
	The first call into the LDAP library also initializes the global options for the library. As such the first call should be single-threaded or otherwise protected to insure that only one call is active. It is recommended that ldap_get_option() or ldap_set_option() be used in the program's main thread before any additional threads are created. See ldap_get_option(3).

ERRORS

If an error occurs, ldap_open() and ldap_init() will return NULL and errno should be set appropriately. ldap_initialize() and ldap_init_fd() will directly return the LDAP code associated to the error (or LDAP_SUCCESS in case of success); errno should be set as well whenever appropriate.

SEE ALSO

ldap(3), ldap_bind(3), ldap_get_option(3), ldap_set_option(3), lber-sockbuf(3), errno(3)

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.