ldapsearch
LDAP search tool
TLDR
Query an LDAP server for all items that are a member of the given group and return the object's displayName value
Query an LDAP server with a no-newline password file for all items that are a member of the given group and return the object's displayName value
Return 5 items that match the given filter
Wait up to 7 seconds for a response
Invert the filter
Return all items that are part of multiple groups, returning the display name for each item
Return all items that are members of at least 1 of the specified groups
Combine multiple boolean logic filters
SYNOPSIS
ldapsearch [-V[V]] [-d debuglevel] [-n] [-v] [-c] [-u] [-t[t]] [-T path] [-F prefix] [-A] [-L[L[L]]] [-S attribute] [-b searchbase] [-s {base|one|sub|children}] [-a {never|always|search|find}] [-l time‐ limit] [-z sizelimit] [-f file] [-M[M]] [-x] [-D binddn] [-W] [-w passwd] [-y passwdfile] [-H ldapuri] [-h ldaphost] [-p ldapport] [-P {2|3}] [-e [!]ext[=extparam]] [-E [!]ext[=extparam]] [-o opt[=opt‐ param]] [-O security-properties] [-I] [-Q] [-N] [-U authcid] [-R realm] [-X authzid] [-Y mech] [-Z[Z]] filter [attrs...]
OPTIONS
-V[V] Print version info. If -VV is given, exit after providing ver‐
sion info. Otherwise proceed with the specified search
-d debuglevel
Set the LDAP debugging level to debuglevel. ldapsearch must be
compiled with LDAP_DEBUG defined for this option to have any ef‐
fect.
-n Show what would be done, but don't actually perform the search.
Useful for debugging in conjunction with -v.
-v Run in verbose mode, with many diagnostics written to standard
output.
-c Continuous operation mode. Errors are reported, but ldapsearch
will continue with searches. The default is to exit after re‐
porting an error. Only useful in conjunction with -f.
-u Include the User Friendly Name form of the Distinguished Name
(DN) in the output.
-t[t] A single -t writes retrieved non-printable values to a set of
temporary files. This is useful for dealing with values con‐
taining non-character data such as jpegPhoto or audio. A second
-t writes all retrieved values to files.
-T path
Write temporary files to directory specified by path (default:
/var/tmp/)
-F prefix
URL prefix for temporary files. Default is file://path where
path is /var/tmp/ or specified with -T.
-A Retrieve attributes only (no values). This is useful when you
just want to see if an attribute is present in an entry and are
not interested in the specific values.
-L Search results are display in LDAP Data Interchange Format de‐
tailed in ldif(5). A single -L restricts the output to LDIFv1.
A second -L disables comments. A third -L disables printing of
the LDIF version. The default is to use an extended version of
LDIF.
-S attribute
Sort the entries returned based on attribute. The default is not
to sort entries returned. If attribute is a zero-length string
(""), the entries are sorted by the components of their Distin‐
guished Name. See ldap_sort(3) for more details. Note that
ldapsearch normally prints out entries as it receives them. The
use of the -S option defeats this behavior, causing all entries
to be retrieved, then sorted, then printed.
-b searchbase
Use searchbase as the starting point for the search instead of
the default.
-s {base|one|sub|children}
Specify the scope of the search to be one of base, one, sub, or
children to specify a base object, one-level, subtree, or chil‐
dren search. The default is sub. Note: children scope requires
LDAPv3 subordinate feature extension.
-a {never|always|search|find}
Specify how aliases dereferencing is done. Should be one of
never, always, search, or find to specify that aliases are never
dereferenced, always dereferenced, dereferenced when searching,
or dereferenced only when locating the base object for the
search. The default is to never dereference aliases.
-l timelimit
wait at most timelimit seconds for a search to complete. A
timelimit of 0 (zero) or none means no limit. A timelimit of
max means the maximum integer allowable by the protocol. A
server may impose a maximal timelimit which only the root user
may override.
-z sizelimit
retrieve at most sizelimit entries for a search. A sizelimit of
0 (zero) or none means no limit. A sizelimit of max means the
maximum integer allowable by the protocol. A server may impose
a maximal sizelimit which only the root user may override.
-f file
Read a series of lines from file, performing one LDAP search for
each line. In this case, the filter given on the command line
is treated as a pattern where the first and only occurrence of
%s is replaced with a line from file. Any other occurrence of
the the % character in the pattern will be regarded as an error.
Where it is desired that the search filter include a % charac‐
ter, the character should be encoded as \25 (see RFC 4515). If
file is a single - character, then the lines are read from stan‐
dard input. ldapsearch will exit when the first non-successful
search result is returned, unless -c is used.
-M[M] Enable manage DSA IT control. -MM makes control critical.
-x Use simple authentication instead of SASL.
-D binddn
Use the Distinguished Name binddn to bind to the LDAP directory.
For SASL binds, the server is expected to ignore this value.
-W Prompt for simple authentication. This is used instead of spec‐
ifying the password on the command line.
-w passwd
Use passwd as the password for simple authentication.
-y passwdfile
Use complete contents of passwdfile as the password for simple
authentication.
-H ldapuri
Specify URI(s) referring to the ldap server(s); a list of URI,
separated by whitespace or commas is expected; only the proto‐
col/host/port fields are allowed. As an exception, if no
host/port is specified, but a DN is, the DN is used to look up
the corresponding host(s) using the DNS SRV records, according
to RFC 2782. The DN must be a non-empty sequence of AVAs whose
attribute type is "dc" (domain component), and must be escaped
according to RFC 2396.
-h ldaphost
Specify an alternate host on which the ldap server is running.
Deprecated in favor of -H.
-p ldapport
Specify an alternate TCP port where the ldap server is listen‐
ing. Deprecated in favor of -H.
-P {2|3}
Specify the LDAP protocol version to use.
-e [!]ext[=extparam]
-E [!]ext[=extparam]
Specify general extensions with -e and search extensions with
-E. ´!´ indicates criticality.
General extensions:
[!]assert=
OUTPUT FORMAT
If one or more entries are found, each entry is written to standard output in LDAP Data Interchange Format or ldif(5): version: 1 # bjensen, example, net dn: uid=bjensen,dc=example,dc=net objectClass: person objectClass: dcObject uid: bjensen cn: Barbara Jensen sn: Jensen ... If the -t option is used, the URI of a temporary file is used in place of the actual value. If the -A option is given, only the "attribute‐ name" part is written.
DESCRIPTION
ldapsearch is a shell-accessible interface to the ldap_search_ext(3) library call. ldapsearch opens a connection to an LDAP server, binds, and performs a search using specified parameters. The filter should conform to the string representation for search filters as defined in RFC 4515. If not provided, the default filter, (objectClass=*), is used. If ldapsearch finds one or more entries, the attributes specified by attrs are returned. If * is listed, all user attributes are returned. If + is listed, all operational attributes are returned. If no attrs are listed, all user attributes are returned. If only 1.1 is listed, no attributes will be returned. The search results are displayed using an extended version of LDIF. Option -L controls the format of the output.
EXAMPLE
The following command: ldapsearch -LLL "(sn=smith)" cn sn telephoneNumber will perform a subtree search (using the default search base and other parameters defined in ldap.conf(5)) for entries with a surname (sn) of smith. The common name (cn), surname (sn) and telephoneNumber values will be retrieved and printed to standard output. The output might look something like this if two entries are found: dn: uid=jts,dc=example,dc=com cn: John Smith cn: John T. Smith sn: Smith sn;lang-en: Smith sn;lang-de: Schmidt telephoneNumber: 1 555 123-4567 dn: uid=sss,dc=example,dc=com cn: Steve Smith cn: Steve S. Smith sn: Smith sn;lang-en: Smith sn;lang-de: Schmidt telephoneNumber: 1 555 765-4321 The command: ldapsearch -LLL -u -t "(uid=xyz)" jpegPhoto audio will perform a subtree search using the default search base for entries with user id of "xyz". The user friendly form of the entry's DN will be output after the line that contains the DN itself, and the jpegPhoto and audio values will be retrieved and written to temporary files. The output might look like this if one entry with one value for each of the requested attributes is found: dn: uid=xyz,dc=example,dc=com ufn: xyz, example, com audio:< file:///tmp/ldapsearch-audio-a19924 jpegPhoto:< file:///tmp/ldapsearch-jpegPhoto-a19924 This command: ldapsearch -LLL -s one -b "c=US" "(o=University*)" o description will perform a one-level search at the c=US level for all entries whose organization name (o) begins with University. The organization name and description attribute values will be retrieved and printed to stan‐ dard output, resulting in output similar to this: dn: o=University of Alaska Fairbanks,c=US o: University of Alaska Fairbanks description: Preparing Alaska for a brave new yesterday description: leaf node only dn: o=University of Colorado at Boulder,c=US o: University of Colorado at Boulder description: No personnel information description: Institution of education and research dn: o=University of Colorado at Denver,c=US o: University of Colorado at Denver o: UCD o: CU/Denver o: CU-Denver description: Institute for Higher Learning and Research dn: o=University of Florida,c=US o: University of Florida o: UFl description: Warper of young minds ...
DIAGNOSTICS
Exit status is zero if no errors occur. Errors result in a non-zero exit status and a diagnostic message being written to standard error.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
OpenLDAP Software is developed and maintained by The OpenLDAP Project
SEE ALSO
ldapadd(1), ldapdelete(1), ldapmodify(1), ldapmodrdn(1), ldap.conf(5), ldif(5), ldap(3), ldap_search_ext(3), ldap_sort(3)
AUTHOR
The OpenLDAP Project