LDAP_GET_DN(3)

NAME
ldap_get_dn, ldap_explode_dn, ldap_explode_rdn, ldap_dn2ufn - LDAP DN handling routines

SYNOPSIS
#include <ldap.h>

char *ldap_get_dn(ld, entry)
LDAP *ld;
LDAPMessage *entry;

char **ldap_explode_dn(dn, notypes)
char *dn;
int notypes;

char **ldap_explode_rdn(rdn, notypes)
char *rdn;
int notypes;

char *ldap_dn2ufn(dn)
char *dn;

DESCRIPTION
These routines allow LDAP entry names (Distinguished Names, or DNs) to be obtained, parsed, converted to a user-friendly form, and tested. A DN has the form described in RFC 2253 "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3): UTF-8 String Representation of Distinguished Names".

The ldap_get_dn() routine takes an entry as returned by ldap_first_entry(3) or ldap_next_entry(3) and returns a copy of the entry's DN. Space for the DN will be obtained dynamically and should be freed by the caller using ldap_memfree(3).

The ldap_explode_dn() routine takes a DN as returned by ldap_get_dn() and breaks it up into its component parts. Each part is known as a Relative Distinguished Name, or RDN. ldap_explode_dn() returns a NULL-terminated array, each component of which contains an RDN from the DN. The notypes parameter is used to request that only the RDN values be returned, not their types. For example, the DN "cn=Bob, c=US" would return as either { "cn=Bob", "c=US", NULL } or { "Bob", "US", NULL }, depending on whether notypes was 0 or 1, respectively. The result can be freed by calling ldap_value_free(3).

Similarly, the ldap_explode_rdn() routine takes an RDN as returned by ldap_explode_dn(dn,0) and breaks it up into its "type=value" component parts (or just "value", if the notypes parameter is set). The result can be freed by calling ldap_value_free(3).

ldap_dn2ufn() is used to turn a DN as returned by ldap_get_dn() into a more user-friendly form, stripping off type names. See RFC 1781 "Using the Directory to Achieve User Friendly Naming" for more details on the UFN format. The space for the UFN returned is obtained dynamically and the user is responsible for freeing it via a call to ldap_memfree(3).

ERRORS
If an error occurs in ldap_get_dn(), NULL is returned and the ld_errno field in the ld parameter is set to indicate the error. See ldap_error(3) for a description of possible error codes. ldap_explode_dn(), ldap_explode_rdn(), and ldap_dn2ufn() will return NULL with errno(3) set appropriately in case of trouble.

NOTES
These routines dyanamically allocate memory that the caller must free.

SEE ALSO
ldap(3), ldap_error(3), ldap_first_entry(3), ldap_memfree(3), ldap_value_free(3)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
OpenLDAP is developed and maintained by The OpenLDAP Project (http://www.openldap.org/). OpenLDAP is derived from University of Michigan LDAP 3.3 Release.