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HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | OUTPUT FORMAT | EXAMPLE | DIAGNOSTICS | SEE ALSO | AUTHOR | ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS | COLOPHON |
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LDAPSEARCH(1) General Commands Manual LDAPSEARCH(1)
ldapsearch - LDAP search tool
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 timelimit] [-z sizelimit]
[-f file] [-M[M]] [-x] [-D binddn] [-W] [-w passwd]
[-y passwdfile] [-H ldapuri] [-P {2|3}] [-e [!]ext[=extparam]]
[-E [!]ext[=extparam]] [-o opt[=optparam]] [-O security-
properties] [-I] [-Q] [-N] [-U authcid] [-R realm] [-X authzid]
[-Y mech] [-Z[Z]] filter [attrs...]
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.
-V[V] Print version info. If -VV is given, exit after providing
version 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 effect.
-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 reporting 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
containing 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: system default tmp directory). The environment
variables TMPDIR, TMP, or TEMP will override the default
path.
-F prefix
URL prefix for temporary files. Default is file://path
where path is the system default tmp directory or the value
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
detailed 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 Distinguished 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 children 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 % character, the character
should be encoded as \25 (see RFC 4515). If file is a
single - character, then the lines are read from standard
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
specifying 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 protocol/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.
-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=<filter> (an RFC 4515 Filter)
!authzid=<authzid> ("dn:<dn>" or "u:<user>")
[!]bauthzid (RFC 3829 authzid control)
[!]chaining[=<resolve>[/<cont>]]
[!]manageDSAit
[!]noop
ppolicy
[!]postread[=<attrs>] (a comma-separated attribute list)
[!]preread[=<attrs>] (a comma-separated attribute list)
[!]relax
sessiontracking[=<username>]
abandon,cancel,ignore (SIGINT sends abandon/cancel,
or ignores response; if critical, doesn't wait for SIGINT.
not really controls)
Search extensions:
!dontUseCopy
[!]domainScope (domain scope)
[!]mv=<filter> (matched values filter)
[!]pr=<size>[/prompt|noprompt] (paged results/prompt)
[!]sss=[-]<attr[:OID]>[/[-]<attr[:OID]>...] (server side sorting)
[!]subentries[=true|false] (subentries)
[!]sync=ro[/<cookie>] (LDAP Sync refreshOnly)
rp[/<cookie>][/<slimit>] (LDAP Sync refreshAndPersist)
[!]vlv=<before>/<after>(/<offset>/<count>|:<value>) (virtual list view)
[!]deref=derefAttr:attr[,attr[...]][;derefAttr:attr[,attr[...]]]
[!]<oid>[=:<value>|::<b64value>]
-o opt[=optparam]
Specify any ldap.conf(5) option or one of the following:
nettimeout=<timeout> (in seconds, or "none" or "max")
ldif_wrap=<width> (in columns, or "no" for no wrapping)
-O security-properties
Specify SASL security properties.
-I Enable SASL Interactive mode. Always prompt. Default is
to prompt only as needed.
-Q Enable SASL Quiet mode. Never prompt.
-N Do not use reverse DNS to canonicalize SASL host name.
-U authcid
Specify the authentication ID for SASL bind. The form of
the ID depends on the actual SASL mechanism used.
-R realm
Specify the realm of authentication ID for SASL bind. The
form of the realm depends on the actual SASL mechanism
used.
-X authzid
Specify the requested authorization ID for SASL bind.
authzid must be one of the following formats:
dn:<distinguished name> or u:<username>
-Y mech
Specify the SASL mechanism to be used for authentication.
If it's not specified, the program will choose the best
mechanism the server knows.
-Z[Z] Issue StartTLS (Transport Layer Security) extended
operation. If you use -ZZ, the command will require the
operation to be successful.
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
"attributename" part is written.
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 standard output, resulting in output
similar to this:
dn: o=University of Alaska Fairbanks,c=US
o: University of Alaska Fairbanks
description: Naturally Inspiring
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
...
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.
ldapadd(1), ldapdelete(1), ldapmodify(1), ldapmodrdn(1),
ldap.conf(5), ldif(5), ldap(3), ldap_search_ext(3), ldap_sort(3)
The OpenLDAP Project <http://www.openldap.org/>
OpenLDAP Software is developed and maintained by The OpenLDAP
Project <http://www.openldap.org/>. OpenLDAP Software is derived
from the University of Michigan LDAP 3.3 Release.
This page is part of the OpenLDAP (an open source implementation
of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) project.
Information about the project can be found at
⟨http://www.openldap.org/⟩. If you have a bug report for this
manual page, see ⟨http://www.openldap.org/its/⟩. This page was
obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://git.openldap.org/openldap/openldap.git⟩ on 2025-08-11.
(At that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found
in the repository was 2025-08-05.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
[email protected]
OpenLDAP LDVERSION RELEASEDATE LDAPSEARCH(1)
Pages that refer to this page: ldapdelete(1), ldapmodify(1), ldapmodrdn(1), pmdads389(1), ldap.conf(5), ldif(5), slapo-valsort(5)
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HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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