LDAPSEARCH(1) General Commands Manual LDAPSEARCH(1)
NAME
ldapsearch - LDAP search tool
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] [-P {2|3}]
[-e [!]ext[=extparam]] [-E [!]ext[=extparam]] [-o opt[=optparam]]
[-O security-properties] [-I] [-Q] [-N] [-U authcid] [-R realm] [-X au-
thzid] [-Y mech] [-Z[Z]] filter [attrs...]
DESCRIPTION
ldapsearch is a shell-accessible interface to the ldap_search_ext(3) li-
brary 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 at-
trs 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 at-
tributes will be returned.
The search results are displayed using an extended version of LDIF. Op-
tion -L controls the format of the output.
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 report-
ing 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 contain-
ing 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 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 time-
limit 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 over-
ride.
-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 speci-
fying 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 at-
tribute type is "dc" (domain component), and must be escaped ac-
cording 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 suc-
cessful.
OUTPUT FORMAT
If one or more entries are found, each entry is written to standard out-
put 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.
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 out-
put might look like this if one entry with one value for each of the re-
quested 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
...
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.
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 <http://www.openldap.org/>
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
OpenLDAP Software is developed and maintained by The OpenLDAP Project
<http://www.openldap.org/>. OpenLDAP Software is derived from the Uni-
versity of Michigan LDAP 3.3 Release.
OpenLDAP 2.6.10+dfsg-1 2025/05/22 LDAPSEARCH(1)
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