These functions are used to generate filters to be used in ldap_search(3LDAP) or ldap_search_s(3LDAP). Either ldap_init_getfilter or ldap_init_getfilter_buf must be called prior to calling any of the other functions except ldap_build_filter.

ldap_init_getfilter() takes a file name as its only argument. The contents of the file must be a valid LDAP filter configuration file (see ldapfilter.conf(4)). If the file is successfully read, a pointer to an LDAPFiltDesc is returned. This is an opaque object that is passed in subsequent get filter calls.

ldap_init_getfilter_buf() reads from buf, whose length is buflen, the LDAP filter configuration information. buf must point to the contents of a valid LDAP filter configuration file. See ldapfilter.conf(4). If the filter configuration information is successfully read, a pointer to an LDAPFiltDesc is returned. This is an opaque object that is passed in subsequent get filter calls.

ldap_getfilter_free() deallocates the memory consumed by ldap_init_getfilter. Once it is called, the LDAPFiltDesc is no longer valid and cannot be used again.

ldap_getfirstfilter() retrieves the first filter that is appropriate for value. Only filter sets that have tags that match the regular expession tagpat are considered. ldap_getfirstfilter returns a pointer to an LDAPFiltInfo structure, which contains a filter with value inserted as appropriate in lfi_filter, a text match description in lfi_desc, lfi_scope set to indicate the search scope, and lfi_isexact set to indicate the type of filter. NULL is returned if no matching filters are found. lfi_scope will be one of LDAP_SCOPE_BASE, LDAP_SCOPE_ONELEVEL, or LDAP_SCOPE_SUBTREE. lfi_isexact will be zero if the filter has any '~' or '*' characters in it and non-zero otherwise.

ldap_getnextfilter() retrieves the next appropriate filter in the filter set that was determined when ldap_getfirstfilter was called. It returns NULL when the list has been exhausted.

ldap_setfilteraffixes() sets a prefix to be prepended and a suffix to be appended to all filters returned in the future.

ldap_build_filter() constructs an LDAP search filter in buf. buflen is the size, in bytes, of the largest filter buf can hold. A pattern for the desired filter is passed in pattern. Where the string %a appears in the pattern it is replaced with attr. prefix is pre-pended to the resulting filter, and suffix is appended. Either can be NULL , in which case they are not used. value and valwords are used when the string %v appears in pattern. See ldapfilter.conf(4) for a description of how %v is handled.

NULL is returned by ldap_init_getfilter if there is an error reading file. NULL is returned by ldap_getfirstfilter and ldap_getnextfilter when there are no more appropriate filters to return.

ETCDIR/ldapfilter.conf

LDAP filtering routine configuration file.

See attributes(5) for a description of the following attributes:

ldap(3LDAP), ldapfilter.conf(4), attributes(5)

The return values for all of these functions are declared in the <ldap.h> header file. Some functions may allocate memory which must be freed by the calling application.