The ldapsearchprefs.conf file contains information used by LDAP when searching the directory. Blank lines and lines that start with a hash ('#') character are treated as comments and ignored. Non-comment lines contain one or more tokens. Tokens are separated by white space, and double quotes can be used to include white space inside a token.

Search preferences are typically used by LDAP-based client programs to specify what a user may search for, which attributes are searched, and which options are available to the user.

The first non-commment line specifies the version of the template information and must contain the token Version followed by an integer version number. For example:

Version 1

The current version is 1, so the above example is always the correct opening line.

The remainder of the file consists of one or more search preference configurations. The first line of a search preference is a human-readable name for the type of object being searched for, for example People or Organizations. This name is stored in the so_objtypeprompt member of the ldap_searchobj structure (see ldap_searchprefs(3LDAP)). For example:

People

specifies a label for a search preference designed to find X.500 entries for people.

The next line specifies a list of options for this search object. The only option currently allowed is "internal" which means that this search object should not be presented directly to a user. Options are placed in the so_options member of the ldap_searchobj structure and can be tested using the LDAP_IS_SEARCHOBJ_OPTION_SET() macro. Use "" if no special options are required.

The next line specifes a label to use for "Fewer Choices" searches. "Fewer Choices" searches are those where the user's input is fed to the ldap_filter routines to determine an appropriate filter to use. This contrasts with explicitly-constructed LDAP filters, or "More Choices" searches, where the user can explicitly construct an LDAP filter.

For example:

"Search For:"

can be used by LDAP client programs to label the field into which the user can type a "Fewer Choices" search.

The next line specifies an LDAP filter prefix to append to all "More Choices" searched. This is typically used to limit the types of entries returned to those containing a specific object class. For example:

"(&(objectClass=person)"

would cause only entries containing the object class person to be returned by a search. Note that parentheses may be unbalanced here, since this is a filter prefix, not an entire filter.

The next line is an LDAP filter tag which specifies the set of LDAP filters to be applied for "Fewer Choices" searching. The line

"x500-People"

would tell the client program to use the set of LDAP filters from the ldap filter configuration file tagged "x500-People".

The next line specifies an LDAP attribute to retrieve to help the user choose when several entries match the search terms specified. For example:

"title"

specifies that if more than one entry matches the search criteria, the client program should retrieve the title attribute that and present that to the user to allow them to select the appropriate entry. The next line specifies a label for the above attribute, for example,

"Title:"

Note that the values defined so far in the file are defaults, and are intended to be overridden by the specific search options that follow.

The next line specifies the scope of the LDAP search to be performed. Acceptable values are subtree, onelevel, and base.

The next section is a list of "More Choices" search options, terminated by a line containing only the string END. For example:

"Common Name"	cn	11111	""	""
"Surname"	sn	11111	""	""
"Business Phone"	"telephoneNumber"	11101	""	""
END

Each line represents one method of searching. In this example, there are three ways of searching - by Common Name, by Surname, and by Business Phone number. The first field is the text which should be displayed to user. The second field is the attribute which will be searched. The third field is a bitmap which specifies which of the match types are permitted for this search type. A "1" value in a given bit position indicates that a particular match type is valid, and a "0" indicates that is it not valid. The fourth and fifth fields are, respectively, the select attribute name and on-screen name for the selected attribute. These values are intended to override the defaults defined above. If no specific values are specified, the client software uses the default values above.

The next section is a list of search match options, terminated by a a line containing only the string END. Example:

"exactly matches"	"(%a=%v))"
"approximately matches"	"(%a~=%v))"
"starts with"	"(%a=%v*))"
"ends with"	"(%a=*%v))"
"contains"	"(%a=*%v*))"
END

In this example, there are five ways of refining the search. For each method, there is an LDAP filter suffix which is appended to the ldap filter.

# Version number
Version 1
# Name for this search object
People
# Label to place before text box user types in
"Search For:"
# Filter prefix to append to all "More Choices" searches
"(&(objectClass=person)"
# Tag to use for "Fewer Choices" searches - from ldapfilter.conf file
"x500-People"
# If a search results in > 1 match, retrieve this attribute to help
# user distinguish between the entries...
multilineDescription
# ...and label it with this string:
"Description"
# Search scope to use when searching
subtree
# Follows a list of "More Choices" search options.  Format is:
# Label, attribute, select-bitmap, extra attr display name, extra attr ldap name
# If last two are null, "Fewer Choices" name/attributes used
"Common Name"                   cn                 11111  ""  ""
"Surname"                       sn                 11111  ""  ""
"Business Phone"                "telephoneNumber"  11101  ""  ""
"E-Mail Address"                "mail"             11111  ""  ""
"Uniqname"                      "uid"              11111  ""  ""
END
# Match types
"exactly matches"               "(%a=%v))"
"approximately matches"         "(%a~=%v))"
"starts with"                   "(%a=%v*))"
"ends with"                     "(%a=*%v))"
"contains"                      "(%a=*%v*))"
END

In this example, the user may search for People. For "fewer choices" searching, the tag for the ldapfilter.conf(4) file is "x500-People".

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

ldap_searchprefs(3LDAP) , attributes(5)