LDAP Requests for Comments

The protocol that is described in this document is designed to provide access to directories that support X.500 models without incurring the resource requirements that are incurred by the Directory Access Protocol (DAP). This protocol is specifically designed for management applications and browser applications that provide simple read/write, interactive access to an X.500 directory. It is intended to complement the DAP. For more information about RFC 1777, see the Request for Comments (RFC) link on the Web Resources page at https://windows.microsoft.com/windows2000/reskit/webresources .

LDAP requires that the contents of AttributeValue fields in protocol elements be octet strings. This document defines the requirements for the encoding rules that are used to render X.500 directory attribute syntaxes into a form that is suitable for LDAP. The document then defines the encoding rules for the standard set of LDAP attribute syntaxes.

The OSI directory uses distinguished names as the primary means of identifying entries in the directory. Distinguished names are encoded in ASN.1. When a distinguished name is communicated between two users who are not using a directory protocol (for example, in a mail message), a user-oriented string representation of the distinguished name is necessary. This RFC defines a string format for representing distinguished names. The specification is designed to provide unambiguous representations of all distinguished names.

This document describes a format for an LDAP Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that allows Internet clients to have direct access to the LDAP protocol. Although LDAP currently is used only as a front end to an X.500 directory, the URL format that is described here is general enough to handle stand-alone LDAP servers (that is, LDAP servers that do not have an X.500 back-end server). This RFC has been superseded by RFC   2255 for LDAPv3.

LDAP defines the network representation for a search filter that is transmitted to an LDAP server. For some applications, it might be useful to have a way of representing search filters in a readable form that can be recognized by everyone. This document defines a readable string format for representing LDAP search filters . This RFC has been superseded by RFC   2254 for LDAPv3.

This document provides information about a C-language application program interface (API) to LDAP. This API is designed to be both powerful and simple to use. It defines compatible synchronous and asynchronous interfaces to LDAP that suit a wide variety of applications. The document contains a brief overview of the LDAP model and how the API is used by an application to obtain LDAP information. The document contains detailed descriptions of LDAP API calls, followed by an appendix in which code examples illustrate the use of the API.

The protocol that is described in this document is designed to provide access to directories that support X.500 models without incurring the resource requirements that are incurred by the Directory Access Protocol (DAP). This protocol is specifically designed for management applications and browser applications that provide simple read/write, interactive access to X.500 directories. When LDAPv3 is used with a directory that supports X.500 protocols, it complements the X.500 DAP. For more information about RFC 2251, see the Request for Comments (RFC) link on the Web Resources page at https://windows.microsoft.com/windows2000/reskit/webresources .

LDAP requires that the contents of AttributeValue fields in protocol elements be octet strings. This document defines a set of syntaxes for LDAPv3 and the rules by which attribute values of these syntaxes are represented as octet strings for transmission in the protocol. The syntaxes that are defined in this document are referenced by this document and other documents that define attribute types. This document also defines the set of attribute types that LDAP servers must support.

The X.500 directory uses distinguished names as the primary means of identifying entries in the directory. Distinguished names are encoded in ASN.1 in the X.500 directory protocols. In LDAP, a string representation of distinguished names is transferred. This RFC defines the string format for representing distinguished names. The specification is designed to provide unambiguous representations of all distinguished names.

LDAP defines the network representation of a search filter that is transmitted to an LDAP server. For some applications, it might be useful to have a common way of representing search filters in a readable form. This document defines a readable string format for representing LDAP search filters. This document supersedes RFC   1960.

This document describes a format for an LDAP URL. The format describes an LDAP search operation for retrieving information from an LDAP directory. It updates the LDAP URL format for LDAPv3 and clarifies how LDAP URLs are resolved. This document also defines an extension mechanism for LDAP URLs that makes it possible for future documents to extend their functionality (for example, to provide access to new LDAPv3 extensions as they are defined). This document supersedes RFC   1959.

This document is an overview of the attribute types and object classes that are defined by the ISO and ITU-T committees in X.500 RFCs, in particular the attribute types and object classes that are intended for use by directory clients. This is the most widely used schema for LDAP directories and X.500 directories; many other schema definitions for white pages objects also use this schema as a base. This document does not cover attributes that are used for the administration of X.500 directory servers, nor does it include attributes that are defined by other ISO and ITU-T RFCs.