ldapexop — issue LDAP extended operations




ldapexop issues the LDAP extended operation specified by oid or one of the special keywords whoami, cancel, or refresh.

Additional data for the extended operation can be passed to the server using data or base-64 encoded as b64data in the case of oid, or using the additional parameters in the case of the specially named extended operations above.

Please note that ldapexop behaves differently for the same extended operation when it was given as an OID or as a specialliy named operation:


  ldapexop [<options>]


  # extended operation response
  data:: <base64 encoded response data>

while calling it with the keyword whoami

  ldapexop [<options>] whoami

results in

  dn:<client's identity>




-d debuglevel

Set the LDAP debugging level to debuglevel.


Show what would be done but don't actually do it. Useful for debugging in conjunction with -v.



-f file

Read operations from file.


Use simple authentication instead of SASL.

-D binddn

Use the Distinguished Name binddn to bind to the LDAP directory.


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.


Specify URI(s) referring to the ldap server(s); only the protocol/host/port fields are allowed; a list of URI, separated by whitespace or commas is expected.

-h ldaphost


-p ldapport

Specify the TCP port where the ldap server is listening. Deprecated in favor of -H.

-e [!]ext[=extparam]

Specify general extensions.  ´!´ indicates criticality.

  [!]bauthzid           (RFC 3829 authzid control)
  abandon,cancel,ignore (SIGINT sends abandon/cancel,
  or ignores response; if critical, doesn't wait for SIGINT.
  not really controls)
-o opt[=optparam]

Specify general options.

General options:

-O security-properties

Specify SASL security properties.




Enable SASL Quiet mode.  Never prompt.


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. Without this option, the program will choose the best mechanism the server knows.


Issue StartTLS (Transport Layer Security) extended operation. Giving it twice (-ZZ) will require the operation to be successful.


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



This manual page was written by Peter Marschall based on ldapexop's usage message and a few tests with ldapexop. Do not expect it to be complete or absolutely correct.


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.