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Initializing an LDAP Session

ldap_init() initializes a session with an LDAP server. The server is not actually contacted until an operation is performed that requires it, allowing various options to be set after initialization.

        LDAP *ldap_init(
                char    *hostname,
                int     portno
        );

Use of the following routine is deprecated.

        LDAP *ldap_open(
                char    *hostname,
                int     portno
        );

Parameters are:

hostname

Contains a space-separated list of hostnames or dotted strings representing the IP address of hosts running an LDAP server to connect to. Each hostname in the list can include an optional port number which is separated from the host itself with a colon (:) character. The hosts are tried in the order listed, stopping with the first one to which a successful connection is made. Note that only ldap_open() attempts to make the connection before returning to the caller. ldap_init() does not connect to the LDAP server.

portno

Contains the TCP port number to connect to. The default LDAP port of 389 can be obtained by supplying the constant LDAP_PORT. If a host includes a port number then this parameter is ignored.

ldap_init() and ldap_open() both return a "session handle," a pointer to an opaque structure that should be passed to subsequent calls pertaining to the session. These routines return NULL if the session cannot be initialized in which case the operating system error reporting mechanism can be checked to see why the call failed.

Note that if you connect to an LDAPv2 server, one of the ldap_bind() calls described below must be completed before other operations can be performed on the session. LDAPv3 does not require that a bind operation be completed before other operations can be performed.

The calling program can set various attributes of the session by calling the routines described in the next section.

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