Netscape NETSCAPE DIRECTORY SERVER 6.1 - ADMINISTRATOR, Administrator'S Manual

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LDAP Search Filters
Appendix B Finding Directory Entries 521
LDAP Search Filters
Search filters select the entries to be returned for a search operation. They are most
commonly used with the
ldapsearch
command-line utility. When you use
ldapsearch
, you can place multiple search filters in a file, with each filter on a
separate line in the file, or you can specify a search filter directly on the command
line.
For example, the following filter specifies a search for the common name Babs
Jensen:
cn=babs jensen
This search filter returns all entries that contain the common name Babs Jensen.
Searches for common name values are not case sensitive.
When the common name attribute has values associated with a language tag, all of
the values are returned. Thus, the following two attribute values both match this
filter:
cn: babs jensen
cn;lang-fr: babs jensen
For a list of all the supported language tags, see Table D-1 on page 541.
Search Filter Syntax
The basic syntax of a search filter is:
attribute operator value
For example:
buildingname>=alpha
In this example,
buildingname
is the attribute,
>=
is the operator, and
alpha
is the
value. You can also define filters that use different attributes combined together
with Boolean operators.
Search filters are described in detail in the following sections:
• Using Attributes in Search Filters
• Using Operators in Search Filters
• Using Compound Search Filters
• Search Filter Examples