Homepage - Perl-LDAP

Introduction

LDAP is the de-facto Internet directory standard, supported by companies such as Sun, Microsoft, IBM and Novell. LDAP is an integral part of Internet platform offerings like Sun ONE, Microsoft Exchange, and many others.

The perl-ldap distribution is a collection of perl modules which provide an object orientated interface to LDAP servers.

The perl-ldap distribution has several advantages over other LDAP interfaces for perl:

By using the perl object interface the perl-ldap modules provide programmers with an interface which allows complex searches of LDAP directories with only a small amount of code.
All the perl-ldap modules are written entirely in perl, which means that the library is truly cross-platform compatible. No C or XS extensions are used so no C compiler is needed to install the modules. No other LDAP libraries (eg libldap) are required.
It is being actively developed.

Distribution

The latest (April 2008) release of the library is perl-ldap-0.36. You may also browse the individual files in the SVN repository and the Changes file.

Documentation

The POD documentation for the latest release is available online from CPAN:

Net::LDAP: Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
Net::LDAPS: Use LDAP over an SSL connection
Net::LDAPI: Use LDAP over a UNIX-domain socket
Net::LDAP::Message: Message response from LDAP server
Net::LDAP::Search: Object returned by Net::LDAP search method
Net::LDAP::Entry: An LDAP entry object
Net::LDAP::Reference: Search reference
Net::LDAP::Filter: Representation of LDAP filters
Net::LDAP::LDIF: LDIF reading and writing
Net::LDAP::DSML: DSML reading and writing
Net::LDAP::RootDSE: Server information (RootDSE)
Net::LDAP::Schema: Load and manipulate an LDAP v3 Schema
Net::LDAP::Constant: Constants for use with Net::LDAP
Net::LDAP::Util: Utility functions
Net::LDAP::Extra: Load extra Net::LDAP methods

LDAP v3 Server Controls

Net::LDAP::Control: LDAPv3 control object base class
Net::LDAP::Control::Paged: LDAPv3 Paged results control object
Net::LDAP::Control::ProxyAuth: LDAPv3 Proxy Authentication control object
Net::LDAP::Control::Sort: Server Side Sort (SSS) control object
Net::LDAP::Control::SortResult: Server Side Sort (SSS) result control object
Net::LDAP::Control::VLV: LDAPv3 Virtual List View control object
Net::LDAP::Control::VLVResponse: LDAPv3 Virtual List View server response
Net::LDAP::Control::PasswordPolicy: LDAPv3 Password Policy control and response
Net::LDAP::Control::ManageDsaIT: LDAPv3 ManageDsaIT control and response
Net::LDAP::Control::PersistentSearch: LDAPv3 Persistent Search control object
Net::LDAP::Control::EntryChange: LDAPv3 Entry Change notification response

Help

Net::LDAP::FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions about Net::LDAP
Net::LDAP::Examples: PERL LDAP by Example
Net::LDAP::RFC: List of related RFCs
Net::LDAP::Security: Security issues with LDAP connections

Other

Bundle::Net::LDAP: A bundle for Net::LDAP

At the 2001 O'Reilly Open Source Conference, Graham Barr presented this tutorial.

Requirements

You will need the Convert::ASN1 package.

For releases of perl before 5.004 you will also need to make sure that you have the IO distribution installed. The latest distribution is available from CPAN/modules/by-module/IO/.

LDAP RFCs

This page contains links to all the LDAP-related RFCs at the IETF.

FAQ

The latest released FAQ is available online.

Mailing List

There is also a mailing list for the perl-ldap project. You do not have to subscribe in order to post a question, and the list is filtered for spam automatically.

List archives

Related Projects

DSML ⇔ LDAP Gateway

LDAP Web Resources

Other Publications

Deploying OpenLDAP
(ISBN: 1590594134)
written by Tom Jackiewicz,
published by Apress.
Mentions Net::LDAP modules

The ABCs of LDAP: How to Install, Run, and Administer LDAP Services
(ISBN: 0849313465)
written by Reinhard Voglmaier,
published by Auerbach Pub.
Provides an introduction to Net::LDAP in its chapter on LDAP APIs

Implementing LDAP
(ISBN: 1861002211)
written by Mark Wilcox,
published by Wrox Press.
Mentions perl-ldap in Chapter 11.

Perl for System Administration
(ISBN: 1565926099)
written by David N. Blank-Edelman,
published by O'Reilly & Associates.
Mentions LDAP and perl-ldap in its chapter on Directory Services.

Managing Enterprise Active Directory Services
(ISBN: 0672321254)
written by Robbie Allen and Richard Puckett,
published by Addison-Wesley

LDAP System Administration
(ISBN: 1565924916)
written by Gerald Carter,
published by O'Reilly & Associates.
Has a chapter on Net::LDAP and perl.

Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services, Second Edition
(ISBN: 0672323168)
written by Tim Howes, Mark C Smith and Gordon Good,
published by Addison-Wesley.
It only mentions Net::LDAP in passing but gives good general guidance.