Network Working Group T. Howes
Request for Comments: 1960 University of Michigan
Obsoletes: 1558 June 1996
Category: Standards Track
A String Representation of LDAP Search Filters
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
1. Abstract
The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) [1] defines a
network representation of a search filter transmitted to an LDAP
server. Some applications may find it useful to have a common way of
representing these search filters in a human-readable form. This
document defines a human-readable string format for representing LDAP
search filters.
2. LDAP Search Filter Definition
An LDAP search filter is defined in [1] as follows:
Filter ::= CHOICE {
and [0] SET OF Filter,
or [1] SET OF Filter,
not [2] Filter,
equalityMatch [3] AttributeValueAssertion,
substrings [4] SubstringFilter,
greaterOrEqual [5] AttributeValueAssertion,
lessOrEqual [6] AttributeValueAssertion,
present [7] AttributeType,
approxMatch [8] AttributeValueAssertion
}
SubstringFilter ::= SEQUENCE {
type AttributeType,
SEQUENCE OF CHOICE {
initial [0] LDAPString,
any [1] LDAPString,
final [2] LDAPString
}
}
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AttributeValueAssertion ::= SEQUENCE {
attributeType AttributeType,
attributeValue AttributeValue
}
AttributeType ::= LDAPString
AttributeValue ::= OCTET STRING
LDAPString ::= OCTET STRING
where the LDAPString above is limited to the IA5 character set. The
AttributeType is a string representation of the attribute type name
and is defined in [1]. The AttributeValue OCTET STRING has the form
defined in [2]. The Filter is encoded for transmission over a
network using the Basic Encoding Rules defined in [3], with
simplifications described in [1].
3. String Search Filter Definition
The string representation of an LDAP search filter is defined by the
following grammar. It uses a prefix format.
<filter> ::= '(' <filtercomp> ')'
<filtercomp> ::= <and> | <or> | <not> | <item>
<and> ::= '&' <filterlist>
<or> ::= '|' <filterlist>
<not> ::= '!' <filter>
<filterlist> ::= <filter> | <filter> <filterlist>
<item> ::= <simple> | <present> | <substring>
<simple> ::= <attr> <filtertype> <value>
<filtertype> ::= <equal> | <approx> | <greater> | <less>
<equal> ::= '='
<approx> ::= '~='
<greater> ::= '>='
<less> ::= '<='
<present> ::= <attr> '=*'
<substring> ::= <attr> '=' <initial> <any> <final>
<initial> ::= NULL | <value>
<any> ::= '*' <starval>
<starval> ::= NULL | <value> '*' <starval>
<final> ::= NULL | <value>
<attr> is a string representing an AttributeType, and has the format
defined in [1]. <value> is a string representing an AttributeValue,
or part of one, and has the form defined in [2]. If a <value> must
contain one of the characters '*' or '(' or ')', these characters
should be escaped by preceding them with the backslash '\' character.
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Note that although both the <substring> and <present> productions can
produce the 'attr=*' construct, this construct is used only to denote
a presence filter.
4. Examples
This section gives a few examples of search filters written using
this notation.
(cn=Babs Jensen)
(!(cn=Tim Howes))
(&(objectClass=Person)(|(sn=Jensen)(cn=Babs J*)))
(o=univ*of*mich*)
5. Security Considerations
Security considerations are not discussed in this memo.
6. Bibliography
[1] Yeong, W., Howes, T., and S. Kille, "Lightweight
Directory Access Protocol", RFC 1777, March 1995.
[2] Howes, R., Kille, S., Yeong, W., and C. Robbins, "The String
Representation of Standard Attribute Syntaxes", RFC 1778,
March 1995.
[3] Specification of Basic Encoding Rules for Abstract Syntax
Notation One (ASN.1). CCITT Recommendation X.209, 1988.
7. Author's Address
Tim Howes
University of Michigan
ITD Research Systems
535 W William St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48103-4943
USA
Phone: +1 313 747-4454
EMail: tim@umich.edu
Howes Standards Track [Page 3]
