SLAPO-DEREF(5)

💖 SLAPO-DEREF 💖

ok so bestie, this one is slapo-deref from the File Formats Manual section (section 5, if you're keeping track) — it's the Dereference Control overlay for slapd and honestly? she's a whole vibe. let's get into it 🦋

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✨ NAME ✨

slapo-deref — the Dereference Control overlay to slapd. that's it, that's the girl 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

the config files in question, so you know where things live:

/etc/openldap/slapd.conf

/etc/openldap/slapd.d

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👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

ok so here's the tea. This overlay implements the draft Dereference control — no cap, that's literally what it does. And the best part? The overlay can be used with any backend, or globally for all backends. so flexible, so iconic, she contain multitudes fr fr 💜

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🎀 EXAMPLES 🎀

first up, the config — you just drop the overlay in next to your backend like:

database mdb
...
overlay deref

now say you've got these entries hanging around, minding their own business:

dn: cn=Howard Chu,ou=people,dc=example,dc=org
objectClass: inetOrgPerson
cn: Howard Chu
sn: Chu
uid: hyc

dn: cn=Pierangelo Masarati,ou=people,dc=example,dc=org
objectClass: inetOrgPerson
cn: Pierangelo Masarati
sn: Masarati
uid: ando

dn: cn=Test Group,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=org
objectClass: groupOfNames
cn: Test Group
member: cn=Howard Chu,ou=people,dc=example,dc=org
member: cn=Pierangelo Masarati,ou=people,dc=example,dc=org

so a search could be performed with a Dereference request control value specified as

{ member, uid }

I.e.,

ldapsearch -x -b dc=example,dc=org -E 'deref=member:uid'

and the "cn=Test Group" entry would be returned with the response control value

{ { member, cn=Howard Chu,ou=people,dc=example,dc=org,
    { { uid, [hyc] } } },
  { member, cn=Pierangelo Masarati,ou=people,dc=example,dc=org,
    { { uid, [ando] } } } }

look at those dereferenced uids just sitting there all resolved 😭 so satisfying, it's giving ✨magic✨

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🗂️ FILES 🗂️

• /etc/openldap/slapd.conf — the default slapd configuration file. home base 🏠
• /etc/openldap/slapd.d — the default slapd configuration directory. the other home base 🏡

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🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

• slapd.conf(5), slapd-config(5).
• "OpenLDAP Administrator's Guide" (http://www.OpenLDAP.org/doc/admin/)
• IETF LDAP Dereference Control proposal by P. Masarati, H. Chu, in IETF document "draft-masarati-ldap-deref-00.txt".

go read the lore, bestie, it's worth it 📚💖

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🌈 AUTHOR 🌈

Pierangelo Masarati. icon, legend, the moment 👑

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ok that's the whole page, every last crumb accounted for. no skips, no shortcuts, periodt 💅

OpenLDAP 2.7.2, dated 2026/10/21 — and that's on SLAPO-DEREF(5), mwah 🎀✨ bye bestie, go dereference something 🦋💖