Description
resource 
ldap_search ( resource link_identifier, string base_dn, string filter [, array attributes [, int attrsonly [, int sizelimit [, int timelimit [, int deref]]]]] )
     Returns a search result identifier or FALSE on error.
  
     ldap_search() performs the search for a
     specified filter on the directory with the scope of
     LDAP_SCOPE_SUBTREE. This is equivalent to searching the entire
     directory. base_dn specifies the base DN
     for the directory.
     There is an optional fourth parameter, that can be added to
     restrict the attributes and values returned by the server to just
     those required. This is much more efficient than the default
     action (which is to return all attributes and their associated
     values). The use of the fourth parameter should therefore be
     considered good practice.
     The fourth parameter is a standard PHP string array of the
     required attributes, e.g. array("mail", "sn", "cn") Note that the
     "dn" is always returned irrespective of which attributes types
     are requested.
     Note too that some directory server hosts will be configured to
     return no more than a preset number of entries. If this occurs,
     the server will indicate that it has only returned a partial
     results set. This occurs also if the sixth parameter 
     sizelimit has been used to limit the count 
     of fetched entries.
    
     The fifth parameter attrsonly should be 
     set to 1 if only attribute types are wanted. 
     If set to 0 both attributes types and attribute values are fetched
     which is the default behaviour.
    
     With the sixth parameter sizelimit it is 
     possible to limit the count of entries fetched. 
     Setting this to 0 means no limit. 
     NOTE: This parameter can NOT override server-side preset sizelimit. 
     You can set it lower though.
    
     The seventh parameter timelimit sets the number 
     of seconds how long is spend on the search. 
     Setting this to 0 means no limit.
     NOTE: This parameter can NOT override server-side preset timelimit. 
     You can set it lower though.
    
     The eighth parameter deref specifies how aliases 
     should be handled during the search. It can be one of the following:
     
- 
       LDAP_DEREF_NEVER - (default) aliases are never dereferenced.
       
- 
       LDAP_DEREF_SEARCHING - aliases should be dereferenced during the search
       but not when locating the base object of the search.
       
- 
       LDAP_DEREF_FINDING - aliases should be dereferenced when 
       locating the base object but not during the search.
       
- 
       LDAP_DEREF_ALWAYS - aliases should be dereferenced always.
       
Note: 
      These optional parameters were added in 4.0.2:
      attrsonly,
      sizelimit,
      timelimit,
      deref.
     
     The search filter can be simple or advanced, using boolean
     operators in the format described in the LDAP documentation (see
     the Netscape Directory SDK
     for full information on filters).
     The example below retrieves the organizational unit, surname,
     given name and email address for all people in "My Company" where
     the surname or given name contains the substring $person. This
     example uses a boolean filter to tell the server to look for
     information in more than one attribute.
     
| Example 1. LDAP search | 
<?php// $ds is a valid link identifier for a directory server
 
 // $person is all or part of a person's name, eg "Jo"
 
 $dn = "o=My Company, c=US";
 $filter="(|(sn=$person*)(givenname=$person*))";
 $justthese = array("ou", "sn", "givenname", "mail");
 
 $sr=ldap_search($ds, $dn, $filter, $justthese);
 
 $info = ldap_get_entries($ds, $sr);
 
 echo $info["count"]." entries returned\n";
 ?>
 | 
 | 
    
     From 4.0.5 on it's also possible to do parallel searches. To do this
     you use an array of link identifiers, rather than a single identifier,
     as the first argument. If you don't want the same base DN and the
     same filter for all the searches, you can also use an array of base DNs
     and/or an array of filters. Those arrays must be of the same size as
     the link identifier array since the first entries of the arrays are
     used for one search, the second entries are used for another, and so
     on. When doing parallel searches an array of search result
     identifiers is returned, except in case of error, then the entry
     corresponding to the search will be FALSE. This is very much like
     the value normally returned, except that a result identifier is always
     returned when a search was made. There are some rare cases where the
     normal search returns FALSE while the parallel search returns an
     identifier.