LDAPDELETE(1) General Commands Manual LDAPDELETE(1)

ldapdelete - LDAP delete entry tool

ldapdelete [-n] [-v] [-c] [-M[M]] [-d debuglevel] [-f file] [-D binddn] [-W] [-w passwd] [-y passwdfile] [-H ldapuri] [-h ldaphost] [-P {2|3}] [-e [!]ext[=extparam]] [-E [!]ext[=extparam]] [-p ldapport] [-O security-properties] [-U authcid] [-R realm] [-r] [-x] [-I] [-Q] [-X authzid] [-Y mech] [-z sizelimit] [-Z[Z]] [DN [...]]

ldapdelete is a shell-accessible interface to the ldap_delete_ext(3) library call.

ldapdelete opens a connection to an LDAP server, binds, and deletes one or more entries. If one or more DN arguments are provided, entries with those Distinguished Names are deleted. Each DN should be provided using the LDAPv3 string representation as defined in RFC 4514. If no DN arguments are provided, a list of DNs is read from standard input (or from file if the -f flag is used).

Show what would be done, but don't actually delete entries. Useful for debugging in conjunction with -v.
Use verbose mode, with many diagnostics written to standard output.
Continuous operation mode. Errors are reported, but ldapdelete will continue with deletions. The default is to exit after reporting an error.
Enable manage DSA IT control. -MM makes control critical.
Set the LDAP debugging level to debuglevel. ldapdelete must be compiled with LDAP_DEBUG defined for this option to have any effect.
Read a series of DNs from file, one per line, performing an LDAP delete for each.
Use simple authentication instead of SASL.
Use the Distinguished Name binddn to bind to the LDAP directory. For SASL binds, the server is expected to ignore this value.
Prompt for simple authentication. This is used instead of specifying the password on the command line.
Use passwd as the password for simple authentication.
Use complete contents of passwdfile as the password for simple authentication.
Specify URI(s) referring to the ldap server(s); only the protocol/host/port fields are allowed; a list of URI, separated by whitespace or commas is expected.
Specify an alternate host on which the ldap server is running. Deprecated in favor of -H.
Specify an alternate TCP port where the ldap server is listening. Deprecated in favor of -H.
Specify the LDAP protocol version to use.

Specify general extensions with -e and search extensions with -E. ´!´ indicates criticality.

General extensions:



  [!]assert=<filter>   (an RFC 4515 Filter)


  [!]authzid=<authzid> ("dn:<dn>" or "u:<user>")


  [!]manageDSAit


  [!]noop


  ppolicy


  [!]postread[=<attrs>]        (a comma-separated attribute list)


  [!]preread[=<attrs>] (a comma-separated attribute list)


  abandon, cancel (SIGINT sends abandon/cancel; not really controls)

Search extensions:



  [!]domainScope                               (domain scope)


  [!]mv=<filter>                               (matched values filter)


  [!]pr=<size>[/prompt|noprompt]       (paged results/prompt)


  [!]sss=[-]<attr[:OID]>[/[-]<attr[:OID]>...]  (server side sorting)


  [!]subentries[=true|false]           (subentries)


  [!]sync=ro[/<cookie>]                        (LDAP Sync refreshOnly)


          rp[/<cookie>][/<slimit>]     (LDAP Sync refreshAndPersist)
Do a recursive delete. If the DN specified isn't a leaf, its children, and all their children are deleted down the tree. No verification is done, so if you add this switch, ldapdelete will happily delete large portions of your tree. Use with care.
Use sizelimit when searching for children DN to delete, to circumvent any server-side size limit. Only useful in conjunction with -r.
Specify SASL security properties.
Enable SASL Interactive mode. Always prompt. Default is to prompt only as needed.
Enable SASL Quiet mode. Never prompt.
Specify the authentication ID for SASL bind. The form of the identity depends on the actual SASL mechanism used.
Specify the realm of authentication ID for SASL bind. The form of the realm depends on the actual SASL mechanism used.
Specify the requested authorization ID for SASL bind. authzid must be one of the following formats: dn:<distinguished name> or u:<username>
Specify the SASL mechanism to be used for authentication. If it's not specified, the program will choose the best mechanism the server knows.
Issue StartTLS (Transport Layer Security) extended operation. If you use -ZZ, the command will require the operation to be successful.

The following command:



    ldapdelete "cn=Delete Me,dc=example,dc=com"

will attempt to delete the entry named "cn=Delete Me,dc=example,dc=com". Of course it would probably be necessary to supply authentication credentials.

Exit status is 0 if no errors occur. Errors result in a non-zero exit status and a diagnostic message being written to standard error.

ldap.conf(5), ldapadd(1), ldapmodify(1), ldapmodrdn(1), ldapsearch(1), ldap(3), ldap_delete_ext(3)

The OpenLDAP Project <http://www.openldap.org/>

OpenLDAP Software is developed and maintained by The OpenLDAP Project <http://www.openldap.org/>. OpenLDAP Software is derived from University of Michigan LDAP 3.3 Release.

2011/11/24 OpenLDAP 2.4.28