10.1 The Net::LDAP Module

Two widely distributed Perl modules make it easy to write scripts that interact with an LDAP directory. One of these is the PerLDAP module, written by Leif Hedstrom from Netscape Communications (http://www.mozilla.org/directory/perldap.html). However, the last version was released in October of 2000.

A more active project, and the module that I discuss in this chapter, is Graham Barr's perl-ldap module (often referred to as Net::LDAP). The examples in this chapter are based on Version 0.26 of this module. The module's home is located at http://perl-ldap.sourceforge.net/, but it's simpler to get it through the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) at http://search.cpan.org. Before you install Net::LDAP, make sure that the following modules are present:

URI

If you want to parse ldap:// URIs

Digest::MD5

For Base64 encoding

IO::Socket::SSL

For LDAPS and StartTLS support

XML::Parser

To read and write DSML files

Authen::SASL

For SASL authentication support

All of these modules (and any of their requisite modules) can be downloaded from CPAN mirrors. As a convenience, several of these modules have been packaged into a single module named Bundle::Net::LDAP, which can also be download from CPAN.

One of the easiest ways to ensure that all dependencies for a Perl module are met is to use the interactive shell provided by Andreas Koenig's CPAN module. After downloading and installing this module from http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=CPAN, you can learn about its features by executing the command perldoc CPAN.

Programming with the Net::LDAP module is not tricky. You can discover a lot about it by typing the command perldoc Net::LDAP at a shell prompt; additional documentation can be found under Net::LDAP::Examples and Net::LDAP::FAQ.