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SLAPD-META(5)                                                                                  SLAPD-META(5)



NAME
       slapd-meta - metadirectory backend to slapd

SYNOPSIS
       /etc/openldap/slapd.conf

DESCRIPTION
       The  meta  backend  to  slapd(8)  performs  basic  LDAP proxying with respect to a set of remote LDAP
       servers, called "targets".  The information contained in these servers can be presented as  belonging
       to a single Directory Information Tree (DIT).

       A basic knowledge of the functionality of the slapd-ldap(5) backend is recommended.  This backend has
       been designed as an enhancement of the ldap backend.  The two backends share many features  (actually
       they  also  share portions of code).  While the ldap backend is intended to proxy operations directed
       to a single server, the meta backend is mainly intended for proxying of multiple servers and possibly
       naming context masquerading.  These features, although useful in many scenarios, may result in exces-sive excessive
       sive overhead for some applications, so its use should be carefully considered.  In the examples sec-tion, section,
       tion, some typical scenarios will be discussed.


       Note: When looping back to the same instance of slapd(8), each connection requires a new thread; as a
       consequence, slapd(8) must be compiled with thread support, and the threads parameter may  need  some
       tuning; in those cases, unless the multiple target feature is required, one may consider using slapd-relay(5) slapdrelay(5)
       relay(5) instead, which performs the relayed operation internally and thus reuses  the  same  connec-tion. connection.
       tion.


EXAMPLES
       There are examples in various places in this document, as well as in the slapd/back-meta/data/ direc-tory directory
       tory in the OpenLDAP source tree.

CONFIGURATION
       These slapd.conf options apply to the META backend database.  That is, they must follow  a  "database
       meta"  line and come before any subsequent "backend" or "database" lines.  Other database options are
       described in the slapd.conf(5) manual page.

       Note: In early versions of back-ldap and back-meta it was recommended to always set

              lastmod  off

       for ldap and meta databases.  This was required because operational attributes related to entry  cre-ation creation
       ation  and  modification  should  not  be  proxied, as they could be mistakenly written to the target
       server(s), generating an error.  The current implementation automatically sets lastmod to off, so its
       use is redundant and should be omitted.


SPECIAL CONFIGURATION DIRECTIVES
       Target  configuration starts with the "uri" directive.  All the configuration directives that are not
       specific to targets should be defined first for clarity, including those that are common to all back-ends. backends.
       ends.  They are:


       conn-ttl <time>
              This  directive  causes  a  cached  connection  to  be dropped an recreated after a given ttl,
              regardless of being idle or not.


       default-target none
              This directive forces the backend to reject all those operations that must resolve to a single
              target in case none or multiple targets are selected.  They include: add, delete, modify, mod-rdn; modrdn;
              rdn; compare is not included, as well as bind since, as they don't alter entries, in  case  of
              multiple matches an attempt is made to perform the operation on any candidate target, with the
              constraint that at most one must succeed.  This directive can also  be  used  when  processing
              targets to mark a specific target as default.


       dncache-ttl {DISABLED|forever|<ttl>}
              This  directive  sets  the  time-to-live of the DN cache.  This caches the target that holds a
              given DN to speed up target selection in case multiple targets would result from  an  uncached
              search; forever means cache never expires; disabled means no DN caching; otherwise a valid ( >
              0 ) ttl is required, in the format illustrated for the idle-timeout directive.


       onerr {CONTINUE|report|stop}
              This directive allows to select the behavior in case an error is returned by one target during
              a  search.   The  default, continue, consists in continuing the operation, trying to return as
              much data as possible.  If the value is set to stop, the search is terminated as  soon  as  an
              error  is  returned  by one target, and the error is immediately propagated to the client.  If
              the value is set to report, the search is continuated to the end but, in  case  at  least  one
              target returned an error code, the first non-success error code is returned.


       norefs <NO|yes>
              If  yes,  do  not  return  search  reference  responses.  By default, they are returned unless
              request is LDAPv2.  If set before any target specification, it  affects  all  targets,  unless
              overridden by any per-target directive.


       protocol-version {0,2,3}
              This  directive indicates what protocol version must be used to contact the remote server.  If
              set to 0 (the default), the proxy uses the same protocol version used by the client, otherwise
              the  requested protocol is used.  The proxy returns unwillingToPerform if an operation that is
              incompatible with the requested protocol is attempted.  If set before  any  target  specifica-tion, specification,
              tion, it affects all targets, unless overridden by any per-target directive.


       pseudoroot-bind-defer {YES|no}
              This  directive,  when  set  to  yes, causes the authentication to the remote servers with the
              pseudo-root identity to be deferred until actually needed by  subsequent  operations.   Other-wise, Otherwise,
              wise, all binds as the rootdn are propagated to the targets.


       quarantine <interval>,<num>[;<interval>,<num>[...]]
              Turns  on  quarantine  of URIs that returned LDAP_UNAVAILABLE, so that an attempt to reconnect
              only occurs at given intervals instead of any time a client requests an operation.   The  pat-tern pattern
              tern  is:  retry  only after at least interval seconds elapsed since last attempt, for exactly
              num times; then use the next pattern.  If num for the last pattern is "+", it retries forever;
              otherwise, no more retries occur.  This directive must appear before any target specification;
              it affects all targets with the same pattern.


       rebind-as-user {NO|yes}
              If this option is given, the client's bind credentials are remembered for rebinds, when trying
              to  re-establish a broken connection, or when chasing a referral, if chase-referrals is set to
              yes.


       session-tracking-request {NO|yes}
              Adds session tracking control for all requests.  The client's IP and hostname, and  the  iden-tity identity
              tity  associated  to  each  request, if known, are sent to the remote server for informational
              purposes.  This directive is incompatible with setting protocol-version to 2.  If  set  before
              any  target  specification, it affects all targets, unless overridden by any per-target direc-tive. directive.
              tive.


       single-conn {NO|yes}
              Discards current cached connection when the client rebinds.


       use-temporary-conn {NO|yes}
              when set to yes, create a temporary connection whenever competing with  other  threads  for  a
              shared one; otherwise, wait until the shared connection is available.


TARGET SPECIFICATION
       Target specification starts with a "uri" directive:


       uri <protocol>://[<host>]/<naming context> [...]
              The  <protocol>  part can be anything ldap_initialize(3) accepts ({ldap|ldaps|ldapi} and vari-ants); variants);
              ants); the <host> may be omitted, defaulting to whatever is set in ldap.conf(5).  The  <naming
              context>  part  is mandatory for the first URI, but it must be omitted for subsequent ones, if
              any.  The naming context part must be within the naming context defined for the backend, e.g.:

              suffix "dc=foo,dc=com"
              uri    "ldap://x.foo.com/dc=x,dc=foo,dc=com"

              The  <naming context> part doesn't need to be unique across the targets; it may also match one
              of the values of the "suffix" directive.  Multiple URIs may be defined in a single URI  state-ment. statement.
              ment.   The  additional URIs must be separate arguments and must not have any <naming context>
              part.  This causes the underlying library to  contact  the  first  server  of  the  list  that
              responds.   For  example,  if  l1.foo.com  and  l2.foo.com are shadows of the same server, the
              directive

              suffix "dc=foo,dc=com"
              uri    "ldap://l1.foo.com/dc=foo,dc=com" "ldap://l2.foo.com/"

              causes l2.foo.com to be contacted whenever l1.foo.com does not respond.  In that case, the URI
              list  is internally rearranged, by moving unavailable URIs to the end, so that further connec-tion connection
              tion attempts occur with respect to the last URI that succeeded.


       acl-authcDN <administrative DN for access control purposes>
              DN which is used to query the target server for acl checking, as in the LDAP  backend;  it  is
              supposed  to  have  read  access  on the target server to attributes used on the proxy for acl
              checking.  There is no risk of giving away such values; they are only used  to  check  permis-sions. permissions.
              sions.   The  acl-authcDN identity is by no means implicitly used by the proxy when the client
              connects anonymously.


       acl-passwd <password>
              Password used with the acl-authcDN above.


       bind-timeout <microseconds>
              This directive defines the timeout, in microseconds, used when polling for response  after  an
              asynchronous  bind  connection.  The initial call to ldap_result(3) is performed with a trade-off tradeoff
              off timeout of 100000 us; if that results in a timeout  exceeded,  subsequent  calls  use  the
              value  provided  with  bind-timeout.   The  default value is used also for subsequent calls if
              bind-timeout is not specified.  If set before any target specification, it  affects  all  tar-gets, targets,
              gets, unless overridden by any per-target directive.


       chase-referrals {YES|no}
              enable/disable  automatic referral chasing, which is delegated to the underlying libldap, with
              rebinding eventually performed if the rebind-as-user directive is used.   The  default  is  to
              chase referrals.  If set before any target specification, it affects all targets, unless over-ridden overridden
              ridden by any per-target directive.


       default-target [<target>]
              The "default-target" directive can also be used during target specification.   With  no  argu-ments arguments
              ments  it  marks the current target as the default.  The optional number marks target <target>
              as the default one, starting from 1.  Target <target> must be defined.


       idassert-authzFrom <authz-regexp>
              if defined, selects what local identities are authorized to  exploit  the  identity  assertion
              feature.   The  string  <authz-regexp>  follows the rules defined for the authzFrom attribute.
              See slapd.conf(5), section related to authz-policy, for details on the syntax of this field.


       idassert-bind  bindmethod=none|simple|sasl  [binddn=<simple  DN>]   [credentials=<simple   password>]
              [saslmech=<SASL  mech>]  [secprops=<properties>] [realm=<realm>] [authcId=<authentication ID>]
              [authzId=<authorization   ID>]   [authz={native|proxyauthz}]   [mode=<mode>]   [flags=<flags>]
              [tls_cert=<file>]       [tls_key=<file>]       [tls_cacert=<file>]      [tls_cacertdir=<path>]
              [tls_reqcert=never|allow|try|demand] [tls_ciphersuite=<ciphers>] [tls_crlcheck=none|peer|all]
              Allows to define the parameters of the authentication method that is internally  used  by  the
              proxy  to  authorize  connections  that  are  authenticated  by other databases.  The identity
              defined by this directive, according  to  the  properties  associated  to  the  authentication
              method,  is  supposed to have auth access on the target server to attributes used on the proxy
              for authentication and authorization, and to be allowed to authorize the users.  This requires
              to  have  proxyAuthz  privileges  on  a  wide set of DNs, e.g.  authzTo=dn.subtree:"", and the
              remote server to have authz-policy set to to or both.  See slapd.conf(5) for details on  these
              statements and for remarks and drawbacks about their usage.  The supported bindmethods are

              none|simple|sasl

              where none is the default, i.e. no identity assertion is performed.

              The authz parameter is used to instruct the SASL bind to exploit native SASL authorization, if
              available; since connections are cached, this should only be  used  when  authorizing  with  a
              fixed  identity  (e.g. by means of the authzDN or authzID parameters).  Otherwise, the default
              proxyauthz is used, i.e. the proxyAuthz control (Proxied Authorization, RFC 4370) is added  to
              all operations.

              The supported modes are:

              <mode> := {legacy|anonymous|none|self}

              If  <mode>  is  not  present, and authzId is given, the proxy always authorizes that identity.
              <authorization ID> can be

              u:<user>

              [dn:]<DN>

              The former is supposed to be expanded by the remote server according to the authz  rules;  see
              slapd.conf(5)  for details.  In the latter case, whether or not the dn: prefix is present, the
              string must pass DN validation and normalization.

              The default mode is legacy, which implies that the proxy will either perform a simple bind  as
              the  authcDN  or  a  SASL  bind as the authcID and assert the client's identity when it is not
              anonymous.  Direct binds are always proxied.  The other modes imply that the proxy will always
              either  perform  a simple bind as the authcDN or a SASL bind as the authcID, unless restricted
              by idassert-authzFrom rules (see below), in which case the operation will fail; eventually, it
              will  assert  some  other  identity  according  to <mode>.  Other identity assertion modes are
              anonymous and self, which respectively mean that the empty or the client's  identity  will  be
              asserted;  none,  which  means  that no proxyAuthz control will be used, so the authcDN or the
              authcID identity will be asserted.  For all modes that  require  the  use  of  the  proxyAuthz
              control, on the remote server the proxy identity must have appropriate authzTo permissions, or
              the asserted identities must have appropriate authzFrom permissions.  Note, however, that  the
              ID  assertion feature is mostly useful when the asserted identities do not exist on the remote
              server.

              Flags can be

              override,[non-]prescriptive

              When the override flag is used, identity assertion takes  place  even  when  the  database  is
              authorizing for the identity of the client, i.e. after binding with the provided identity, and
              thus authenticating it, the  proxy  performs  the  identity  assertion  using  the  configured
              identity and authentication method.

              When    the    prescriptive    flag    is   used   (the   default),   operations   fail   with
              inappropriateAuthentication for those  identities  whose  assertion  is  not  allowed  by  the
              idassert-authzFrom  patterns.   If the non-prescriptive flag is used, operations are performed
              anonymously for those identities whose assertion is  not  allowed  by  the  idassert-authzFrom
              patterns.

              The  TLS  settings  default to the same as the main slapd TLS settings, except for tls_reqcert
              which defaults to "demand".

              The identity associated to this directive is also  used  for  privileged  operations  whenever
              idassert-bind is defined and acl-bind is not.  See acl-bind for details.


       idle-timeout <time>
              This  directive  causes  a cached connection to be dropped an recreated after it has been idle
              for the specified time.  The value can be specified as

              [<d>d][<h>h][<m>m][<s>[s]]

              where <d>, <h>, <m> and <s> are respectively treated as days, hours, minutes and seconds.   If
              set  before  any  target  specification, it affects all targets, unless overridden by any per-target pertarget
              target directive.


       map {attribute|objectclass} [<local name>|*] {<foreign name>|*}
              This maps object classes and attributes as in the LDAP backend.  See slapd-ldap(5).


       network-timeout <time>
              Sets the network timeout value after which poll(2)/select(2) following a connect(2) returns in
              case  of  no  activity.  The value is in seconds, and it can be specified as for idle-timeout.
              If set before any target specification, it affects all targets, unless overridden by any  per-target pertarget
              target directive.


       nretries {forever|never|<nretries>}
              This directive defines how many times a bind should be retried in case of temporary failure in
              contacting a target.  If defined before any target specification, it applies  to  all  targets
              (by  default, 3 times); the global value can be overridden by redefinitions inside each target
              specification.


       pseudorootdn <substitute DN in case of rootdn bind>
              This directive, if present, sets the DN that will be substituted to the bind DN if a bind with
              the backend's "rootdn" succeeds.  The true "rootdn" of the target server ought not be used; an
              arbitrary administrative DN should used instead.


       pseudorootpw <substitute password in case of rootdn bind>
              This directive sets the credential that will be  used  in  case  a  bind  with  the  backend's
              "rootdn" succeeds, and the bind is propagated to the target using the "pseudorootdn" DN.

              Note:   cleartext   credentials   must   be   supplied  here;  as  a  consequence,  using  the
              pseudorootdn/pseudorootpw directives is inherently unsafe.


       rewrite* ...
              The rewrite options are described in the "REWRITING" section.


       subtree-exclude <DN>
              This directive instructs back-meta to ignore the current target for operations whose requestDN
              is  subordinate to DN.  There may be multiple occurrences of the subtree-exclude directive for
              each of the targets.


       suffixmassage <virtual naming context> <real naming context>
              All the directives starting with "rewrite" refer to the rewrite engine that has been added  to
              slapd.   The  "suffixmassage"  directive  was  introduced  in the LDAP backend to allow suffix
              massaging while proxying.  It has been obsoleted by the rewriting tools.   However,  both  for
              backward  compatibility  and for ease of configuration when simple suffix massage is required,
              it has been preserved.   It  wraps  the  basic  rewriting  instructions  that  perform  suffix
              massaging.  See the "REWRITING" section for a detailed list of the rewrite rules it implies.


       t-f-support {NO|yes|discover}
              enable  if  the  remote  server  supports  absolute  filters  (see draft-zeilenga-ldap-t-f for
              details).  If set to discover, support is detected by reading the remote  server's  root  DSE.
              If  set before any target specification, it affects all targets, unless overridden by any per-target pertarget
              target directive.


       timeout [<op>=]<val> [...]
              This directive allows to set per-operation timeouts.  Operations can be

              <op> ::= bind, add, delete, modrdn, modify, compare, search

              The overall duration of the search operation is controlled either by the  timelimit  parameter
              or  by  server-side  enforced  time  limits  (see  timelimit  and  limits in slapd.conf(5) for
              details).  This timeout parameter controls how long the target can be irresponsive before  the
              operation  is  aborted.   Timeout  is  meaningless  for  the  remaining operations, unbind and
              abandon, which do not imply any response,  while  it  is  not  yet  implemented  in  currently
              supported  extended  operations.   If  no  operation is specified, the timeout val affects all
              supported operations.  If specified before any  target  definition,  it  affects  all  targets
              unless overridden by per-target directives.

              Note:  if  the  timeout  is  exceeded,  the  operation  is  cancelled (according to the cancel
              directive); the protocol does not provide any means to rollback operations, so the client will
              not  be notified about the result of the operation, which may eventually succeeded or not.  In
              case the timeout is exceeded during a bind operation, the connection is  destroyed,  according
              to RFC4511.


       tls {[try-]start|[try-]propagate}
              execute  the StartTLS extended operation when the connection is initialized; only works if the
              URI directive protocol scheme is not ldaps://.  propagate issues the StartTLS  operation  only
              if the original connection did.  The try- prefix instructs the proxy to continue operations if
              the StartTLS operation failed; its use  is  highly  deprecated.   If  set  before  any  target
              specification, it affects all targets, unless overridden by any per-target directive.


SCENARIOS
       A  powerful  (and  in  some  sense dangerous) rewrite engine has been added to both the LDAP and Meta
       backends.  While the former can gain limited beneficial effects from rewriting stuff, the latter  can
       become an amazingly powerful tool.

       Consider a couple of scenarios first.

       1)  Two  directory  servers  share  two  levels  of  naming  context;  say  "dc=a,dc=foo,dc=com"  and
       "dc=b,dc=foo,dc=com".  Then, an unambiguous Meta database can be configured as:

              database meta
              suffix   "dc=foo,dc=com"
              uri      "ldap://a.foo.com/dc=a,dc=foo,dc=com"
              uri      "ldap://b.foo.com/dc=b,dc=foo,dc=com"

       Operations directed to a specific target can be easily resolved because  there  are  no  ambiguities.
       The  only  operation  that  may resolve to multiple targets is a search with base "dc=foo,dc=com" and
       scope at least "one", which results in spawning two searches to the targets.

       2a) Two directory servers don't share any portion of naming context, but they'd present as  a  single
       DIT [Caveat: uniqueness of (massaged) entries among the two servers is assumed; integrity checks risk
       to incur in excessive overhead and have not been  implemented].   Say  we  have  "dc=bar,dc=org"  and
       "o=Foo,c=US",  and  we'd like them to appear as branches of "dc=foo,dc=com", say "dc=a,dc=foo,dc=com"
       and "dc=b,dc=foo,dc=com".  Then we need to configure our Meta backend as:

              database      meta
              suffix        "dc=foo,dc=com"

              uri           "ldap://a.bar.com/dc=a,dc=foo,dc=com"
              suffixmassage "dc=a,dc=foo,dc=com" "dc=bar,dc=org"

              uri           "ldap://b.foo.com/dc=b,dc=foo,dc=com"
              suffixmassage "dc=b,dc=foo,dc=com" "o=Foo,c=US"

       Again, operations can be resolved without ambiguity, although some  rewriting  is  required.   Notice
       that  the  virtual  naming context of each target is a branch of the database's naming context; it is
       rewritten back and forth when operations are performed towards the target servers.   What  "back  and
       forth" means will be clarified later.

       When  a  search with base "dc=foo,dc=com" is attempted, if the scope is "base" it fails with "no such
       object"; in fact, the common root of the two targets (prior to massaging) does  not  exist.   If  the
       scope is "one", both targets are contacted with the base replaced by each target's base; the scope is
       derated to "base".  In general, a scope "one" search is honored, and the scope is derated, only  when
       the incoming base is at most one level lower of a target's naming context (prior to massaging).

       Finally,  if  the  scope  is  "sub"  the incoming base is replaced by each target's unmassaged naming
       context, and the scope is not altered.

       2b) Consider the above reported scenario with the two servers sharing the same naming context:

              database      meta
              suffix        "dc=foo,dc=com"

              uri           "ldap://a.bar.com/dc=foo,dc=com"
              suffixmassage "dc=foo,dc=com" "dc=bar,dc=org"

              uri           "ldap://b.foo.com/dc=foo,dc=com"
              suffixmassage "dc=foo,dc=com" "o=Foo,c=US"

       All the previous considerations hold, except that now there is no way to unambiguously resolve a  DN.
       In this case, all the operations that require an unambiguous target selection will fail unless the DN
       is already cached or a default target has  been  set.   Practical  configurations  may  result  as  a
       combination of all the above scenarios.

ACLs
       Note on ACLs: at present you may add whatever ACL rule you desire to to the Meta (and LDAP) backends.
       However, the meaning of an ACL on a proxy may require some considerations.  Two philosophies  may  be
       considered:

       a)  the  remote  server  dictates the permissions; the proxy simply passes back what it gets from the
       remote server.

       b) the remote server unveils  "everything";  the  proxy  is  responsible  for  protecting  data  from
       unauthorized access.

       Of  course  the  latter  sounds  unreasonable, but it is not.  It is possible to imagine scenarios in
       which a remote host discloses data that can be considered "public" inside an intranet,  and  a  proxy
       that  connects  it  to  the  internet  may impose additional constraints.  To this purpose, the proxy
       should be able to comply with all the ACL matching criteria that the server supports.  This has  been
       achieved with regard to all the criteria supported by slapd except a special subtle case (please drop
       me a note if you can find other exceptions: <ando@openldap.org>).  The rule

              access to dn="<dn>" attrs=<attr>
                     by dnattr=<dnattr> read
                     by * none

       cannot be matched iff the attribute that is  being  requested,  <attr>,  is  NOT  <dnattr>,  and  the
       attribute that determines membership, <dnattr>, has not been requested (e.g. in a search)

       In  fact this ACL is resolved by slapd using the portion of entry it retrieved from the remote server
       without requiring any further intervention of the backend, so, if the <dnattr> attribute has not been
       fetched,  the  match  cannot  be  assessed because the attribute is not present, not because no value
       matches the requirement!

       Note on ACLs and attribute mapping: ACLs are applied to the mapped attributes; for instance,  if  the
       attribute  locally  known  as  "foo"  is mapped to "bar" on a remote server, then local ACLs apply to
       attribute "foo" and are totally unaware of its remote name.  The remote server will check permissions
       for "bar", and the local server will possibly enforce additional restrictions to "foo".

REWRITING
       A  string  is rewritten according to a set of rules, called a `rewrite context'.  The rules are based
       on  POSIX  (''extended'')  regular  expressions  (regex)  with  substring  matching;  basic  variable
       substitution  and  map  resolution  of  substrings  is allowed by specific mechanisms detailed in the
       following.  The behavior of pattern matching/substitution can be altered by a set of flags.

       The underlying concept is to build a lightweight rewrite  module  for  the  slapd  server  (initially
       dedicated to the LDAP backend).

Passes
       An  incoming  string  is  matched against a set of rules.  Rules are made of a regex match pattern, a
       substitution pattern and a set of actions, described by a set of flags.  In case of  match  a  string
       rewriting  is  performed  according  to  the  substitution pattern that allows to refer to substrings
       matched in the incoming string.  The actions,  if  any,  are  finally  performed.   The  substitution
       pattern  allows  map  resolution  of  substrings.  A map is a generic object that maps a substitution
       pattern to a value.  The flags are divided in "Pattern matching Flags" and "Action Flags"; the former
       alter  the  regex  match  pattern  behavior  while  the  latter  alter the action that is taken after
       substitution.

Pattern Matching Flags
       `C'    honors case in matching (default is case insensitive)

       `R'    use POSIX ''basic'' regular expressions (default is ''extended'')

       `M{n}' allow no more than n recursive passes for a specific rule; does not alter the max total  count
              of passes, so it can only enforce a stricter limit for a specific rule.

Action Flags
       `:'    apply the rule once only (default is recursive)

       `@'    stop  applying  rules in case of match; the current rule is still applied recursively; combine
              with `:' to apply the current rule only once and then stop.

       `#'    stop current operation if the rule matches, and issue an `unwilling to perform' error.

       `G{n}' jump n rules back and forth (watch for loops!).  Note that `G{1}' is implicit in every rule.

       `I'    ignores errors in rule; this means, in case of error, e.g. issued  by  a  map,  the  error  is
              treated as a missed match.  The `unwilling to perform' is not overridden.

       `U{n}' uses  n  as return code if the rule matches; the flag does not alter the recursive behavior of
              the rule, so, to have it performed only once, it must be used in combination  with  `:',  e.g.
              `:U{16}'  returns  the  value  `16'  after  exactly  one execution of the rule, if the pattern
              matches.  As a consequence, its behavior is equivalent to `@', with the return code set to  n;
              or,  in  other  words, `@' is equivalent to `U{0}'.  By convention, the freely available codes
              are above 16 included; the others are reserved.

       The ordering of the flags can be significant.  For instance: `IG{2}' means ignore errors and jump two
       lines  ahead  both in case of match and in case of error, while `G{2}I' means ignore errors, but jump
       two lines ahead only in case of match.

       More flags (mainly Action Flags) will be added as needed.

Pattern matching:
       See regex(7) and/or re_format(7).

Substitution Pattern Syntax:
       Everything starting with `%' requires substitution;

       the only obvious exception is `%%', which is left as is;

       the basic substitution is `%d', where `d' is a digit; 0 means  the  whole  string,  while  1-9  is  a
       submatch;

       a `%' followed by a `{' invokes an advanced substitution.  The pattern is:

              `%' `{' [ <op> ] <name> `(' <substitution> `)' `}'

       where <name> must be a legal name for the map, i.e.

              <name> ::= [a-z][a-z0-9]* (case insensitive)
              <op> ::= `>' `|' `&' `&&' `*' `**' `$'

       and <substitution> must be a legal substitution pattern, with no limits on the nesting level.

       The operators are:

       >      sub context invocation; <name> must be a legal, already defined rewrite context name

       |      external  command  invocation; <name> must refer to a legal, already defined command name (NOT
              IMPL.)

       &      variable assignment; <name> defines a variable in the running operation structure which can be
              dereferenced  later;  operator  & assigns a variable in the rewrite context scope; operator &&
              assigns a variable that scopes the entire session, e.g. its value can be dereferenced later by
              other rewrite contexts

       *      variable  dereferencing;  <name> must refer to a variable that is defined and assigned for the
              running operation; operator * dereferences a variable scoping the rewrite context; operator **
              dereferences  a  variable  scoping  the whole session, e.g. the value is passed across rewrite
              contexts

       $      parameter dereferencing; <name> must refer to an existing parameter; the idea is to make  some
              run-time  parameters  set  by  the  system available to the rewrite engine, as the client host
              name, the bind DN if any, constant parameters initialized  at  config  time,  and  so  on;  no
              parameter  is  currently  set by either back-ldap or back-meta, but constant parameters can be
              defined in the configuration file by using the rewriteParam directive.

       Substitution escaping has been delegated to the `%' symbol, which is used instead of  `\'  in  string
       substitution  patterns  because  `\'  is  already escaped by slapd's low level parsing routines; as a
       consequence, regex escaping requires  two  `\'  symbols,  e.g.  `.*\.foo\.bar'  must  be  written  as
       `.*\\.foo\\.bar'.

Rewrite context:
       A  rewrite  context  is  a  set of rules which are applied in sequence.  The basic idea is to have an
       application initialize a rewrite engine (think of Apache's mod_rewrite ...) with  a  set  of  rewrite
       contexts;  when  string  rewriting  is required, one invokes the appropriate rewrite context with the
       input string and obtains the newly rewritten one if no errors occur.

       Each basic server operation is associated to a rewrite context; they are divided in two main  groups:
       client -> server and server -> client rewriting.

       client -> server:

              (default)            if defined and no specific context
                                   is available
              bindDN               bind
              searchBase           search
              searchFilter         search
              searchFilterAttrDN   search
              compareDN            compare
              compareAttrDN        compare AVA
              addDN                add
              addAttrDN            add AVA
              modifyDN             modify
              modifyAttrDN         modify AVA
              modrDN               modrdn
              newSuperiorDN        modrdn
              deleteDN             delete
              exopPasswdDN         password modify extended operation DN if proxy

       server -> client:

              searchResult         search (only if defined; no default;
                                   acts on DN and DN-syntax attributes
                                   of search results)
              searchAttrDN         search AVA
              matchedDN            all ops (only if applicable)


Basic configuration syntax
       rewriteEngine { on | off }
              If `on', the requested rewriting is performed; if `off', no rewriting takes place (an easy way
              to stop rewriting without altering too much the configuration file).

       rewriteContext <context name> [ alias <aliased context name> ]
              <Context name> is the name that identifies the context, i.e. the name used by the  application
              to refer to the set of rules it contains.  It is used also to reference sub contexts in string
              rewriting.  A context may alias another one.  In this case the alias context contains no rule,
              and any reference to it will result in accessing the aliased one.

       rewriteRule <regex match pattern> <substitution pattern> [ <flags> ]
              Determines  how  a  string  can  be  rewritten if a pattern is matched.  Examples are reported
              below.

Additional configuration syntax:
       rewriteMap <map type> <map name> [ <map attrs> ]
              Allows to define a map that transforms substring rewriting into something else.   The  map  is
              referenced inside the substitution pattern of a rule.

       rewriteParam <param name> <param value>
              Sets a value with global scope, that can be dereferenced by the command `%{$paramName}'.

       rewriteMaxPasses <number of passes> [<number of passes per rule>]
              Sets  the  maximum  number of total rewriting passes that can be performed in a single rewrite
              operation (to avoid loops).  A safe default is set to 100; note that reaching  this  limit  is
              still  treated  as  a success; recursive invocation of rules is simply interrupted.  The count
              applies to the rewriting operation as a whole, not to any single rule;  an  optional  per-rule
              limit  can  be  set.   This  limit  is overridden by setting specific per-rule limits with the
              `M{n}' flag.

Configuration examples:
       # set to `off' to disable rewriting
       rewriteEngine on

       # the rules the "suffixmassage" directive implies
       rewriteEngine on
       # all dataflow from client to server referring to DNs
       rewriteContext default
       rewriteRule "(.*)<virtualnamingcontext>$" "%1<realnamingcontext>" ":"
       # empty filter rule
       rewriteContext searchFilter
       # all dataflow from server to client
       rewriteContext searchResult
       rewriteRule "(.*)<realnamingcontext>$" "%1<virtualnamingcontext>" ":"
       rewriteContext searchAttrDN alias searchResult
       rewriteContext matchedDN alias searchResult

       # Everything defined here goes into the `default' context.
       # This rule changes the naming context of anything sent
       # to `dc=home,dc=net' to `dc=OpenLDAP, dc=org'

       rewriteRule "(.*)dc=home,[ ]?dc=net"
                   "%1dc=OpenLDAP, dc=org"  ":"

       # since a pretty/normalized DN does not include spaces
       # after rdn separators, e.g. `,', this rule suffices:

       rewriteRule "(.*)dc=home,dc=net"
                   "%1dc=OpenLDAP,dc=org"  ":"

       # Start a new context (ends input of the previous one).
       # This rule adds blanks between DN parts if not present.
       rewriteContext  addBlanks
       rewriteRule     "(.*),([^ ].*)" "%1, %2"

       # This one eats blanks
       rewriteContext  eatBlanks
       rewriteRule     "(.*),[ ](.*)" "%1,%2"

       # Here control goes back to the default rewrite
       # context; rules are appended to the existing ones.
       # anything that gets here is piped into rule `addBlanks'
       rewriteContext  default
       rewriteRule     ".*" "%{>addBlanks(%0)}" ":"

       # Rewrite the search base according to `default' rules.
       rewriteContext  searchBase alias default

       # Search results with OpenLDAP DN are rewritten back with
       # `dc=home,dc=net' naming context, with spaces eaten.
       rewriteContext  searchResult
       rewriteRule     "(.*[^ ]?)[ ]?dc=OpenLDAP,[ ]?dc=org"
                       "%{>eatBlanks(%1)}dc=home,dc=net"    ":"

       # Bind with email instead of full DN: we first need
       # an ldap map that turns attributes into a DN (the
       # argument used when invoking the map is appended to
       # the URI and acts as the filter portion)
       rewriteMap ldap attr2dn "ldap://host/dc=my,dc=org?dn?sub"

       # Then we need to detect DN made up of a single email,
       # e.g. `mail=someone@example.com'; note that the rule
       # in case of match stops rewriting; in case of error,
       # it is ignored.  In case we are mapping virtual
       # to real naming contexts, we also need to rewrite
       # regular DNs, because the definition of a bindDn
       # rewrite context overrides the default definition.
       rewriteContext bindDN
       rewriteRule "^mail=[^,]+@[^,]+$" "%{attr2dn(%0)}" ":@I"

       # This is a rather sophisticated example. It massages a
       # search filter in case who performs the search has
       # administrative privileges.  First we need to keep
       # track of the bind DN of the incoming request, which is
       # stored in a variable called `binddn' with session scope,
       # and left in place to allow regular binding:
       rewriteContext  bindDN
       rewriteRule     ".+" "%{&&binddn(%0)}%0" ":"

       # A search filter containing `uid=' is rewritten only
       # if an appropriate DN is bound.
       # To do this, in the first rule the bound DN is
       # dereferenced, while the filter is decomposed in a
       # prefix, in the value of the `uid=<arg>' AVA, and
       # in a suffix. A tag `<>' is appended to the DN.
       # If the DN refers to an entry in the `ou=admin' subtree,
       # the filter is rewritten OR-ing the `uid=<arg>' with
       # `cn=<arg>'; otherwise it is left as is. This could be
       # useful, for instance, to allow apache's auth_ldap-1.4
       # module to authenticate users with both `uid' and
       # `cn', but only if the request comes from a possible
       # `cn=Web auth,ou=admin,dc=home,dc=net' user.
       rewriteContext searchFilter
       rewriteRule "(.*\\()uid=([a-z0-9_]+)(\\).*)"
         "%{**binddn}<>%{&prefix(%1)}%{&arg(%2)}%{&suffix(%3)}"
         ":I"
       rewriteRule "[^,]+,ou=admin,dc=home,dc=net"
         "%{*prefix}|(uid=%{*arg})(cn=%{*arg})%{*suffix}" ":@I"
       rewriteRule ".*<>" "%{*prefix}uid=%{*arg}%{*suffix}" ":"

       # This example shows how to strip unwanted DN-valued
       # attribute values from a search result; the first rule
       # matches DN values below "ou=People,dc=example,dc=com";
       # in case of match the rewriting exits successfully.
       # The second rule matches everything else and causes
       # the value to be rejected.
       rewriteContext searchResult
       rewriteRule ".*,ou=People,dc=example,dc=com" "%0" ":@"
       rewriteRule ".*" "" "#"

LDAP Proxy resolution (a possible evolution of slapd-ldap(5)):
       In case the rewritten DN is an LDAP URI, the operation is initiated towards the host[:port] indicated
       in the uri, if it does not refer to the local server.  E.g.:

         rewriteRule '^cn=root,.*' '%0'                     'G{3}'
         rewriteRule '^cn=[a-l].*' 'ldap://ldap1.my.org/%0' ':@'
         rewriteRule '^cn=[m-z].*' 'ldap://ldap2.my.org/%0' ':@'
         rewriteRule '.*'          'ldap://ldap3.my.org/%0' ':@'

       (Rule 1 is simply there to illustrate the `G{n}' action; it could have been written:

         rewriteRule '^cn=root,.*' 'ldap://ldap3.my.org/%0' ':@'

       with the advantage of saving one rewrite pass ...)


ACCESS CONTROL
       The  meta  backend  does  not  honor  all ACL semantics as described in slapd.access(5).  In general,
       access checking is delegated to the remote server(s).  Only read (=r) access  to  the  entry  pseudo-attribute pseudoattribute
       attribute  and  to  the  other  attribute  values  of the entries returned by the search operation is
       honored, which is performed by the frontend.


PROXY CACHE OVERLAY
       The proxy cache overlay allows caching of LDAP search requests (queries) in a  local  database.   See
       slapo-pcache(5) for details.

FILES
       /etc/openldap/slapd.conf
              default slapd configuration file

SEE ALSO
       slapd.conf(5), slapd-ldap(5), slapo-pcache(5), slapd(8), regex(7), re_format(7).

AUTHOR
       Pierangelo Masarati, based on back-ldap by Howard Chu



OpenLDAP 2.4.11                                  2008/07/16                                    SLAPD-META(5)

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