.TH LDAPDELETE 1 "17 August 1999" "OpenLDAP LDVERSION"
.\" $OpenLDAP$
.\" Copyright 1998-1999 The OpenLDAP Foundation All Rights Reserved.
.\" Copying restrictions apply.  See COPYRIGHT/LICENSE.
.SH NAME
ldapdelete \- LDAP delete entry tool
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B ldapdelete
[\c
.BR \-n ]
[\c
.BR \-v ]
[\c
.BR \-k ]
[\c
.BR \-K ]
[\c
.BR \-c ]
[\c
.BR \-M[M] ]
[\c
.BI \-d \ debuglevel\fR]
[\c
.BI \-f \ file\fR]
[\c
.BI \-D \ binddn\fR]
[\c
.BR \-W ]
[\c
.BI \-w \ passwd\fR]
[\c
.BI \-h \ ldaphost\fR]
[\c
.BI \-P \ 2\fR\||\|\fI3\fR]
[\c
.BI \-p \ ldapport\fR]
[\c
.BR \-E[E] ]
[\c
.BR \-I[I] ]
[\c
.BI \-U \ username\fR]
[\c
.BI \-X \ authzid\fR]
[\c
.BI \-Y \ mech\fR]
[\c
.BR \-Z[Z] ]
[\c
.IR dn ]...
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I ldapdelete
is a shell-accessible interface to the
.BR ldap_delete (3)
library call.
.LP
.B ldapdelete
opens a connection to an LDAP server, binds, and deletes one or more
entries.  If one or more \fIdn\fP arguments are provided, entries with
those Distinguished Names are deleted.  Each \fIdn\fP should be a
string-represented DN as defined in RFC 1779.  If no \fIdn\fP arguments
are provided, a list of DNs is read from standard input (or from
\fIfile\fP if the -f flag is used).
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B \-n
Show what would be done, but don't actually delete entries.  Useful for
debugging in conjunction with -v.
.TP
.B \-v
Use verbose mode, with many diagnostics written to standard output.
.TP
.B \-k
Use Kerberos authentication instead of simple authentication.  It is
assumed that you already have a valid ticket granting ticket. This option
only has effect if
. B ldapdelete
is compiled with KERBEROS defined.
.TP
.B \-K
Same as \-k, but only does step 1 of the kerberos bind.  This is useful
when connecting to a slapd and there is no x500dsa.hostname principal
registered with your kerberos servers.
.TP
.B \-c
Continuous operation mode.  Errors  are  reported,  but
.B ldapdelete
will  continue  with  deletions.   The default is to exit after
reporting an error.
.TP
.B \-M[M]
Enable manage DSA IT control.
.B \-MM
makes control critical.
.TP
.BI \-d \ debuglevel
Set the LDAP debugging level to \fIdebuglevel\fP.
.B ldapdelete
must be compiled with LDAP_DEBUG defined for this option to have any effect.
.TP
.BI \-f \ file
Read a series of lines from \fIfile\fP, performing one LDAP search for
each line.  In this case, the \fIfilter\fP given on the command line
is treated as a pattern where the first occurrence of \fB%s\fP is
replaced with a line from \fIfile\fP.
.TP
.BI \-D \ binddn
Use \fIbinddn\fP to bind to the LDAP directory. \fIbinddn\fP should be
a string-represented DN as defined in RFC 1779.
.TP
.B \-W
Prompt for simple authentication.
This is used instead of specifying the password on the command line.
.TP
.BI \-w \ passwd
Use \fIpasswd\fP as the password for simple authentication.
.TP
.BI \-h \ ldaphost
Specify an alternate host on which the ldap server is running.
.TP
.BI \-p \ ldapport
Specify an alternate TCP port where the ldap server is listening.
.TP
.BI \-P \ 2\fR\||\|\fI3
Specify the LDAP protocol version to use.
.TP
.BI \-r
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.
.TP
.B \-E[E]
Requset the use of SASL privacy (encryption). If the server allows it, data
sent between the client and the server will be encrypted. If the server
requires the use of encryption and this flag is not specified, the command
will fail. If you use
.B \-EE\c
, the command will fail if the server does not support encryption.
.B \-E[E]
implies
.B \-I[I]
.TP
.B \-I[I]
Request the use of SASL integrity checking. It protects data sent between the
client and the server from being modified along the way, but it does not
prevent sniffing. If the server requires the use of integrity checking and
this flag is not specified, the command will fail.If you use
.B \-II\c
, the command will fail if the server does not support this function. 
.TP
.BI \-U \ username
Specify the username for SASL bind. The syntax of the username depends on the
actual SASL mechanism used.
.TP
.BI \-X \ authzid
Specify the requested authorization ID for SASL bind.
.I authzid
must be one of the following formats:
.B dn:\c
.I <distinguished name>
or
.B u:\c
.I <username>
.TP
.BI \-Y \ mech
Specify the SASL mechanism to be used for authentication. If it's not
specified, the program will choose the best mechanism the server knows.
.TP
.B \-Z[Z]
Request the use of TLS (Transport Layer Security). If you use
.B \-ZZ\c
, the command will fail if TLS negotiation does not succeed for some reason.
.SH EXAMPLE
The following command:
.LP
.nf
    ldapdelete "cn=Delete Me, dc=OpenLDAP, dc=org"
.fi
.LP
will attempt to delete the entry named with commonName "Delete Me"
directly below the "dc=OpenLDAP, dc=org" entry.  Of
course it would probably be necessary to supply a \fIbinddn\fP and
\fIpasswd\fP for deletion to be allowed (see the -D and -w options).
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
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.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR ldap.conf (5),
.BR ldapadd (1),
.BR ldapmodify (1),
.BR ldapmodrdn (1),
.BR ldapsearch (1),
.BR ldap (3),
.BR ldap_delete (3)
.LP
Kille, S.,
.IR "A String Representation of Distinguished Names",
.SM RFC
1779,
ISODE Consortium, March 1995.
.SH BUGS
There is no interactive mode, but there probably should be.
.SH ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
.B	OpenLDAP
is developed and maintained by The OpenLDAP Project (http://www.openldap.org/).
.B	OpenLDAP
is derived from University of Michigan LDAP 3.3 Release.