+.B limits <who> <limit> [<limit> [...]]
+Specify time and size limits based on who initiated an operation.
+The argument
+.B who
+can be any of
+.RS
+.RS
+.TP
+anonymous | users | [dn[.<style>]=]<pattern>
+
+.RE
+with
+.RS
+.TP
+<style> ::= exact | base | one | subtree | children | regex | anonymous
+
+.RE
+.B Anonymous
+is hit when a search is performed without prior binding;
+.B users
+is hit when a search is performed by a successfully bound user;
+otherwise a
+.B regex
+dn pattern is assumed unless otherwise specified by qualifying
+the (optional) key string
+.B dn
+with
+.B exact
+or
+.B base
+(which are synonims), to require an exact match; with
+.BR one,
+to require exactly one level of depth match; with
+.BR subtree,
+to allow any level of depth match, including the exact match; with
+.BR children,
+to allow any level of depth match, not including the exact match;
+.BR regex
+explicitly requires the (default) match based on regular expression
+pattern, as detailed in
+.BR regex(7).
+Finally,
+.B anonymous
+matches unbound operations; the
+.B pattern
+field is ignored.
+The same behavior is obtained by using the
+.B anonymous
+form of the
+.B who
+clause.
+
+The currently supported limits are
+.B size
+and
+.BR time.
+
+The syntax for time limits is
+.BR time[.{soft|hard}]=<integer> ,
+where
+.BR integer
+is the number of seconds slapd will spend answering a search request.
+If no time limit is explicitly requested by the client, the
+.BR soft
+limit is used; if the requested time limit exceedes the
+.BR hard
+limit, an "Unwilling to perform" is returned.
+If the
+.BR hard
+limit is set to 0 or to the keyword "soft", the soft limit is used
+in either case; if it is set to -1 or to the keyword "none",
+no hard limit is enforced.
+Explicit requests for time limits smaller or equal to the
+.BR hard
+limit are honored.
+If no flag is set, the value is assigned to the
+.BR soft
+limit, and the
+.BR hard
+limit is set to zero, to preserve the original behavior.
+
+The syntax for size limits is
+.BR size[.{soft|hard|unchecked}]=<integer> ,
+where
+.BR integer
+is the maximum number of entries slapd will return answering a search
+request.
+If no size limit is explicitly requested by the client, the
+.BR soft
+limit is used; if the requested size limit exceedes the
+.BR hard
+limit, an "Unwilling to perform" is returned.
+If the
+.BR hard
+limit is set to 0 or to the keyword "soft", the soft limit is used
+in either case; if it is set to -1 or to the keyword "none",
+no hard limit is enforced.
+Explicit requests for size limits smaller or equal to the
+.BR hard
+limit are honored.
+The
+.BR unchecked
+flag sets a limit on the number of candidates a search request is allowed
+to examine.
+If the selected candidates exceed the
+.BR unchecked
+limit, the search will abort with "Unwilling to perform".
+If it is set to -1 or to the keyword "none", no limit is applied (the default).
+If no flag is set, the value is assigned to the
+.BR soft
+limit, and the
+.BR hard
+limit is set to zero, to preserve the original behavior.
+
+In case of no match, the global limits are used.
+The default values are the same of
+.BR sizelimit
+and
+.BR timelimit ;
+no limit is set on
+.BR unchecked .
+This feature is currently exploited by the ldbm backend only.
+.RE
+.TP