The OpenVMS LDAP library uses 64-bit pointers internally and is capable of dealing with data structures allocated by the caller from 64-bit address space. Applications that use 32-bit pointers will use the 32-bit function entry points in the library. This means they can pass arguments that are based on 32-bit pointers and can assume that any pointers returned by the library will be 32-bit safe. While the mapping performed by LDAP.H is designed to be transparent, there may be occasions where it is useful (for example in debugging) to understand the consequences of having both 32- and 64-bit support in the same library.
1 – Library Symbol Names
The symbols exported by the LDAP$SHR OpenVMS run-time library differ from those specified in the IETF C LDAP API specification. The header file LDAP.H maps user references to LDAP API function names to the appropriate LDAP$SHR symbol name. Therefore, any application wishing to use the OpenVMS LDAP API must include the version of LDAP.H that ships with OpenVMS. All of the functions in the OpenVMS LDAP library are prefixed with the facility code "LDAP$". For those functions where the caller's pointer size is significant, the name of the 64-bit entry point will have a "_ 64" suffix, while the name of the 32-bit jacket will have a "_32" suffix. Functions that are not sensitive to pointer size have no special suffix. For example, the function ldap_modify() is sensitive to the caller's pointer size (because one of its arguments is an array of pointers). Therefore, the library exports symbols for LDAP$LDAP_MODIFY_64 and LDAP$LDAP_MODIFY_32. For the function ldap_simple_bind(), which is not sensitive to the caller's pointer size, a single entry point, LDAP$LDAP_SIMPLE_BIND, exists in the library. Because OpenVMS imposes a 31-character limit on the length of symbol names, certain functions in the library have names which are abbreviated versions of the public API name. For example, in the case of the function ldap_parse_sasl_bind_result(), the library provides two entry points, namely LDAP$LDAP_PRS_SASL_ BIND_RES_32 and LDAP$LDAP_PRS_SASL_BIND_RES_64.
2 – LDAP Data Structures
The LDAP API defines various data structures which are used to pass information to and from a client application. Some of these structures are opaque; that is, their internal layout is not visible to a client application. In such cases, the API may return a pointer to such a structure, but the only use of such a pointer to a client application is as a parameter to subsequent library calls. Some structures are public. Their contents are defined by the API, and client applications may allocate and manipulate such structures or use them as parameters to LDAP functions. All data structures used by the API are defined with "natural" alignment; that is, each member of a data structure will be aligned on an address boundary appropriate to its type. Opaque Data Structures The following data structures are opaque. Applications should not make any assumptions about the contents or size of such data structures. typedef struct ldap LDAP; typedef struct ldapmsg LDAPMessage; typedef struct berelement BerElement; Public Data Structures The following data structures are described in the IETF documents relating to the LDAP API, and definitions are provided for them in LDAP.H. Applications may allocate and manipulate such structures, as well as use them in calls to the LDAP API. typedef struct berval { .. } BerValue; typedef struct ldapapiinfo { .. } LDAPAPIInfo; typedef struct ldap_apifeature_info { .. } LDAPAPIFeatureInfo; typedef struct ldapcontrol { .. } LDAPControl; typedef struct ldapmod { .. } LDAPMod; Note that the pointer size in effect at compilation time determines the layout of data structures, which themselves contain pointer fields. Since all of the public data structures listed here contain one or more pointers, their size and layout will differ depending on the pointer size. For example, in the case of the structure berval, the API provides the following definition: struct berval { ber_len_t bv_len; char *bv_val; } BerValue; (where ber_len_t is equivalent on OpenVMS to an unsigned 32-bit integer). The following code would therefore work correctly regardless of pointer size: #include <ldap.h> . . . char *buff; BerValue val; . . . buff = (char *)malloc(255); . . . val.bv_len = 255; val.bv_val = buff; . . .