.TH LDAP_FIRST_REFERENCE 3 "RELEASEDATE" "OpenLDAP LDVERSION"
.\" $OpenLDAP$
.\" Copyright 1998-2021 The OpenLDAP Foundation All Rights Reserved.
.\" Copying restrictions apply.  See COPYRIGHT/LICENSE.
.SH NAME
ldap_first_reference, ldap_next_reference, ldap_count_references \- Stepping through continuation references in a result chain
.SH LIBRARY
OpenLDAP LDAP (libldap, \-lldap)
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.ft B
#include <ldap.h>
.LP
.ft B
int ldap_count_references( LDAP *ld, LDAPMessage *result )
.LP
.ft B
LDAPMessage *ldap_first_reference( LDAP *ld, LDAPMessage *result )
.LP
.ft B
LDAPMessage *ldap_next_reference( LDAP *ld, LDAPMessage *reference )
.SH DESCRIPTION
.LP
These routines are used to step through the continuation references in a
result chain received from
.BR ldap_result (3)
or the synchronous LDAP search operation routines.
.LP
The
.B ldap_first_reference()
routine is used to retrieve the first reference message in a
result chain.  It takes the \fIresult\fP as returned by a call to
.BR ldap_result (3) ,
.BR ldap_search_s (3)
or
.BR ldap_search_st (3)
and returns a pointer to the first reference message in the
result chain.
.LP
This pointer should be supplied on a subsequent call to
.B ldap_next_reference()
to get the next reference message, the result of which should be
supplied to the next call to
.BR ldap_next_reference() ,
etc.
.B ldap_next_reference()
will return NULL when there are no more reference messages.
The reference messages returned from these calls are used by
.BR ldap_parse_reference (3)
to extract referrals and controls.
.LP
A count of the number of reference messages in the search result can be
obtained by calling
.BR ldap_count_references() .
It can also be used to count the number of reference messages remaining
in a result chain.
.SH ERRORS
If an error occurs in
.B ldap_first_reference()
or
.BR ldap_next_reference() ,
NULL is returned.  If an error occurs in
.BR ldap_count_references() ,
-1 is returned.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR ldap (3),
.BR ldap_result (3),
.BR ldap_search (3),
.BR ldap_parse_reference (3)
.SH ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
.so ../Project