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LBER_ENCODE(3)                                                                                LBER_ENCODE(3)



NAME
       ber_alloc_t,  ber_flush,  ber_printf,  ber_put_int,  ber_put_enum,  ber_put_ostring,  ber_put_string,
       ber_put_null,  ber_put_boolean,   ber_put_bitstring,   ber_start_seq,   ber_start_set,   ber_put_seq,
       ber_put_set - LBER simplified Basic Encoding Rules library routines for encoding

LIBRARY
       OpenLDAP LBER (liblber, -llber)

SYNOPSIS
       #include <lber.h>

       BerElement *ber_alloc_t(int options);

       int ber_flush(Sockbuf *sb, BerElement *ber, int freeit);

       int ber_printf(BerElement *ber, const char *fmt, ...);

       int ber_put_int(BerElement *ber, ber_int_t num, ber_tag_t tag);

       int ber_put_enum(BerElement *ber, ber_int_t num, ber_tag_t tag);

       int ber_put_ostring(BerElement *ber, const char *str, ber_len_t len, ber_tag_t tag);

       int ber_put_string(BerElement *ber, const char *str, ber_tag_t tag);

       int ber_put_null(BerElement *ber, ber_tag_t tag);

       int ber_put_boolean(BerElement *ber, ber_int_t bool, ber_tag_t tag);

       int ber_put_bitstring(BerElement *ber, const char *str, ber_len_t blen, ber_tag_t tag);

       int ber_start_seq(BerElement *ber, ber_tag_t tag);

       int ber_start_set(BerElement *ber, ber_tag_t tag);

       int ber_put_seq(BerElement *ber);

       int ber_put_set(BerElement *ber);

DESCRIPTION
       These  routines  provide  a subroutine interface to a simplified implementation of the Basic Encoding
       Rules of ASN.1.  The version of BER these routines support is the one defined for the LDAP  protocol.
       The  encoding  rules  are  the same as BER, except that only definite form lengths are used, and bit-strings bitstrings
       strings and octet strings are always encoded in primitive form.  This man page describes the encoding
       routines in the lber library.  See lber-decode(3) for details on the corresponding decoding routines.
       Consult lber-types(3) for information about types, allocators, and deallocators.

       Normally, the only routines that need to be called by an application are ber_alloc_t() to allocate  a
       BER  element  for encoding, ber_printf() to do the actual encoding, and ber_flush() to actually write
       the element.  The other routines are provided for those applications  that  need  more  control  than
       ber_printf() provides.  In general, these routines return the length of the element encoded, or -1 if
       an error occurred.

       The ber_alloc_t() routine is used to allocate a new BER element.  It should be called with  an  argu-ment argument
       ment of LBER_USE_DER.

       The  ber_flush() routine is used to actually write the element to a socket (or file) descriptor, once
       it has been fully encoded (using ber_printf() and friends).  See lber-sockbuf(3) for more details  on
       the  Sockbuf  implementation  of the sb parameter.  If the freeit parameter is non-zero, the supplied
       ber will be freed after its contents have been flushed.

       The ber_printf() routine is used to encode a BER element in much the same way that sprintf(3)  works.
       One  important  difference,  though, is that some state information is kept with the ber parameter so
       that multiple calls can be made to ber_printf() to append things to  the  end  of  the  BER  element.
       Ber_printf()  writes  to ber, a pointer to a BerElement such as returned by ber_alloc_t().  It inter-prets interprets
       prets and formats its arguments according to the format string fmt.  The format  string  can  contain
       the following characters:


              b  Boolean.  An ber_int_t parameter should be supplied.  A boolean element is output.

              e  Enumeration.  An ber_int_t parameter should be supplied.  An enumeration element is output.

              i  Integer.  An ber_int_t parameter should be supplied.  An integer element is output.

              B  Bitstring.  A char * pointer to the start of the bitstring is  supplied,  followed  by  the
                 number of bits in the bitstring.  A bitstring element is output.

              n  Null.  No parameter is required.  A null element is output.

              o  Octet  string.   A char * is supplied, followed by the length of the string pointed to.  An
                 octet string element is output.

              O  Octet string.  A struct berval * is supplied.  An octet string element is output.

              s  Octet string.  A null-terminated string is supplied.  An octet string  element  is  output,
                 not including the trailing NULL octet.

              t  Tag.   A  ber_tag_t  specifying  the  tag to give the next element is provided.  This works
                 across calls.

              v  Several octet strings.  A null-terminated array of char *'s is supplied.  Note that a  con-struct construct
                 struct like '{v}' is required to get an actual SEQUENCE OF octet strings.

              V  Several  octet  strings.   A  null-terminated array of struct berval *'s is supplied.  Note
                 that a construct like '{V}' is required to get an actual SEQUENCE OF octet strings.

              W  Several octet strings.  An array of struct berval's is supplied.  The array  is  terminated
                 by a struct berval with a NULL bv_val.  Note that a construct like '{W}' is required to get
                 an actual SEQUENCE OF octet strings.

              {  Begin sequence.  No parameter is required.

              }  End sequence.  No parameter is required.

              [  Begin set.  No parameter is required.

              ]  End set.  No parameter is required.

       The ber_put_int() routine writes the integer element num to the BER element ber.

       The ber_put_enum() routine writes the enumeration element num to the BER element ber.

       The ber_put_boolean() routine writes the boolean value given by bool to the BER element.

       The ber_put_bitstring() routine writes blen bits starting at str as a bitstring value  to  the  given
       BER element.  Note that blen is the length in bits of the bitstring.

       The ber_put_ostring() routine writes len bytes starting at str to the BER element as an octet string.

       The ber_put_string() routine writes the null-terminated string (minus the terminating ' ') to the BER
       element as an octet string.

       The ber_put_null() routine writes a NULL element to the BER element.

       The ber_start_seq() routine is used to start a sequence in the BER element.  The ber_start_set() rou-tine routine
       tine works similarly.  The end of the sequence or set is marked  by  the  nearest  matching  call  to
       ber_put_seq() or ber_put_set(), respectively.

EXAMPLES
       Assuming  the  following  variable  declarations, and that the variables have been assigned appropri-ately, appropriately,
       ately, an lber encoding of the following ASN.1 object:

             AlmostASearchRequest := SEQUENCE {
                 baseObject      DistinguishedName,
                 scope           ENUMERATED {
                     baseObject    (0),
                     singleLevel   (1),
                     wholeSubtree  (2)
                 },
                 derefAliases    ENUMERATED {
                     neverDerefaliases   (0),
                     derefInSearching    (1),
                     derefFindingBaseObj (2),
                     alwaysDerefAliases  (3)
                 },
                 sizelimit       INTEGER (0 .. 65535),
                 timelimit       INTEGER (0 .. 65535),
                 attrsOnly       BOOLEAN,
                 attributes      SEQUENCE OF AttributeType
             }

       can be achieved like so:

             int rc;
             ber_int_t    scope, ali, size, time, attrsonly;
             char   *dn, **attrs;
             BerElement *ber;

             /* ... fill in values ... */

             ber = ber_alloc_t( LBER_USE_DER );

             if ( ber == NULL ) {
                     /* error */
             }

             rc = ber_printf( ber, "{siiiib{v}}", dn, scope, ali,
                 size, time, attrsonly, attrs );

             if( rc == -1 ) {
                     /* error */
             } else {
                     /* success */
             }

ERRORS
       If an error occurs during encoding, generally these routines return -1.


NOTES
       The return values for all of these functions are declared in the <lber.h> header file.

SEE ALSO
       lber-decode(3), lber-memory(3), lber-sockbuf(3), lber-types(3)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
       OpenLDAP is developed and maintained by The OpenLDAP Project (http://www.openldap.org/)  OpenLDAP is
       derived from University of Michigan LDAP 3.3 Release.



OpenLDAP 2.3.27                                  2006/08/19                                   LBER_ENCODE(3)

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