.TH LDAP_FIRST_MESSAGE 3 "RELEASEDATE" "OpenLDAP LDVERSION"
.\" $OpenLDAP: pkg/ldap/doc/man/man3/ldap_first_message.3,v 1.9.2.4 2007/01/02 21:43:44 kurt Exp $
.\" Copyright 1998-2007 The OpenLDAP Foundation All Rights Reserved.
.\" Copying restrictions apply.  See COPYRIGHT/LICENSE.
.SH NAME
ldap_first_message, ldap_next_message, ldap_count_messages \- Stepping
through messages in a result chain
.SH LIBRARY
OpenLDAP LDAP (libldap, -lldap)
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.ft B
#include <ldap.h>
.LP
.ft B
int ldap_count_messages( LDAP *ld, LDAPMessage *result )
.LP
.ft B
LDAPMessage *ldap_first_message( LDAP *ld, LDAPMessage *result )
.LP
.ft B
LDAPMessage *ldap_next_message( LDAP *ld, LDAPMessage *message )
.SH DESCRIPTION
.LP
These routines are used to step through the messages in a result chain
received from
.BR ldap_result (3) .
For search operations, the result chain can contain referral, entry
and result messages. The
.BR ldap_msgtype (3)
function can be used to distinguish between the different message types.
.LP
The
.B ldap_first_message()
routine is used to retrieve the first 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 message in the result chain.
.LP
This pointer should be supplied on a subsequent call to
.B ldap_next_message()
to get the next message, the result of which should be
supplied to the next call to
.BR ldap_next_message() ,
etc.
.B ldap_next_message()
will return NULL when there are no more messages.
.LP
These functions are useful when using routines like
.BR ldap_parse_result (3)
that only operate on the first result in the chain.
.LP
A count of the number of messages in the result chain can be obtained
by calling
.BR ldap_count_messages() .
It can also be used to count the number of remaining messages in a chain
if called with a message, entry or reference returned by
.B ldap_first_message() ,
.B ldap_next_message() ,
.BR ldap_first_entry (3) ,
.BR ldap_next_entry (3) ,
.BR ldap_first_reference (3) ,
.BR ldap_next_reference (3) .
.SH ERRORS
If an error occurs in
.B ldap_first_message()
or
.BR ldap_next_message() ,
NULL is returned.  If an error occurs in
.BR ldap_count_messages() ,
-1 is returned.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR ldap (3),
.BR ldap_search (3),
.BR ldap_result (3),
.BR ldap_parse_result (3),
.BR ldap_first_entry (3),
.BR ldap_first_reference (3)
.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.