ldapsearch, follow dn-s

Question

I'm somewhat confused about LDAP query syntax.

Suppose there are two inetOrgPerson records for two employees, M being manager of E (that is, there's a 'manager' attribute with manager's dn as a value in E's entry).

I want to look up E's manager's attribute, like phone number, by performing a search that would find E's entry by matching some known attribute of E, then follow the dn found in 'manager' attribute and find M, then display M's phone number – all in a single LDAP query. Is that possible with, say, ldapsearch utility quering an OpenLDAP server?

Answer 1

No. You are doing two things, looking up object A and its attributes then looking up object B based on object A's attributes. No LDAP server I'm aware of offers to do that in one step. You could write some code that implements such a method, but underneath it'll be two LDAP calls