RFC 4512 LDAP Schema Parser

A robust TypeScript parser for LDAP schema definitions based on RFC 4512, featuring a complete CLI tool and comprehensive parsing capabilities using PEG.js grammar.

Overview

This project provides a comprehensive parser for LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) schema definitions according to RFC 4512. It can parse both object class and attribute type definitions with their various components such as OID, NAME, DESC, SUP, MUST, MAY, and object class types (STRUCTURAL, AUXILIARY, ABSTRACT). The parser comes with both a programmatic TypeScript API and a powerful command-line interface.

✨ Key Features

🔧 Complete RFC 4512 Parser

Full RFC 4512 Compliance: Strictly follows the official LDAP schema definition format
OpenLDAP cn=config Support: Automatically handles OpenLDAP index prefixes like {57}
Object Class Parsing: Complete support for STRUCTURAL, AUXILIARY, and ABSTRACT object classes
Attribute Type Parsing: Comprehensive parsing of attribute types with all their properties
OID Validation: Robust validation of numeric object identifiers
Multiple Names Support: Handles single and multiple NAME definitions seamlessly

🖥️ Powerful CLI Tool

Global Command: rfc4512-parser command available system-wide after installation
Multiple Input Sources: Parse from command line arguments or LDIF files
Flexible Output Formats: Support for JSON, structured text, and custom formatting
Verbose Mode: Detailed parsing information for debugging and analysis
Error Reporting: Comprehensive error messages with line and column information

📚 Developer-Friendly API

TypeScript First: Written in TypeScript with complete type definitions
Robust Grammar: Uses PEG.js for precise and reliable parsing
Error Handling: Detailed error system with exact error location
Simple Integration: Easy-to-use parseSchema() function
Module Support: Compatible with both ESM and CommonJS environments

🧪 Production Ready

Comprehensive Testing: ~100% test coverage with real-world LDAP schemas
CI/CD Pipeline: Automated testing with GitHub Actions
Zero Runtime Dependencies: The grammar is precompiled and the CLI is bundled
Well Documented: Complete documentation with practical examples

🚀 Quick Start

Installation

# Install as a library
npm install @tacxou/parser_ldap_rfc4512

# Or with Yarn
yarn add @tacxou/parser_ldap_rfc4512

# Install globally for CLI usage
npm install -g @tacxou/parser_ldap_rfc4512

Basic Usage

import { parseSchema } from '@tacxou/parser_ldap_rfc4512'

// Parse an object class definition
try {
  const result = parseSchema(`
    ( 2.5.6.6
      NAME 'person'
      DESC 'RFC2256: a person'
      SUP top
      STRUCTURAL
      MUST ( sn $ cn )
      MAY ( userPassword $ telephoneNumber $ description )
    )
  `)

  console.log('✅ Successfully parsed:', result)
  // Output:
  // {
  //   oid: '2.5.6.6',
  //   name: 'person',
  //   desc: 'RFC2256: a person',
  //   sup: 'top',
  //   type: 'STRUCTURAL',
  //   must: ['sn', 'cn'],
  //   may: ['userPassword', 'telephoneNumber', 'description']
  // }
} catch (error) {
  console.error('❌ Parse error:', error.message)
}

💻 Command Line Interface

The CLI provides a powerful way to parse LDAP schemas directly from the terminal.

Basic CLI Usage

# Parse a schema definition directly
rfc4512-parser "( 2.5.6.6 NAME 'person' SUP top STRUCTURAL )"

# Parse from a file
rfc4512-parser --input schema.ldif

# Output as formatted JSON
rfc4512-parser --input schema.ldif --format json

# Save results to a file
rfc4512-parser --input schema.ldif --output parsed-schema.json

# Verbose mode with detailed information
rfc4512-parser --input schema.ldif --verbose

Advanced CLI Features

# Parse multiple schema definitions from a file
rfc4512-parser --input multiple-schemas.ldif --format json

# Validate schema syntax without output
rfc4512-parser --input schema.ldif --validate-only

# Parse with custom error formatting
rfc4512-parser --input schema.ldif --verbose --format json

📖 For complete CLI documentation, see CLI_USAGE.md

📋 Supported Schema Components

Object Classes

The parser handles all RFC 4512 object class components:

OID: Numeric object identifier (e.g., 2.5.6.6)
NAME: Single name ('person') or multiple names (( 'person' 'user' ))
DESC: Descriptive text in quotes
SUP: Superior object class (inheritance)
Object Class Types:
- STRUCTURAL - Standard object classes
- AUXILIARY - Additional attribute sets
- ABSTRACT - Base classes for inheritance
MUST: Required attributes list
MAY: Optional attributes list

Attribute Types

Complete support for attribute type definitions:

OID: Unique numeric identifier
NAME: Single or multiple attribute names
DESC: Human-readable description
SUP: Superior attribute type
EQUALITY: Equality matching rule
ORDERING: Ordering matching rule
SUBSTR: Substring matching rule
SYNTAX: Attribute syntax OID
SINGLE-VALUE: Single value constraint
COLLECTIVE: Collective attribute marker
NO-USER-MODIFICATION: System-only attributes

Example Schemas

Object Class Example

( 2.5.6.7
  NAME ( 'organizationalPerson' 'orgPerson' )
  DESC 'RFC2256: an organizational person'
  SUP person
  STRUCTURAL
  MAY ( title $ x121Address $ registeredAddress $ destinationIndicator $
        preferredDeliveryMethod $ telexNumber $ teletexTerminalIdentifier $
        telephoneNumber $ internationaliSDNNumber $ facsimileTelephoneNumber $
        street $ postOfficeBox $ postalCode $ postalAddress $
        physicalDeliveryOfficeName $ ou $ st $ l )
)

Attribute Type Example

( 2.5.4.3
  NAME ( 'cn' 'commonName' )
  DESC 'RFC2256: common name(s) for which the entity is known by'
  SUP name
)

🔧 OpenLDAP cn=config Support

The parser includes built-in support for OpenLDAP's cn=config format, which uses index prefixes to maintain ordering of multi-valued attributes like olcAttributeTypes and olcObjectClasses.

Index Prefix Support

OpenLDAP uses numeric prefixes in curly braces to maintain the order of schema definitions:

# OpenLDAP cn=config format with index prefix
{57}( 1.3.6.1.4.1.7165.2.1.80 NAME 'sambaSupportedEncryptionTypes' 
      DESC 'Supported encryption types of a trust' 
      EQUALITY integerMatch 
      SYNTAX 1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.27 
      SINGLE-VALUE )

# Equivalent RFC 4512 pure format (without prefix)
( 1.3.6.1.4.1.7165.2.1.80 NAME 'sambaSupportedEncryptionTypes' 
  DESC 'Supported encryption types of a trust' 
  EQUALITY integerMatch 
  SYNTAX 1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.27 
  SINGLE-VALUE )

Automatic Prefix Removal

The parser automatically detects and removes OpenLDAP index prefixes:

import { parseSchema } from '@tacxou/parser_ldap_rfc4512'

// Both formats parse to identical results
const openLdapFormat = '{57}( 2.5.4.3 NAME \'cn\' DESC \'Common Name\' SYNTAX 1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.15 )'
const rfc4512Format = '( 2.5.4.3 NAME \'cn\' DESC \'Common Name\' SYNTAX 1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.15 )'

const result1 = parseSchema(openLdapFormat)
const result2 = parseSchema(rfc4512Format)

console.log(result1 === result2) // true - identical results

Supported Prefix Patterns

The parser handles various OpenLDAP prefix formats:

Basic format: {0}, {57}, {123}
With whitespace: {0} , \t{57}\t
Leading spaces: {0}(definition...)
Any numeric index: {0} to {99999} and beyond

CLI Support for OpenLDAP Format

The CLI tool seamlessly handles OpenLDAP exports:

# Parse OpenLDAP cn=config exports directly
rfc4512-parser --input openldap-export.ldif --format json

# Example OpenLDAP export file content:
# {0}( 2.5.4.3 NAME 'cn' DESC 'Common Name' SYNTAX 1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.15 )
# {1}( 2.5.4.4 NAME 'sn' DESC 'Surname' SUP name )

🏗️ Project Architecture

.
├── .github/                               # GitHub workflows and CI/CD configuration
│   └── workflows/                         # Automated testing and build pipelines
├── .vscode/                               # VS Code workspace settings and tasks
├── dist/                                  # Compiled output (generated)
├── src/                                   # Source code
│   ├── _grammars/                         # PEG.js grammar definitions
│   ├── errors/                            # Error handling system
│   ├── functions/                         # Core parsing logic
│   ├── interfaces/                        # TypeScript interfaces
│   ├── types/                             # Type definitions
├── test/                                  # Comprehensive test suite
.

🔧 Technical Details

Grammar Engine

PEG.js Parser: Uses Parsing Expression Grammar for precise, unambiguous parsing
Error Recovery: Provides detailed error messages with line and column information
Whitespace Handling: Robust handling of LDAP schema formatting variations
Performance: Optimized grammar rules for fast parsing of large schema files

Type System

Strict TypeScript: Complete type coverage for all LDAP components
Interface-Driven: Well-defined interfaces for extensibility
Error Types: Comprehensive error type system for debugging
Runtime Validation: Schema validation beyond syntax checking

Build System

tsup: Bundles src/index.ts and src/cli.ts, targeting Node 22
Precompiled Grammar: scripts/build-grammar.mjs generates the Peggy parser at build time, never at runtime
Dual Output: Both ESM and CommonJS compatible builds, with .d.ts per format
CLI Bundling: Self-contained CLI executable

🧪 Testing & Quality

Comprehensive Test Suite

Unit Tests: Complete coverage of all parsing components
Integration Tests: End-to-end testing with real LDAP schemas
CLI Tests: Command-line interface testing with various scenarios
Error Handling Tests: Comprehensive error condition testing

Real-World Validation

OpenLDAP Schemas: Tested against actual OpenLDAP schema definitions
RFC Compliance: Validated against RFC 4512 specifications
Edge Cases: Extensive testing of formatting variations and edge cases

Quality Metrics

Code Coverage: ~100% test coverage on core components
CI/CD: Automated testing on multiple Node.js versions
Code Quality: Biome for linting and formatting, tsc --noEmit for types
Performance: Benchmarked against large schema files

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our contributing guidelines for details on:

Setting up the development environment
Running tests and building the project
Code style and formatting requirements
Submitting pull requests

Development Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/tacxou/parser_ldap_rfc4512.git
cd parser_ldap_rfc4512

# Install dependencies
yarn install

# Run tests
yarn test

# Run tests with coverage
yarn test:coverage

# Build the project
yarn build

# Test CLI locally
yarn test:cli

# Lint and format
yarn lint
yarn lint:fix

# Check types
yarn typecheck

# Build and audit the npm tarball
yarn package

# Build the static documentation and LLM context files
yarn docs:build

The same quality commands are exposed through the Makefile:

make lint
make typecheck
make test-coverage
make build
make package
make docs-build

📄 License

This project is licensed under the BSD 3-Clause License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🔗 Links

NPM Package: @tacxou/parser_ldap_rfc4512
GitHub Repository: parser_ldap_rfc4512
Issue Tracker: GitHub Issues
CI/CD Pipeline: GitHub Actions
Code Coverage: Codecov

📚 Related Resources

Made with ❤️ by The Software Compagny

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
.cursor/commands		.cursor/commands
.github		.github
.vscode		.vscode
scripts		scripts
src		src
static		static
test		test
.cursorrules		.cursorrules
.editorconfig		.editorconfig
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
AGENTS.md		AGENTS.md
CLI_USAGE.md		CLI_USAGE.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
Makefile		Makefile
README.md		README.md
SECURITY.md		SECURITY.md
biome.json		biome.json
commit-convention.md		commit-convention.md
package.json		package.json
project-context.md		project-context.md
tsconfig.json		tsconfig.json
tsup.config.ts		tsup.config.ts
vitest.config.ts		vitest.config.ts
yarn.lock		yarn.lock

Latest commit

History

Folders and files

Repository files navigation