LDAP query in python

Question

I want to execute the following query in the ldap

ldapsearch -h hostname -b dc=ernet,dc=in -x "(&(uid=w2lame)(objectClass=posixAccount))" gidnumber
ldapsearch -h hostname -b dc=ernet,dc=in -x "(&(gidNumber=1234)(objectClass=posixGroup))" cn

And use the variables thus obtained. How can I do that?

Answer 1

While the accepted answer does in fact show a proper way to bind to an LDAP server I do feel it didn't answer the question holistically. Here is what I ended up implementing to grab the mail and department of a user. This somewhat blends the required attributes from the original question.

l = ldap.initialize('ldap://ldap.myserver.com:389')
binddn = "cn=myUserName,ou=GenericID,dc=my,dc=company,dc=com"
pw = "myPassword"
basedn = "ou=UserUnits,dc=my,dc=company,dc=com"
searchFilter = "(&(gidNumber=123456)(objectClass=posixAccount))"
searchAttribute = ["mail","department"]
#this will scope the entire subtree under UserUnits
searchScope = ldap.SCOPE_SUBTREE
#Bind to the server
try:
    l.protocol_version = ldap.VERSION3
    l.simple_bind_s(binddn, pw) 
except ldap.INVALID_CREDENTIALS:
  print "Your username or password is incorrect."
  sys.exit(0)
except ldap.LDAPError, e:
  if type(e.message) == dict and e.message.has_key('desc'):
      print e.message['desc']
  else: 
      print e
  sys.exit(0)
try:    
    ldap_result_id = l.search(basedn, searchScope, searchFilter, searchAttribute)
    result_set = []
    while 1:
        result_type, result_data = l.result(ldap_result_id, 0)
        if (result_data == []):
            break
        else:
            ## if you are expecting multiple results you can append them
            ## otherwise you can just wait until the initial result and break out
            if result_type == ldap.RES_SEARCH_ENTRY:
                result_set.append(result_data)
    print result_set
except ldap.LDAPError, e:
    print e
l.unbind_s()