require 'rubygems' require 'net/ldap' ldap = Net::LDAP.new(:host => 'hostname', :base => 'base') ldap.authenticate('bind_dn', 'bind_pass') filter = Net::LDAP::Filter.pres('objectclass') filter &= Net::LDAP::Filter.eq('sn','Jackman') # or filter = Net::LDAP::Filter.construct('(&(objectclass=*)(sn=Jackman))') results = ldap.search(:filter => filter) # returns an array of Net::LDAP::Entry objects puts results[0][:sn] # ==> "Jackman"