ando@sys-net.it writes:

Although I don't see any particular issue in implementing this enhancement, ldap* tools are essentially intended to implement the basic LDAP features at the operation level.

True, ldapdelete -r is a bit of an aberration in that regard.

You can easily obtain what you're asking for by using

ldapsearch <search options> | grep ^dn: | ldapdelete <delete options>

No. Must also join continuation lines first, check for non-success result from search, and sort the DNs so children precede parents. Excellent example of how quickly LDAP shell scripting become more cumbersome than using a proper LDAP API:-)

Come to think of it, an ldapdelete option to reverse-sort the DNs by number of RDNs would be useful. This would satisfy child-before-parent.