If I run 'ldbedit --cross-ncs --show-binary -e nano -H /usr/local/samba/private/sam.ldb' on Samba 4.6.2, I get: dn: DC=devstation,DC=samdom.example.com,CN=MicrosoftDNS,DC=DomainDnsZones,DC=samdom,DC=example,DC=com objectClass: top objectClass: dnsNode instanceType: 4 whenCreated: 20160610204154.0Z uSNCreated: 3874 showInAdvancedViewOnly: TRUE name: devstation objectGUID: ebe32c64-2ad5-4a32-97f6-d05c94ad31e0 objectCategory: CN=Dns-Node,CN=Schema,CN=Configuration,DC=samdom,DC=example,DC=com DC: devstation whenChanged: 20180706060427.0Z dnsRecord: NDR: struct dnsp_DnssrvRpcRecord wDataLength : 0x0004 (4) wType : DNS_TYPE_A (1) version : 0x05 (5) rank : DNS_RANK_ZONE (240) flags : 0x0000 (0) dwSerial : 0x00000914 (2324) dwTtlSeconds : 0x00000e10 (3600) dwReserved : 0x00000000 (0) dwTimeStamp : 0x0037d826 (3659814) data : union dnsRecordData(case 1) ipv4 : 192.168.0.88 dNSTombstoned: FALSE uSNChanged: 373176 distinguishedName: DC=devstation,DC=samdom.example.com,CN=MicrosoftDNS,DC=DomainDnsZones,DC=samdom,DC=example,DC=com A similar command on Samba 4.8.2: ldbedit --cross-ncs --show-binary -e nano -H /var/lib/samba/private/sam.ldb returns: dn: DC=devstation,DC=samdom.example.com,CN=MicrosoftDNS,DC=DomainDnsZones,DC=samdom,DC=example,DC=com objectClass: top objectClass: dnsNode instanceType: 4 whenCreated: 20160610204154.0Z uSNCreated: 4063 showInAdvancedViewOnly: TRUE name: devstation objectGUID: ebe32c64-2ad5-4a32-97f6-d05c94ad31e0 objectCategory: CN=Dns-Node,CN=Schema,CN=Configuration,DC=samdom,DC=example,DC =com dc: devstation dNSTombstoned: FALSE dnsRecord:: BAABAAXwAAAUCQAAAAAOEAAAAAAm2DcAwKgAWA== whenChanged: 20180706061917.0Z uSNChanged: 75216 distinguishedName: DC=devstation,DC=samdom.example.com,CN=MicrosoftDNS,DC=Doma inDnsZones,DC=samdom,DC=example,DC=com I think this is what Andrew calls a 'regression'
--show-binary makes no sense in ldbedit (as we can't parse the output back into the LDAP binary data), but due to common option code the option is displayed. The ignoring it is deliberate, but we shouldn't have ignored options available.