Writing a SHELL backend database

Exit status

SHELL backend commands should be mindful of their exit status. This status is examined by the invoking slapd to determine whether the command succeeded or not. This can be important for a number of reasons:

For modify operations, the exit status determines whether the modification should be logged and sent out to replicas or not.
For bind operations, the exit status determines whether the bind was successful, and therefore whether the DN given should be trusted on future access control decisions.

An exit status of 0 indicates the command was successful. A non-zero exit status indicates the command was not successful.

Note that on a bind operation, a 0 exit status indicates that the DN given in the bind should be trusted on future access control decisions. This means that if, for example, a NOAUTH bind (no password provided) succeeds, you should be sure not to return an exit status of 0.