(ITS#6848) wait timeout for slapd startup

[quanah@OpenLDAP.org]

Full_Name: Quanah Gibson-Mount
Version: 2.4.24
OS: NA
URL: ftp://ftp.openldap.org/incoming/
Submission from: (NULL) (75.111.45.108)


When LDAP is used as a dependency for other software during the init process (as
a kerberos backend, for example), the fact that slapd exits with success prior
to it being ready to accept connections can cause problems for the later
services that depend on it.  It would be useful to have an (optional) flag "-w
<seconds>" that if provided, would have slapd wait up until <seconds> amount of
time has passed for the daemon to fully initialize.  If it fails to initialize
and be ready to accept connections by the end of the time period (when
specified), slapd should exit with a new unique error code.  This would allow
for avoiding the startup problem.  An example of this (and a terrible solution)
can be found in:

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=589915

Debian implemented a broken solution for this, but it is a general issue for
anyone who has dependencies on slapd being ready.