syncrepl ramblings again

[Howard Chu <hyc@symas.com>]

This might be a nice project for someone: turn syncrepl provider support 
into an overlay.
   Right now the code and data necessary to support it are scattered 
across a lot of files, and tiny changes (like be_context_csn) are hard 
to keep coordinated, easy to get lost.
   At least Persistent Search should be provided as an overlay, and it 
would be useful across many other backend types.
   In back-bdb we really don't need the last committed CSN to be stored 
in a real database entry, we could just search for the greatest CSN at 
startup time. We could store it at shutdown time, but for the most part 
it would be better as a memory-only virtual entry.
   The actual search operations that are associated with the syncrepl 
control aren't "special", they can be performed using a regular search 
with an appropriately constructed filter. At least, it appears to me 
that they are not intimately tied to the workings of the database.

Overall I would like to see some more consolidation of this code, and 
all references to CSNs encapsulated into a component (i.e. an overlay) 
that is optional instead of hardcoded as it is now. This isolation would 
help reduce the chance of breakage that is rampant right now whenever 
some other sturcture definition changes...
--

 -- Howard Chu
 Chief Architect, Symas Corp.       Director, Highland Sun
 http://www.symas.com               http://highlandsun.com/hyc
 Symas: Premier OpenSource Development and Support