perl backend... Failure during bind

["J.Lance Wilkinson, 814-865-1818" <JLW@psulias.psu.edu>]

I'm using OpenLDAP v2.3.18, patched per suggestions cited here yesterday so
that the perl backend actually works, and I'm having an issue with my bind()
method.


    package MSGStore;

    use POSIX;

    $debug = 3;
                     
    sub bind
    {
        print "\n>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>BIND<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<\n\n" if( $debug > 2);
        my $this    = shift;
        my $dn      = shift;
        my $pass    = shift;
        my $retval  = 0;
    # First attribute in dn assumed to be principle name
        my $rest    = (split('=',$dn,2))[1];
        my ($uid, $ou)  = (split(',',$rest,2));

        $uid = lc $uid;
        $tmp_filename = "/pmdf/tmp/krb5_$uid";
        $prince = "$uid\@dce.psu.edu";
        $tmp_filename = "/dev/null";

    # Reach out to kinit and the remote KDC to authenticate...
        $cmd = "/usr/local/bin/kinit $prince >$tmp_filename 2>&1";
        print "\n>>>>> $cmd <<<<<<\n\n" if( $debug > 2);
        $cmd = "echo $pass | ".$cmd;
        system($cmd);
        $hold = $?;
        $exit_value = $?>>8;
        $signal_num = $? & 127;
        $dumped_core = $? & 128;
        chmod 740, $tmp_filename;
        print "\n>>>>> status=$hold <<<<<<\n\n" if( $debug > 2);
        $exit_str = "";
        $exit_str .= ($exit_value>0)?"Exit=$exit_value":"";
        $exit_str .= ($signal_num>0)?(($exit_str ne ""?", ":"")."Sig=$signal_num"):"";
        $exit_str .= ($dumped_core>0)?(($exit_str ne ""?", ":"")."DumpedCore!"):"";
        print "\n>>>>> $exit_str <<<<<<\n\n" if( $debug > 2);
        system("cat $tmp_filename") if( $debug > 2);

    # Return 0 for success, 1 for failure.
        $retval = 1 if $exit_value;
        print "\n>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>BIND<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<done\n\n" if( $debug > 2);
        print "\n>>>>> retval = $retval <<<<<<\n\n" if( $debug > 2);
        return $retval;
    }

When I invoke this method from a simple perl script, it works just fine, either
succeeding (0) or failing (1) on the system() call based on whether the
uid/pass pair was vaild in my KDC.

When I use exactly the same file in my slapd-perl server, it almost every time
(90%+) returns a value of -1 for the system() call.  Once every so often, the
return from system() will be zero when the uid/pass pair was valid, or 256
(>>8=1) if the pair was not vaild.

Am I running up against some kind of restriction in what the perl backend is
allowed to do?

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| J.Lance Wilkinson ("Lance")		InterNet:  Lance.Wilkinson@psu.edu 
| Systems Design Specialist - Lead	AT&T:      (814) 865-1818
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