exportfs always returns success status

[amk]

It is impossible to determine whether exportfs command failed or succeeded based on the exit status:

root@ver:~# exportfs asdf ; echo $?
exportfs: Invalid exporting option: asdf
0

user@ver:~$ exportfs ; echo $?
exportfs: could not open /var/lib/nfs/.etab.lock for locking: errno 13 (Permission denied)
0

Search did not reveal a duplicate bug but a similar issue was resolved upstream back in 2013:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=966237

root@ver:~# lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS
Release: 16.04

root@ver:~# apt-cache policy nfs-utils
N: Unable to locate package nfs-utils
root@ver:~# apt-cache policy nfs-kernel-server
nfs-kernel-server:
  Installed: 1:1.2.8-9ubuntu12.1
  Candidate: 1:1.2.8-9ubuntu12.1

What is expected to happen: Command exits with status = 0 only in case of successful execution

What happens instead: Command exit status is 0 regardless of outcome.

[Rodrigo Barbieri (rodrigo-barbieri2010)]

This is no longer true as of 1:1.3.4-2.1ubuntu5.2 (bionic). Do you need this fix in xenial?

[amk (9-launchpad-mikus-sk)]

Personally, I am not waiting for fix in xenial anymore. The storage is now mounted to client directly.