Attempt to distinguish between errors indicating misconfiguration or
programmer error, which we consider "permanant", in the sense that
automatic retries are unlikely to be useful, and those indicating
transient error conditions. We consider XAPIAN_EXCEPTION transient
because it covers the important special case of locking failure.
---
 notmuch-client.h    |  3 +++
 notmuch-insert.c    |  9 +++++----
 status.c            | 16 ++++++++++++++++
 test/T070-insert.sh | 24 ++++++++++++++----------
 4 files changed, 38 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)

diff --git a/notmuch-client.h b/notmuch-client.h
index 793f32e..d026e60 100644
--- a/notmuch-client.h
+++ b/notmuch-client.h
@@ -489,6 +489,9 @@ print_status_database (const char *loc,
 		       const notmuch_database_t *database,
 		       notmuch_status_t status);
 
+int
+status_to_exit (notmuch_status_t status);
+
 #include "command-line-arguments.h"
 
 extern char *notmuch_requested_db_uuid;
diff --git a/notmuch-insert.c b/notmuch-insert.c
index 862da88..a152f15 100644
--- a/notmuch-insert.c
+++ b/notmuch-insert.c
@@ -538,9 +538,10 @@ notmuch_insert_command (notmuch_config_t *config, int argc, char *argv[])
 	return EXIT_FAILURE;
     }
 
-   if (notmuch_database_open (notmuch_config_get_database_path (config),
-			       NOTMUCH_DATABASE_MODE_READ_WRITE, &notmuch))
-	return EXIT_FAILURE;
+    status = notmuch_database_open (notmuch_config_get_database_path (config),
+				    NOTMUCH_DATABASE_MODE_READ_WRITE, &notmuch);
+    if (status)
+	return status_to_exit(status);
 
     notmuch_exit_if_unmatched_db_uuid (notmuch);
 
@@ -577,5 +578,5 @@ notmuch_insert_command (notmuch_config_t *config, int argc, char *argv[])
 	notmuch_run_hook (db_path, "post-insert");
     }
 
-    return status ? EXIT_FAILURE : EXIT_SUCCESS;
+    return status ? status_to_exit(status) : EXIT_SUCCESS;
 }
diff --git a/status.c b/status.c
index 45d3fb4..8bc2fe4 100644
--- a/status.c
+++ b/status.c
@@ -36,3 +36,19 @@ print_status_database (const char *loc,
     }
     return status;
 }
+
+int
+status_to_exit (notmuch_status_t status)
+{
+    switch (status) {
+    case NOTMUCH_STATUS_SUCCESS:
+	return EXIT_SUCCESS;
+    case NOTMUCH_STATUS_OUT_OF_MEMORY:
+    case NOTMUCH_STATUS_XAPIAN_EXCEPTION:
+    case NOTMUCH_STATUS_DUPLICATE_MESSAGE_ID:
+    case NOTMUCH_STATUS_FILE_ERROR:
+	return EX_TEMPFAIL;
+    default:
+	return EXIT_FAILURE;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/test/T070-insert.sh b/test/T070-insert.sh
index c2485bb..fd620e5 100755
--- a/test/T070-insert.sh
+++ b/test/T070-insert.sh
@@ -189,7 +189,6 @@ notmuch config set new.tags $OLDCONFIG
 
 for code in OUT_OF_MEMORY XAPIAN_EXCEPTION FILE_NOT_EMAIL \
     READ_ONLY_DATABASE UPGRADE_REQUIRED PATH_ERROR; do
-gen_insert_msg
 cat <<EOF > index-file-$code.gdb
 set breakpoint pending on
 set logging file index-file-$code.log
@@ -201,15 +200,20 @@ continue
 end
 run
 EOF
-test_begin_subtest "error exit when add_message returns $code"
-gdb --batch-silent --return-child-result -x index-file-$code.gdb \
-    --args notmuch insert  < $gen_msg_filename
-test_expect_equal $? 1
-
-test_begin_subtest "success exit with --keep when add_message returns $code"
-gdb --batch-silent --return-child-result -x index-file-$code.gdb \
-    --args notmuch insert --keep  < $gen_msg_filename
-test_expect_equal $? 0
+done
+
+gen_insert_msg
+
+for code in  FILE_NOT_EMAIL READ_ONLY_DATABASE UPGRADE_REQUIRED PATH_ERROR; do
+    test_expect_code 1 "EXIT_FAILURE when add_message returns $code" \
+	"gdb --batch-silent --return-child-result -x index-file-$code.gdb \
+	     --args notmuch insert  < $gen_msg_filename"
+done
+
+for code in OUT_OF_MEMORY XAPIAN_EXCEPTION ; do
+    test_expect_code 75 "EX_TEMPFAIL when add_message returns $code" \
+	"gdb --batch-silent --return-child-result -x index-file-$code.gdb \
+	     --args notmuch insert  < $gen_msg_filename"
 done
 
 test_done
-- 
2.10.2