https://bugs.openldap.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10299
--- Comment #8 from Howard Chu hyc@openldap.org --- Really I think the first problem is with the slapacl(8) manpage.
The offending text came from this commit 592c4ad2b0cf0a1f4909c06aebb31624a6d7d989
+.TP +.BI -u +do not fetch the entry from the database. +In this case, if the entry does not exist, a fake entry with the DN +given with the +.B -b +option is used, with no attributes.
The first sentence is most relevant: the entry is not fetched from the DB.
The "if the entry does not exist" clause does not belong; a fake entry is used regardless, since we don't even access the DB and therefore have no idea whether the entry exists or not.