ando@sys-net.it writes:

Correct. However I'm not sure whether the man page or the code needs to be fixed. I'm open to suggestions. I'm inclined towards following the man page, as the use of -d implies one may not need the pid, and knows the args.

It _may_ mean that. But the existence of the pidfile also means one need not save the pid after running slapd &. So I think it's best to keep the existing behavior, in case someone depends on the pidfile.