Hello John.

The zero exitcode is correct. Non-zero exitcodes are only returned when you ask for status.

Try this:

service lm_sensors stop
service lm_sensors status

You should get 3 ...

Please, check that and let me know.

Thanks,
Jaromir.

(In reply to Jaromír Cápík from comment #2)
> Hello John.
> 
> The zero exitcode is correct. Non-zero exitcodes are only returned when you
> ask for status.
> 
> Try this:
> 
> service lm_sensors stop
> service lm_sensors status
> 
> You should get 3 ...
> 
> Please, check that and let me know.
> 
> Thanks,
> Jaromir.

oops. I didn't do my example right.

# service lm_sensors stop
Stopping lm_sensors: [  OK  ]
# service lm_sensors status
acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:       +30.0°C  (crit = +105.0°C)                  
temp2:       +30.0°C  (crit = +105.0°C)                  

# echo $?
0

Ok ... now it really seems to be a problem of the init script.
The problem only appears in some cases as it depends on the sensors available on the testing hardware.
The init script needs to be redesigned. It doesn't check for the status of sensor modules, it simply checks for the success of the sensors command. But as some of the sensors might work even without modules, the sensors command can return zero status even when all the modules defined in /etc/sysconfig/lm_sensors file are unloaded.
It's questionable if that can still be considered a running service or not.
In fact the only purpose of the init script is to load the modules. So, if we look at the init script as if it was a module loader only, then it doesn't work correctly, because it returns 0 even when all the modules loaded with service lm_sensors start are unloaded.

In Bug 575757 Comment 0 the following issues were pointed out, which still exist in lm_sensors-3.1.1-17.el6.x86_64

=== 1 ===
:: [   FAIL   ] :: Running 'grep -i "usage.*force-reload" /etc/init.d/lm_sensors' (Expected 0, got 1)
	echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|status|restart|reload|condrestart}"

-> Add force-reload action even if it would be same as 'restart'.

=== 2 ===
Usage: /etc/init.d/lm_sensors {start|stop|status|restart|reload|condrestart}
:: [   FAIL   ] :: Running 'service lm_sensors' (Expected 2, got 3)

-> Running with invalid argument (such as blank one) should exit with exit code = 2 not 3. See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging/SysVInitScript#Exit_Codes_for_non-Status_Actions

=== 3 ===
:: [   PASS   ] :: Running 'touch /var/lock/subsys/lm_sensors'
No sensors found!
Make sure you loaded all the kernel drivers you need.
Try sensors-detect to find out which these are.
:: [   FAIL   ] :: Running 'service lm_sensors status' (Expected 2, got 3)

-> It should say, e.g: "lm_sensors dead but subsys locked" and exit with ec=2.


Since lm_sensors isn't a real service I'm not sure if the third issue is something we should check for. Should we?

This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for
inclusion in the current release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Because the affected component is not scheduled to be updated
in the current release, Red Hat is unable to address this
request at this time.

Red Hat invites you to ask your support representative to
propose this request, if appropriate, in the next release of
Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 6 is entering the Production 2 phase of its lifetime and this bug doesn't meet the criteria for it, i.e. only high severity issues will be fixed. Please see https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata/ for further information.

This issue is not being tracked for newer RHEL, because init scripts are not used any more.