Subject: Re: bug#79077: host_execute and non-zero exit status
From: Jacob Bachmeyer <[email-masked]>
To: Marc Nieper-Wißkirchen <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2025 23:21:19 -0500
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

On 7/25/25 06:30, Marc Nieper-Wißkirchen wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Am Fr., 25. Juli 2025 um 04:14 Uhr schrieb Jacob Bachmeyer<[email-masked]>:
>
> [...]
>
>> Am Do., 24. Juli 2025 um 05:09 Uhr schrieb Jacob Bachmeyer<[email-masked]>:
>>
>> On 7/23/25 02:31, Marc Nieper-Wißkirchen wrote:
>> [...]
>>
>> [...]  DejaGnu generally supports running tests on "remote" target boards and a target connected over a serial line is unlikely to return an exit code.  The only way to be sure that a dependency on the exit code will not creep in is to ignore the exit code.
> With the recent addition of the "END" token, this is probably moot;
> without, how would have DejaGnu handled a test running remotely, say
> over a serial line, where the connection drops early? I saw a non-zero
> exit code as an analogue of such a dropped connection, which could be
> expressed by an "UNRESOLVED" result.

Previously, DejaGnu gave no indication that anything was wrong if a unit 
test program failed to complete, although older versions used a "Totals" 
line as an implicit end marker.  This was changed when the unit testing 
protocol was documented to avoid possible misfires if a unit test 
happens to emit a line beginning with "Totals"; the new "END" marker 
uses a syntax that is explicitly documented as reserved for unit test 
messages to the framework.

>> [...]
>>
>> An initial solution has been pushed to Savannah on the PR79077 branch. DejaGnu can now be run directly from a Git checkout, you should be able to simply pass RUNTEST=/full/name/of/working/tree/runtest on the "make check" command line.
> That is great news. Thank you! Moreover, thank you very much for your
> ideas about the Valgrind mapper; very helpful, indeed.

You are welcome.

Since an improvement has been merged to Git master, this closes the bug 
report.

-- Jacob