To check that a git command fails with the expected error message, we usually execute a command like this: test_must_fail git command --option 2>output.err Alas, this command doesn't limit the redirection to the git command, but it redirects the standard error of the 'test_must_fail' helper function as well, causing various issues discussed in detail in the second patch. Therefore that patch introduces the 'test_must_fail stderr=<file>' option to save the executed git command's standard error to the given file. The last patch converts one test script to use 'test_must_fail stderr=<file>' to demonstrate its benefits: thereafter that script will succeed with '-x'. There are plenty more places to convert: $ git grep -E 'test_(must|might)_fail .* 2>' t/*.sh |wc -l 430 $ git grep --name-only -E 'test_(must|might)_fail .* 2>' t/*.sh |wc -l 135 ... and this doesn't even count commands spanning more lines, and there are more in 'pu'. I didn't convert more test scripts, because it's boring ;) but more importantly because it could give us 135+ GSoC micro projects. SZEDER Gábor (3): t: document 'test_must_fail ok=<signal-name>' t: teach 'test_must_fail' to save the command's stderr to a file t1404: use 'test_must_fail stderr=<file>' t/README | 20 +++++++++++++++++-- t/t1404-update-ref-errors.sh | 46 ++++++++++++++++++++++---------------------- t/test-lib-functions.sh | 45 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---------- 3 files changed, 76 insertions(+), 35 deletions(-) -- 2.16.1.180.g07550b0b1b