The five new tests added to 't9300-fast-import.sh' in 30e215a65c (fast-import: checkpoint: dump branches/tags/marks even if object_count==0, 2017-09-28), all with the prefix "V:" in their test description, run 'git fast-import' in the background and then 'kill' it as part of a 'test_when_finished' cleanup command. When this test script is executed with Bash, some or even all of these tests tend to pollute the test script's stderr, and messages about terminated processes end up on the terminal: $ bash ./t9300-fast-import.sh <... snip ...> ok 179 - V: checkpoint helper does not get stuck with extra output /<...>/test-lib-functions.sh: line 388: 28383 Terminated git fast-import $options 0<&8 1>&9 ok 180 - V: checkpoint updates refs after reset ./t9300-fast-import.sh: line 3210: 28401 Terminated git fast-import $options 0<&8 1>&9 ok 181 - V: checkpoint updates refs and marks after commit ok 182 - V: checkpoint updates refs and marks after commit (no new objects) ./test-lib.sh: line 634: line 3250: 28485 Terminated git fast-import $options 0<&8 1>&9 ok 183 - V: checkpoint updates tags after tag ./t9300-fast-import.sh: line 3264: 28510 Terminated git fast-import $options 0<&8 1>&9 After a background child process terminates, its parent Bash process always outputs a message like those above to stderr, even when in non-interactive mode. But how do some of these messages end up on the test script's stderr, why don't we get them from all five tests, and why do they come from different file/line locations? Well, after sending the TERM signal to the background child process, it takes a little while until that process receives the signal and terminates, and then it takes another while until the parent process notices it. During this time the parent Bash process is continuing execution, and by the time it notices that its child terminated it might have already left 'test_eval_inner_' and its stderr is not redirected to /dev/null anymore. That's why such a message can appear on the test script's stderr, while other times, when the child terminates fast and/or the parent shell is slow enough, the message ends up in /dev/null, just like any other output of the test does. Bash always adds the file name and line number of the code location it was about to execute when it notices the termination of its child process as a prefix to that message, hence the varying and sometimes totally unrelated location prefixes in those messages (e.g. line 388 in 'test-lib-functions.sh' is 'test_verify_prereq', and I saw such a message pointing to 'say_color' as well). Prevent these messages from appearing on the test script's stderr by 'wait'-ing on the pid of the background 'git fast-import' process after sending it the TERM signal. This ensures that the executing shell's stderr is still redirected when the shell notices the termination of its child process in the background, and that these messages get a consistent file/line location prefix. Note that this is not an issue when the test script is run with Bash and '-v', because then these messages are supposed to go to the test script's stderr anyway, and indeed all of them do; though the sometimes seemingly random file/line prefixes could be confusing still. Similarly, it's not an issue with Bash and '--verbose-log' either, because then all messages go to the log file as they should. Finally, it's not an issue with some other shells (I tried dash, ksh, ksh93 and mksh) even without any of the verbose options, because they don't print messages like these in non-interactive mode in the first place. Signed-off-by: SZEDER Gábor <szeder.dev@xxxxxxxxx> --- t/t9300-fast-import.sh | 5 ++++- 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/t/t9300-fast-import.sh b/t/t9300-fast-import.sh index 9e7f96223d..fac33e524c 100755 --- a/t/t9300-fast-import.sh +++ b/t/t9300-fast-import.sh @@ -3147,7 +3147,10 @@ background_import_then_checkpoint () { echo $! >V.pid # We don't mind if fast-import has already died by the time the test # ends. - test_when_finished "exec 8>&-; exec 9>&-; kill $(cat V.pid) || true" + test_when_finished " + exec 8>&-; exec 9>&-; + kill $(cat V.pid) && wait $(cat V.pid) + true" # Start in the background to ensure we adhere strictly to (blocking) # pipes writing sequence. We want to assume that the write below could -- 2.18.0.408.g42635c01bc