Package: lintian
Version: 2.104.0
Severity: wishlist
Hi!
I found that a lot of packages declare an autopkgtest where the Test-Command
backgrounds itself. This does nothing useful, as eg:
Test-Command: false &
passes successfully. As the return value is ignored, any way such a test
can possibly fail is due to a stderr message that wins a race with
autopkgtest harness finishing. But even that rarely does work:
Test-Command: xvfb-run -a /usr/bin/gcrytsal &
hasn't failed "for real" yet.
In most cases, this seems to be copy-pasta of xvfb-run for GUI programs.
There's no way to reliably spot un-waited-for backgroundings in long-form
tests (ie, ones shipped in a separate file), but checking for Test-Command
ending in an & should catch current crop of offenders.
