From 9711a90bdecb7b20cddf9cbc2ef2c5c991a90494 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: jochen <jschoubben@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2026 00:48:00 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] A command with no marker is a failure, not a success
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Two faults in one line of the harness, and the second is the serious one.

Every command was wrapped as `<cmd> 2>&1; echo "__exit=$?"` on a single line,
so any command containing a heredoc broke: the terminator line became
`MARKER 2>&1; echo ...`, matched nothing, and the heredoc swallowed the rest of
the script — the echo with it. `exec 2>&1` on its own first line fixes that: a
heredoc then terminates where it says it does.

And when the marker was gone, `Number("")` is 0, so the missing exit status
read as exit 0. A command whose output was swallowed reported that it worked,
which is the one answer a test harness must never give. It is now a failure,
with whatever was said returned so the reason is visible.

Found because the firewall test's listener is written with a heredoc and never
started, and the test failed on its own setup — which reads exactly like the
firewall working.
---
 test/integration/mesh.test.ts | 17 +++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/test/integration/mesh.test.ts b/test/integration/mesh.test.ts
index a3c3705..3522d55 100644
--- a/test/integration/mesh.test.ts
+++ b/test/integration/mesh.test.ts
@@ -66,11 +66,24 @@ function quote(s: string): string {
 }
 
 async function on(machine: string, command: string, timeoutMs?: number): Promise<{ out: string; ok: boolean }> {
+  // Each part on its own line, and stderr redirected once for the whole script.
+  //
+  // It was `${command} 2>&1; echo ...` on a single line, which quietly broke every command
+  // containing a heredoc: the terminator line became `MARKER 2>&1; echo ...`, matched nothing, and
+  // the heredoc swallowed the rest of the script — including the echo. `exec 2>&1` needs no
+  // trailing text on the command's last line, so a heredoc terminates where it says it does.
   const { stdout } = await exec(instanceId, machine, [
-    "sh", "-c", `${command} 2>&1; echo "__exit=$?"`,
+    "sh", "-c", `exec 2>&1\n${command}\necho "__exit=$?"`,
   ], timeoutMs);
   const marker = stdout.lastIndexOf("__exit=");
-  return { out: stdout.slice(0, marker), ok: Number(stdout.slice(marker + 7).trim()) === 0 };
+  if (marker < 0) {
+    // **Never success.** `Number("")` is 0, so a missing marker used to read as exit 0 — a
+    // command whose output was swallowed reported that it worked, which is the one answer a test
+    // harness must never give.
+    return { out: stdout, ok: false };
+  }
+  const said = stdout.slice(marker + 7).trim();
+  return { out: stdout.slice(0, marker), ok: said === "0" };
 }
 
 async function must(machine: string, command: string, timeoutMs?: number): Promise<string> {