FS#65076 - [xorg-server-xvfb] munges stdout and stderr together

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Robbert Gurdeep Singh (beardhatcode) - Tuesday, 07 January 2020, 18:41 GMT
Last edited by Andreas Radke (AndyRTR) - Monday, 16 November 2020, 12:34 GMT
Task Type Bug Report
Category Packages: Extra
Status Closed
Assigned To Andreas Radke (AndyRTR)
Laurent Carlier (lordheavy)
Architecture All
Severity Low
Priority Normal
Reported Version
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 0
Private No

Details

Description:

xvfb-run outputs everything (stdout and stderr) to stdout. While this should be separated.


The xvfb-run script in xorg-server-xvfb executes
DISPLAY=:$SERVERNUM XAUTHORITY=$AUTHFILE "$@" 2>&1

instead of
DISPLAY=:$SERVERNUM XAUTHORITY=$AUTHFILE "$@"

Offending line:
https://git.archlinux.org/svntogit/packages.git/tree/trunk/xvfb-run?h=packages/xorg-server#n181


Additional info:
* package version: xorg-server-xvfb 1.20.6-3
* config and/or log files etc.
* Ubuntu bugreport: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg-server/+bug/1059947
(cant find an X.org bug for it)

Steps to reproduce:
xvfb-run -- sh -c "echo hey >&2" > /dev/null

Returns nothing (should return "hey")

Fix:
A patch file is attached (removing the last 5 characters of the offending line)
   xvfb.patch (0.5 KiB)
This task depends upon

Closed by  Andreas Radke (AndyRTR)
Monday, 16 November 2020, 12:34 GMT
Reason for closing:  Fixed
Additional comments about closing:  1.20.9-3 - let's pray it doesn't break other packages that may expect that unwanted mengled behavior
Comment by Jan de Groot (JGC) - Monday, 13 January 2020, 15:33 GMT
There is no upstream report for this because xvfb-run is a script taken from Debian.

Note that Ubuntu has reverted the suggested patch, as it breaks automated tests that rely on the behavior.
Comment by Andreas Radke (AndyRTR) - Tuesday, 14 January 2020, 17:09 GMT
We don't use Ubuntu "autopkgtests" that may fail.

No idea if our packages that (check)depend on xorg-server-xvfb would suddenly fail. I guess not.
Debian actually applied the patch and never went back it seems: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=868876

We should probably do the same and fix it.

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