Testing GUI programs

[Ole Streicher <olebole@debian.org>]

Hi,

I have a package (saods9) with a graphical user interface (Tk), and I
want to make some basic build-time and CI tests. The program can be
controlled from the command line; however it needs a running X server to
start.

I could depend on xvfb, and do a

Xvfb &
xpid=$!
DISPLAY=:0 ... do the tests
kill $xpid

but maybe there is a canonical or better way? If doing as described
above, can I rely on the default screen :0 not being taken on build
(chroot) machines? Or how can I make sure to get/create a usable X
server?

Best regards

Ole