Bug#994848: xterm: "xterm -e command" should return the exit code of "command"

[Sven Joachim <svenjoac@gmx.de>]

On 2021-09-21 22:52 +0200, Axel Beckert wrote:

> Package: xterm
> Version: 368-2
> Severity: wishlist
> Tags: upstream
>
> Hi,
>
> for test suites of tools which manipulate terminals, it would be nice if
> "xterm -e command" would return the exit code of "command", e.g.
>
>   $ xterm -e false
>
> should exit with return code 1, but actually does exit with return code 0.

That would certainly be useful for automatic tests, but seems to clash
with xterm's current use of error return codes when it itself encounters
a fatal problem.  See the "ERROR MESSAGES" section in the manpage.

All the terminal emulators on my system behave the same way as xterm and
happily exit 0, even when the command specified in the -e option cannot
be found.

Cheers,
       Sven