A <precheck> command is considered to have failed if it returns a non-zero

return code.  This way, if the precheck command can't be run at all for
whatever reason, it's treated as a precheck failure which causes the
test to be skipped.

CHANGES

@@ -6,6 +6,12 @@
 
                                   Changelog
 
+Daniel Fandrich (15 Oct 2008)
+- A <precheck> command is considered to have failed if it returns a non-zero
+  return code.  This way, if the precheck command can't be run at all for
+  whatever reason, it's treated as a precheck failure which causes the
+  test to be skipped.
+
 Daniel Stenberg (15 Oct 2008)
 - John Wilkinson filed bug #2155496
   (http://curl.haxx.se/bug/view.cgi?id=2155496) pointing out an error case

tests/FILEFORMAT

@@ -176,9 +176,9 @@ restart servers.
 
 <precheck>
 A command line that if set gets run by the test script before the test. If an
-output is displayed by the command, the test will be skipped and the
-(single-line) output will be displayed as reason for not running the test.
-Variables are substituted as in the <command> section.
+output is displayed by the command or if the return code is non-zero, the test
+will be skipped and the (single-line) output will be displayed as reason for
+not running the test.  Variables are substituted as in the <command> section.
 </precheck>
 
 <postcheck>

tests/runtests.pl

@@ -486,6 +486,7 @@ sub torture {
         else {
             $ret = runclient($testcmd);
         }
+        #logmsg "$_ Returned " . $ret / 256 . "\n";
 
         # Now clear the variable again
         $ENV{'CURL_MEMLIMIT'} = undef;
@@ -1857,6 +1858,8 @@ sub singletest {
             if($o[0]) {
                 $why = $o[0];
                 chomp $why;
+            } elsif($?) {
+                $why = "precheck command error";
             }
             logmsg "prechecked $cmd\n" if($verbose);
         }