Some tests with timeout erroneously skipped on Debian

[Stefano Lattarini]

Hello everybody.

When I run the testsuite of GNU grep (from latest git master) on my
Debian unstable system, some tests are skipped with the message:
  TEST-NAME: skipped test: your system lacks the timeout program
The list of tests skipped for this reason is:
  empty fgrep-infloop sjis-mb

However, I *do* have a working timeout program:

  $ type timeout
  timeout is /usr/bin/timeout
  $ /usr/bin/timeout 1s true
  $ /usr/bin/timeout 1s sleep 10
  Timeout: aborting command ``sleep'' with signal 9
  Killed

Apparently, the `require_timeout_' subroutine in `tests/init.cfg'
fails to recognize my timout program because it doesn't support the
`--version' option:
  
  $ /usr/bin/timeout --version; echo \$?=$?
  usage: /usr/bin/timeout [-signal] time command...
  $?=1

If I edit `require_timeout_' by substituting `timeout --version' with
`timeout 10s true', the tests `empty' and `fgrep-infloop' are run, and
pass (the test `sjis-mb' gets skipped with the message "SJIS locale not
found", but that's another story I guess).

More details on my system and my timeout program:
  
  $ cat /etc/debian_version
  squeeze/sid
  $ dpkg -S /usr/bin/timeout
  timeout: /usr/bin/timeout
  $ dpkg -l timeout
  ii  timeout   1.19-1   run a command with a time limit
  $ aptitude -s show timeout
  Section: admin
  Maintainer: Debian Forensics <address@hidden>
  Uncompressed Size: 86.0k
  Depends: libc6 (>= 2.0)
  Description: run a command with a time limit
    timeout executes a command and imposes an elapsed time limit. When the
    time limit is reached, timeout sends a predefined signal to the target
    process.
    Please note that recent coreutils (>= 7.5-1) provide a timeout binary
    as well so you probably won't need this package anymore nowadays.
  Homepage: http://www.porcupine.org/
  $ dpkg -l coreutils
  ii  coreutils   7.4-2   The GNU core utilities

Regards,
    Stefano