some tets will fail like test_pyrepl `when can't use pyrepl`

[yihong0618]

This issue found when doing 139380

hyideMacBook-Pro:cpython hyi$ export TERM=unknown
hyideMacBook-Pro:cpython hyi$ ./python.exe 
No entry for terminal type "unknown";
using dumb terminal settings.
Python 3.15.0a0 (heads/main-dirty:89b5571025, Sep 30 2025, 14:22:39) [Clang 17.0.0 (clang-1700.0.13.5)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
warning: can't use pyrepl: (5, "terminal doesn't have the required clear capability"); TERM=unknown

will fail and with pdb remote and curser test
./python.exe -m unittest test.test_pyrepl

after some dig the code in test_pyrepl.py _run_repl maybe not fullly right.

        if skip and "can't use pyrepl" in output:
            self.skipTest("pyrepl not available")
        return output, exit_code

the fix can solve the problem in pyrepl

diff --git a/Lib/test/test_pyrepl/test_pyrepl.py b/Lib/test/test_pyrepl/test_pyrepl.py
index 47d384a209..c7a6a1392b 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_pyrepl/test_pyrepl.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_pyrepl/test_pyrepl.py
@@ -139,6 +139,14 @@ def _run_repl(
                 if exit_on_output in output[0]:
                     process.kill()
                     break
+            if "can't use pyrepl" in "".join(output):
+                os.close(master_fd)
+                process.kill()
+                try:
+                    process.wait(timeout=timeout)
+                except subprocess.TimeoutExpired:
+                    pass
+                self.skipTest("pyrepl not available")
         else:
             os.close(master_fd)
             process.kill()
@@ -1654,6 +1662,7 @@ def test_not_wiping_history_file(self):
         import_module('readline')
 
         hfile = tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(delete=False)
+        self.addCleanup(hfile.close)
         self.addCleanup(unlink, hfile.name)
         env = os.environ.copy()
         env["PYTHON_HISTORY"] = hfile.name

others not solve(pdb remote on mac cursers.)

the fix is not simple so only the dig and the issue here.
Thanks

cc @picnixz

[picnixz]

I'm not sure we should actually care about bad tests here. We expect people to use the default terminal, not manually setting TERM to unknown. Otherwise, we should actually use skip for all tests because the REPL might be in a bad state, but that's not a good idea either IMO.

cc @ambv

[yihong0618]

I'm not sure we should actually care about bad tests here. We expect people to use the default terminal, not manually setting TERM to unknown. Otherwise, we should actually use skip for all tests because the REPL might be in a bad state, but that's not a good idea either IMO.

cc @ambv

the problem is that its already care...but not cover all the place...

        if skip and "can't use pyrepl" in output:
            self.skipTest("pyrepl not available")
        return output, exit_code

[yihong0618]

I'm not sure we should actually care about bad tests here. We expect people to use the default terminal, not manually setting TERM to unknown. Otherwise, we should actually use skip for all tests because the REPL might be in a bad state, but that's not a good idea either IMO.

cc @ambv

copy that.

[picnixz]

the problem is that its already care...but not cover all the place...

It only cares if skip is True, and the default is False. To make it care at all time, we should have skip = True, but I'm not sure it's always expected (I don't know). But I'll let Łukasz decide.

[yihong0618]

the problem is that its already care...but not cover all the place...

It only cares if skip is True, and the default is False. To make it care at all time, we should have skip = True, but I'm not sure it's always expected (I don't know). But I'll let Łukasz decide.

Thank you for the info.

[picnixz]

@ambv Could you make a decision here about implicitly skipping tests if the REPL can't be used?