TETware documentation[1] states that tcc behaves differently in response to SIGINT vs. SIGQUIT. SIGTERM is documented as having an impact when sent to *tccd*.
[1] http://tetworks.opengroup.org/documents/3.7/uguide.pdf The difference is that INT only causes the current test purpose to be interrupted, whereas QUIT aborts the entire tcc session (including the current tp and all tps to come). TERM isn't documented as interrupting any of tcc's subprocesses, which appears consistent with your observations. I think what run_test may want is SIGQUIT behavior in response to any of HUP, INT, QUIT, or TERM. You could 'hack' your run_test and see if replacing TERM with QUIT achieves the end you desire. I'd look at the journal file contents as well in addition to ptree output. -UVR.
