[[!metatitle="testremote of external special remote fails with 'Cannot run git-annex-remote-!dne!'"]] ### Please describe the problem. When git-annex has not recently used a remote, there appears to be a race condition where sometimes it will fail with "git-annex: Cannot run git-annex-remote-!dne! -- Make sure it's in your PATH and is executable." ### What steps will reproduce the problem? This test script will trigger it: https://gitlab.com/DanielDent/git-annex-remote-rclone/blob/demo-race-condition/.gitlab-ci.yml Output: https://gitlab.com/DanielDent/git-annex-remote-rclone/builds/2167279 This test script works: https://gitlab.com/DanielDent/git-annex-remote-rclone/blob/demo-race-condition-2/.gitlab-ci.yml But the reason it works is because it's using "git-annex testremote GA-rclone-CI --fast || git-annex testremote GA-rclone-CI --fast" - it fails the first time, and then works the second time. Output: https://gitlab.com/DanielDent/git-annex-remote-rclone/builds/2167316 This test script doesn't trigger it: https://gitlab.com/DanielDent/git-annex-remote-rclone/blob/master/.gitlab-ci.yml Output: https://gitlab.com/DanielDent/git-annex-remote-rclone/builds/2166902 The 'git-annex copy test --to GA-rclone-CI' line prior to the 'testremote' invocation seems to warm caches and avoids having the bug trigger. > [[fixed|done]] --[[Joey]]