diff --git a/dev-lang/swig/swig-4.1.1-r1.ebuild b/dev-lang/swig/swig-4.1.1-r1.ebuild
index 6005fe897744e..ef3654bdc980b 100644
--- a/dev-lang/swig/swig-4.1.1-r1.ebuild
+++ b/dev-lang/swig/swig-4.1.1-r1.ebuild
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Copyright 1999-2025 Gentoo Authors
+# Copyright 1999-2026 Gentoo Authors
 # Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
 
 EAPI=8
@@ -13,7 +13,8 @@ LICENSE="GPL-3+ BSD BSD-2"
 SLOT="0"
 KEYWORDS="~alpha amd64 arm arm64 ~hppa ~loong ~m68k ~mips ppc ppc64 ~riscv ~s390 ~sparc x86 ~arm64-macos ~x64-macos ~x64-solaris"
 IUSE="ccache doc pcre test"
-RESTRICT="!test? ( test )"
+# tests are automagic for many languages and quite brittle
+RESTRICT="!test? ( test ) test"
 
 RDEPEND="
 	pcre? ( dev-libs/libpcre2 )
diff --git a/dev-lang/swig/swig-4.2.1.ebuild b/dev-lang/swig/swig-4.2.1.ebuild
index 63d49485b5cc1..760c95ae2e668 100644
--- a/dev-lang/swig/swig-4.2.1.ebuild
+++ b/dev-lang/swig/swig-4.2.1.ebuild
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Copyright 1999-2025 Gentoo Authors
+# Copyright 1999-2026 Gentoo Authors
 # Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
 
 EAPI=8
@@ -13,7 +13,8 @@ LICENSE="GPL-3+ BSD BSD-2"
 SLOT="0"
 KEYWORDS="~alpha amd64 arm arm64 ~hppa ~loong ~m68k ~mips ppc ppc64 ~riscv ~s390 ~sparc x86 ~arm64-macos ~x64-macos ~x64-solaris"
 IUSE="ccache doc pcre test"
-RESTRICT="!test? ( test )"
+# tests are automagic for many languages and quite brittle
+RESTRICT="!test? ( test ) test"
 
 RDEPEND="
 	pcre? ( dev-libs/libpcre2 )
diff --git a/dev-lang/swig/swig-4.3.1.ebuild b/dev-lang/swig/swig-4.3.1.ebuild
index a5ad891992f5e..3ed12cb19f205 100644
--- a/dev-lang/swig/swig-4.3.1.ebuild
+++ b/dev-lang/swig/swig-4.3.1.ebuild
@@ -13,7 +13,8 @@ LICENSE="GPL-3+ BSD BSD-2"
 SLOT="0"
 KEYWORDS="~alpha ~amd64 ~arm ~arm64 ~hppa ~loong ~m68k ~mips ppc ppc64 ~riscv ~s390 ~sparc ~x86 ~arm64-macos ~x64-macos ~x64-solaris"
 IUSE="ccache doc pcre test"
-RESTRICT="!test? ( test )"
+# tests are automagic for many languages and quite brittle
+RESTRICT="!test? ( test ) test"
 
 RDEPEND="
 	pcre? ( dev-libs/libpcre2 )
diff --git a/dev-lang/swig/swig-4.4.1.ebuild b/dev-lang/swig/swig-4.4.1.ebuild
index 74e6dc6346ed0..4f7a492803874 100644
--- a/dev-lang/swig/swig-4.4.1.ebuild
+++ b/dev-lang/swig/swig-4.4.1.ebuild
@@ -13,7 +13,8 @@ LICENSE="GPL-3+ BSD BSD-2"
 SLOT="0"
 KEYWORDS="~alpha ~amd64 ~arm ~arm64 ~hppa ~loong ~m68k ~mips ~ppc ~ppc64 ~riscv ~s390 ~sparc ~x86 ~arm64-macos ~x64-macos ~x64-solaris"
 IUSE="ccache doc pcre test"
-RESTRICT="!test? ( test )"
+# tests are automagic for many languages and quite brittle
+RESTRICT="!test? ( test ) test"
 
 RDEPEND="
 	pcre? ( dev-libs/libpcre2 )