Test group jdk_launcher was introduced in JDK-8042266 (indicates that launcher tests only for manual testing), also TEST.groups comments with:

+# java launcher specific tests, Note: do not include this group into any groups
+# that potentially could be included into a jprt test rule, as the complementary
+# closed group includes awt SplashScreen and these tests may not run
+# satisfacotorily on all platforms and profiles thus this group must always
+# be a stand-alone group
+jdk_launcher = \
+ tools/launcher \
+ sun/tools

But same set of tests actually included in jdk_tools (core_tools or svc_tools), and will be run by all normal (aotu) testing: nightly, jprt, Mach 5 ...

core_tools = \
    tools \
    jdk/internal/jimage \
    jdk/internal/jrtfs \
    sun/tools/java \
    sun/tools/native2ascii \
    sun/tools/jrunscript

svc_tools = \
    com/sun/tools/attach \
    sun/tools \
    -sun/tools/java \
    -sun/tools/native2ascii \
    -sun/tools/jrunscript \


If launcher tests *should not* be included in jdk_tools (core_tools or svc_tools), they need to be excluded from these groups.