1 EXPORTABLE EXIM TEST SUITE
2 --------------------------
4 This document last updated for:
6 Test Suite Version: 4.67
13 For a long time, the Exim test suite was confined to Philip Hazel's
14 workstation, because it relied on that particular environment. The problem is
15 that an MTA such as Exim interacts a great deal with its environment, so if you
16 run it somewhere else, the output will be different, which makes automatic
17 checking difficult. Even in a single environment, things are not all that easy.
18 For instance, if Exim delivers a message, the log line (which one would want to
19 compare) contains a timestamp and an Exim message id that will be different
20 each time. This issue is dealt with by a Perl script that munges the output by
21 recognizing changing sequences and replacing them with fixed values before
22 doing a comparison. Another problem with exporting the original test suite is
23 that it assumes a version of Exim with more or less every optional feature
26 This README describes a new test suite that is intended to be exportable and to
27 run in a number of different environments. The tests themselves are in no
28 particular order; they accumulated over the years as Exim was extended and
29 modified. They vary greatly in size and complexity. Some were specifically
30 constructed to test new features; others were made to demonstrate that a bug
33 A few of the original tests have had to be omitted from this more general
34 suite because differences in operating system behaviour make it impossible to
35 generalize them. An example is a test that uses a version of Exim that is
36 setuid to the Exim user rather than root, with the deliver_drop_privilege
37 option set. In Linux, such a binary is able to deliver a message as the caller
38 of Exim, because it can revert to the caller's uid. In FreeBSD this is not the
45 In order to run this test suite, the following requirements must be met:
47 (1) You should run the tests on a matching version of Exim, because the suite
48 is continuously updated to test the latest features and bug fixes. The
49 version you test does not, however, have to be installed as the live
50 version. You can of course try the tests on any version of Exim, but some
51 may fail. In particular, the test suite will fall apart horrible with
52 versions of Exim prior to 4.54.
54 (2) You can use any non-root login to run the tests, but there must be access
55 via "sudo" to root from this login. Privilege is required to override
56 configuration change checks and for things like cleaning up spool files,
57 but on the other hand, the tests themselves need to call Exim from a
58 non-root process. The use of "sudo" is the easiest way to achieve all this.
59 The test script uses "sudo" to do a number of things as root, so it is best
60 if you set a sudo timeout so that you do not have to keep typing a
61 password. For example, if you put
63 Defaults timestamp_timeout=480
65 in /etc/sudoers, a password lasts for 8 hours (a working day). It is
66 not permitted to run the tests as the Exim user because the test suite
67 tracks the two users independently. Using the same user would result
68 in false positives on some tests.
70 Further, some tests invoke sudo in an environment where there might not be
71 a TTY, so tickets should be global, not per-TTY. Taking this all together
72 and assuming a user of "exim-build", you might have this in sudoers:
74 Defaults:exim-build timestamp_timeout=480,!tty_tickets
76 (3) The login under which you run the tests must be in the exim group so that
77 it has access to logs, spool files, etc. The login should not be one of the
78 names "userx", "usery", "userz", or a few other simple ones such as "abcd"
79 and "xyz" and single letters that are used in the tests. The test suite
80 expects the login to have a gecos name; I think it will now run if the
81 gecos field is empty but there may be anomalies.
82 The login must not contain a dash or an equal sign. (Otherwise some tests
83 about local_from_{suffix,prefix} will fail.)
85 (4) The directory into which you unpack the test suite must be accessible by
86 the Exim user, so that code running as exim can access the files therein.
87 This includes search-access on all path elements leading to it. A
88 world-readable directory is fine. However, there may be problems if the
89 path name of the directory is excessively long. This is because it
90 sometimes appears in log lines or debug output, and if it is truncated, it
91 is no longer recognized.
93 (5) Exim must be built with its user and group specified at build time, and
94 with certain minimum facilities, namely:
96 Routers: accept, dnslookup, manualroute, redirect
97 Transports: appendfile, autoreply, pipe, smtp
99 Authenticators: plaintext
101 Most Exim binaries will have these included.
103 (6) A C compiler is needed to build some test programs, and the test script is
104 written in Perl, so you need that.
106 (7) Some of the tests run Exim as a daemon, and others use a testing server
107 (described below). These require TCP ports. In the configurations and
108 scripts, the ports are parameterized, but at present, fixed values are
109 written into the controlling script. These are ports 1224 to 1229. If these
110 ports are not available for use, some of the tests will fail.
112 (8) There is an underlying assumption that the host on which the tests are
113 being run has an IPv4 address (which the test script seeks out). If there
114 is also an IPv6 address, additional tests are run when the Exim binary
115 contains IPv6 support. There are checks in the scripts for a running IPv4
116 interface; when one is not found, some tests are skipped (with a warning
119 (9) Exim must be built with TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST support, so that the test
120 configs can be placed into it. A suitable file location is .../exim/test/trusted_configs
121 with content .../exim/test/test-config [fill out the ... to make full
122 paths]. This file should be owner/group matching CONFIGURE_OWNER/GROUP,
123 or root/root. The config files in .../exim/test/confs/ should be owner/group the same.
124 DISABLE_D_OPTION must not be used. If ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX is used, it
125 must contain the directory of the test-suite. WHITELIST_D_MACROS should contain:
127 DIR:EXIM_PATH:AA:ACL:ACLRCPT:ACL_MAIL:ACL_PREDATA:ACL_RCPT:AFFIX:ALLOW:ARG1:ARG2:AUTHF:AUTHS:AUTH_ID_DOMAIN:BAD:BANNER:BB:BR:BRB:CERT:COM:COMMAND_USER:CONNECTCOND:CONTROL:CREQCIP:CREQMAC:CRL:CSS:D6:DATA:DCF:DDF:DEFAULTDWC:DELAY:DETAILS:DRATELIMIT:DYNAMIC_OPTION:ELI:ERROR_DETAILS:ERT:FAKE:FALLBACK:FILTER:FILTER_PREPEND_HOME:FORBID:FORBID_SMTP_CODE:FUSER:HAI:HAP:HARDLIMIT:HEADER_LINE_MAXSIZE:HEADER_MAXSIZE:HELO_MSG:HL:HOSTS:HOSTS_AVOID_TLS:HOSTS_MAX_TRY:HVH:IFACE:IGNORE_QUOTA:INC:INSERT:IP1:IP2:LAST:LDAPSERVERS:LENCHECK:LIMIT:LIST:LOG_SELECTOR:LS:MAXNM:MESSAGE_LOGS:MSIZE:NOTDAEMON:ONCE:ONLY:OPT:OPTION:ORDER:PAH:PEX:PORT:PTBC:QDG:QOLL:QUOTA:QUOTA_FILECOUNT:QWM:RCPT_MSG:REMEMBER:REQUIRE:RETRY:RETRY1:RETRY2:RETURN:RETURN_ERROR_DETAILS:REWRITE:ROUTE_DATA:RRATELIMIT:RT:S:SELECTOR:SELF:SERVER:SERVERS:SREQCIP:SREQMAC:SRV:STD:STRICT:SUB:SUBMISSION_OPTIONS:TIMEOUTDEFER:TIMES:TRUSTED:TRYCLEAR:UL:USE_SENDER:UTF8:VALUE:WMF:X:Y
129 (10) Exim must *not* be built with USE_READLINE, as the test-suite's automation
130 assumes the simpler I/O model.
131 Exim must *not* be built with HEADERS_CHARSET set to UTF-8.
138 If the Exim binary that is being tested contains extra functionality in
139 addition to the minimum specified above, additional tests are run to exercise
140 the extra functionality, except for a few special cases such as the databases
141 (MySQL, PostgreSQL, LDAP) where special data is needed for the tests.
144 RUNNING THE TEST SUITE
145 ----------------------
147 (1) Download the tarball exim-testsuite-x.xx.tar.bz2 and unpack it, preferably
148 in a directory alongside an Exim source directory (see below).
150 (2) cd into the exim-testsuite-x.xx directory.
152 (3) Run "autoconf" then "./configure" and then "make". This builds a few
153 auxiliary programs that are written in C.
155 (4) echo $PWD/test-config >> your_TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST_filename
156 Typically that is .../exim/test/trusted_configs
158 (5) Run "./runtest" (a Perl script) as described below.
160 (6) If you want to see what tests are available, run "./listtests".
163 BREAKING OUT OF THE TEST SCRIPT
164 -------------------------------
166 If you abandon the test run by typing ^C, the interrupt may be passed to a
167 program that the script is running, or it may be passed to the script itself.
168 In the former case, the script should detect that the program has ended
169 abnormally. In both cases, the script tries to clean up everything, including
170 killing any Exim daemons that it has started. However, there may be race
171 conditions in which the clean up does not happen. If, after breaking out of a
172 run, you see strange errors in the next run, look for any left-over Exim
173 daemons, and kill them by hand.
179 The individual test scripts are in subdirectories of the "scripts" directory.
180 If you do not supply any arguments to ./listtests, it scans all the scripts in
181 all the directories, and outputs the heading line from each script. The output
182 is piped through "less", and begins like this:
185 Basic/0001 Basic configuration setting
186 Basic/0002 Common string expansions
187 Basic/0003 Caseless address blocking
190 Lines that start === give the name of the subdirectory containing the test
191 scripts that follow. If you supply an argument to ./listtests, it is used as a
192 Perl pattern to match case-independently against the names of the
193 subdirectories. Only those that match are scanned. For example, "./listtests
196 === 1000-Basic-ipv6 ===
197 === Requires: support IPv6
198 Basic-ipv6/1000 -bh and non-canonical IPv6 addresses
199 Basic-ipv6/1001 recognizing IPv6 address in HELO/EHLO
201 === 2250-dnsdb-ipv6 ===
202 === Requires: support IPv6
204 dnsdb-ipv6/2250 dnsdb ipv6 lookup in string expansions
206 If you supply a second argument to ./listtests, it is used as a Perl pattern to
207 match case-independently against the individual script titles. For example,
208 "./listtests . mx" lists all tests whose titles contain "mx", because "."
209 matches all the subdirectory names.
215 If you do not supply any arguments to ./runtest, it searches for an Exim
216 source tree at the same level as the test suite directory. It then looks for an
217 Exim binary in a "build" directory of that source tree. If there are several
218 Exim source trees, it chooses the latest version of Exim. Consider the
222 exim-4.60/ exim-4.62/ exim-testsuite-x.xx/
224 A simple ./runtest from within the test suite will use a 4.62 binary if it
225 finds one, otherwise a 4.60 binary. If a binary cannot be found, the script
226 prompts for one. Alternatively, you can supply the binary on the command line:
228 ./runtest /usr/exim/bin/exim
230 A matching test suite is released with each Exim release; if you use a test
231 suite that does not match the binary, some tests may fail.
233 The test suite uses some of the Exim utilities (such as exim_dbmbuild), and it
234 expects to find them in the same directory as Exim itself. If they are not
235 found, the tests that use them are omitted. A suitable comment is output.
237 On the ./runtest command line, following the name of the binary, if present,
238 there may be a number of options and then one or two numbers. The full syntax
241 ./runtest [binary name] [runtest options] [exim options] \
242 [first test] [last test]
244 There are some options for the ./runtest script itself:
246 -CONTINUE This will allow the script to move past some failing tests. It will
247 write a simple failure line with the test number in a temporary
248 logfile test/failed-summary.log. Unexpected exit codes will still
249 stall the test execution and require interaction.
251 -DEBUG This option is for debugging the test script. It causes some
252 tracing information to be output.
254 -DIFF By default, file comparisons are done using a private compare
255 command called "cf", which is built from source that is provided in
256 the src directory. This is a command I've had for nearly 20 years -
257 look at the source comments for its history - whose output I
258 prefer. However, if you want to use "diff" instead, give -DIFF as a
259 runtest option. In that case, "diff -u" is used for comparisons.
260 (If it turns out that most people prefer to use diff, I'll change
263 -KEEP Normally, after a successful run, the test output files are
264 deleted. This option prevents this. It is useful when running a
265 single test, in order to look at the actual output before it is
266 modified for comparison with saved output.
268 -NOIPV4 Pretend that an IPv4 interface was not found. This is useful for
269 testing that the test suite correctly skips tests that require
270 a running IPv4 interface.
272 -NOIPV6 Pretend that an IPv6 interface was not found. This is useful for
273 testing that the test suite correctly skips tests that require
274 a running IPv6 interface.
276 -UPDATE If this option is set, any detected changes in test output are
277 automatically accepted and used to update the stored copies of the
278 output. It is a dangerous option, but it useful for the test suite
279 maintainer after making a change to the code that affects a lot of
280 tests (for example, the wording of a message).
282 The options for ./runtest must be given first (but after the name of the
283 binary, if present). Any further options, that is, items on the command line
284 that start with a hyphen, are passed to the Exim binary when it is run as part
285 of a test. The only sensible use of this is to pass "-d" in order to run a test
286 with debugging enabled. Any other options are likely to conflict with options
287 that are set in the tests. Some tests are already set up to run with debugging.
288 In these cases, -d on the command line overrides their own debug settings.
290 The final two arguments specify the range of tests to be run. Test numbers lie
291 in the range 1 to 9999. If no numbers are given, the defaults are 1 and 8999
292 (sic). Tests with higher numbers (9000 upwards) are not run automatically
293 because they require specific data (such as a particular MySQL table) that is
294 unlikely to be generally available.
296 Tests that require certain optional features of Exim are grouped by number, so
297 in any given range, not all the tests will exist. Non-existent tests are just
298 skipped, but if there are no tests at all in the given range, a message is
301 If you give only one number, just that test is run (if it exists). Instead of a
302 second number, you can give the character "+", which is interpreted as "to the
303 end". Normally this is 8999; if the starting number is 9000 or higher, "+" is
304 interpreted as 9999. Examples:
308 ./runtest /usr/sbin/exim 5000 +
309 ./runtest -DIFF -d 81
311 When the script starts up, the first thing it does is to check that you have
312 sudo access to root. Then it outputs the version number of the Exim binary that
313 it is testing, and also information about the optional facilities that are
314 present (obtained from "exim -bV"). This is followed by some environmental
315 information, including the current login id and the hosts's IP address. The
316 script checks that the current user is in the Exim group, and that the Exim
317 user has access to the test suite directory.
319 The script outputs the list of tests requested, and a list of tests that will
320 be omitted because the relevant optional facilities are not in the binary. You
321 are then invited to press Return to start the tests running.
327 When all goes well, the only permanent output is the identity of the tests as
328 they are run, and "Script completed" for each test script, for example:
330 Basic/0001 Basic configuration setting
332 Basic/0002 Basic string expansions
334 Basic/0003 Caseless address blocking
336 Basic/0004 Caseful address blocking
338 Basic/0005 -bs to simple local delivery
341 While a script is running, it shows "Test n" on the screen, for each of the
342 Exim tests within the script. There may also be comments from some tests when a
343 delay is expected, for example, if there is a "sleep" while testing a timeout.
345 Before each set of optional tests, an extra identifying line is output. For
348 >>> The following tests require: authenticator cram_md5
349 CRAM-MD5/2500 CRAM-MD5 server tests
351 CRAM-MD5/2501 CRAM-MD5 client tests
354 If a test fails, you are shown the output of the text comparison that failed,
355 and prompted as to what to do next. The output is shown using the "less"
356 command, or "more" if "less" is not available. The options for "less" are set
357 to that it automatically exits if there is less that a screenful of output. By
358 default, the output is from the "cf" program, and might look like this:
360 DBM/1300 DBM files and exim_dbmbuild
362 Lines 7-9 of "test-stdout-munged" do not match lines 7-11 of "stdout/1300".
364 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 1
365 Continued set of lines is too long: max permitted length is 99999
366 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 1
369 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 2
370 Continued set of lines is too long: max permitted length is 99999
372 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 2
375 "test-stdout-munged" contains 16 lines; "stdout/1300" contains 18 lines.
377 Continue, Retry, Update & retry, Quit? [Q]
379 This example was generated by running the test with a version of Exim
380 that had a bug in the exim_dbmbuild utility (the bug was fixed at release
381 4.53). See "How the tests work" below for a description of the files that are
382 used. In this case, the standard output differed from what was expected.
384 The reply to the prompt must either be empty, in which case it takes the
385 default that is given in brackets (in this case Q), or a single letter, in
386 upper or lower case (in this case, one of C, R, U, or Q). If you type anything
387 else, the prompt is repeated.
389 "Continue" carries on as if the files had matched; that is, it ignores the
390 mismatch. Any other output files for the same test will be compared before
391 moving on to the next test.
393 "Update & retry" copies the new file to the saved file, and reruns the test
394 after doing any further comparisons that may be necessary.
396 "Retry" does the same apart from the file copy.
398 Other circumstances give rise to other prompts. If a test generates output for
399 which there is no saved data, the prompt (after a message stating which file is
400 unexpectely not empty) is:
402 Continue, Show, or Quit? [Q]
404 "Show" displays the data on the screen, and then you get the "Continue..."
405 prompt. If a test ends with an unexpected return code, the prompt is:
407 show stdErr, show stdOut, Continue (without file comparison), or Quit? [Q]
409 Typically in these cases there will be something interesting in the stderr
410 or stdout output. There is a similar prompt after the "server" auxiliary
414 OPENSSL AND GNUTLS ERROR MESSAGES
415 ---------------------------------
417 Some of the TLS tests deliberately cause errors to check how Exim handles them.
418 It has been observed that different releases of the OpenSSL and GnuTLS
419 libraries generate different error messages. This may cause the comparison with
420 the saved output to fail. Such errors can be ignored.
426 . Some of the tests are time-sensitive (e.g. when testing timeouts, as in test
427 461). These may fail if run on a host that is also running a lot of other
430 . Some versions of "ls" use a different format for times and dates. This can
431 cause test 345 to fail.
433 . Test 0142 tests open file descriptors; on some hosts the output may vary.
435 . Some tests may fail, for example 0022, because it says it uses cached data
436 when the expected output thinks it should not be in cache. Item #5 in the
437 Requirements section has:
438 "Exim must be built with its user and group specified at build time"
439 This means that you cannot use the "ref:username" in your Local/Makefile
440 when building the exim binary, in any of the following fields:
441 EXIM_USER EXIM_GROUP CONFIGURE_OWNER CONFIGURE_GROUP
443 . If the runtest script warns that the hostname is not a Fully Qualified
444 Domain Name (FQDN), expect that some tests will fail, for example 0036,
445 with an extra log line saying the hostname doesn't resolve. You must use a
446 FQDN for the hostname for proper test functionality.
448 . If you change your hostname to a FQDN, you must delete the test/dnszones
449 subdirectory. When you next run the runtest script, it will rebuild the
450 content to use the new hostname.
452 . If your hostname has an uppercase characters in it, expect that some tests
453 will fail, for example, 0036, because some log lines will have the hostname
454 in all lowercase. The regex which extracts the hostname from the log lines
455 will not match the lowercased version.
457 . Some tests may fail, for example 0015, with a cryptic error message:
458 Server return code 99
459 Due to security concerns, some specific files MUST have the group write bit
460 off. For the purposes of the test suite, some test/aux-fixed/* files MUST
461 have the group write bit off, so it's easier to just remove the group write
462 bit for all of them. If your umask is set to 002, the group write bit will
463 be on by default and you'll see this problem, so make sure your umask is
464 022 and re-checkout the test/ subdirectory.
466 . Some tests will fail if the username and group name are different. It does
467 not have to be the primary group, a secondary group is sufficient.
470 OTHER SCRIPTS AND PROGRAMS
471 --------------------------
473 There is a freestanding Perl script called "listtests" that scans the test
474 scripts and outputs a list of all the tests, with a short descriptive comment
475 for each one. Special requirements for groups of tests are also noted.
477 The main runtest script makes use of a second Perl script and some compiled C
480 patchexim A Perl script that makes a patched version of Exim (see the
481 next section for details).
483 bin/cf A text comparison program (see above).
485 bin/checkaccess A program that is run as root; it changes uid/gid to the
486 Exim user and group, and then checks that it can access
487 files in the test suite's directory.
489 bin/client A script-driven SMTP client simulation.
491 bin/client-gnutls A script-driven SMTP client simulation with GnuTLS support.
492 This is built only if GnuTLS support is detected on the host.
494 bin/client-ssl A script-driven SMTP client simulation with OpenSSL support.
495 This is built only if OpenSSL support is detected on the
498 bin/fakens A fake "nameserver" for DNS tests (see below for details).
500 bin/fd A program that outputs details of open file descriptors.
502 bin/iefbr14 A program that does nothing, and returns 0. It's just like
503 the "true" command, but it is in a known place.
505 bin/loaded Some dynamically loaded functions for testing dlfunc support.
507 bin/mtpscript A script-driven SMTP/LMTP server simulation, on std{in,out}.
509 bin/server A script-driven SMTP server simulation, over a socket.
511 bin/showids Output the current uid, gid, euid, egid.
513 The runtest script also makes use of a number of ordinary commands such as
514 "cp", "kill", "more", and "rm", via the system() call. In some cases these are
515 run as root by means of sudo.
518 STANDARD SUBSTITUTIONS
519 ----------------------
521 In the following sections, there are several references to the "standard
522 substitutions". These make changes to some of the stored files when they are
523 used in a test. To save repetition, the substitutions themselves are documented
526 CALLER is replaced by the login name of the user running the tests
527 CALLERGROUP is replaced by the caller's group id
528 CALLER_GID is replaced by the caller's group id
529 CALLER_UID is replaced by the caller's user id
530 DIR is replaced by the name of the test-suite directory
531 EXIMGROUP is replaced by the name of the Exim group
532 EXIMUSER is replaced by the name of the Exim user
533 HOSTIPV4 is replaced by the local host's IPv4 address
534 HOSTIPV6 is replaced by the local host's IPv6 address
535 HOSTNAME is replaced by the local host's name
536 PORT_D is replaced by a port number for normal daemon use
537 PORT_N is replaced by a port number that should never respond
538 PORT_S is replaced by a port number for normal bin/server use
539 TESTNUM is replaced by the current test number
540 V4NET is replaced by an IPv4 network number for testing
541 V6NET is replaced by an IPv6 network number for testing
543 PORT_D is currently hard-wired to 1225, PORT_N to 1223, and PORT_S to 1224.
544 V4NET is hardwired to 224 and V6NET to ff00. These networks are used for DNS
545 testing purposes, and for testing Exim with -bh. The only requirement is that
546 they are networks that can never be used for an IP address of a real host. I've
547 chosen two multicast networks for the moment.
549 If the host has no IPv6 address, "<no IPv6 address found>" is substituted but
550 that does not matter because no IPv6 tests will be run. A similar substitution
551 is made if there is no IPv4 address, and again, tests that actually require a
552 running IPv4 interface should be skipped.
554 If the host has more than one IPv4 or IPv6 address, the first one that
555 "ifconfig" lists is used. If the only available address is 127.0.0.1 (or ::1
556 for IPv6) it is used, but another value is preferred if available.
558 In situations where a specific test is not being run (for example, when setting
559 up dynamic data files), TESTNUM is replaced by an empty string, but should not
560 in fact occur in such files.
566 Each numbered script runs Exim (sometimes several times) with its own Exim
567 configuration file. The configurations are stored in the "confs" directory,
568 and before running each test, a copy of the appropriate configuration, with the
569 standard substitutions, is made in the file test-config. The -C command line
570 option is used to tell Exim to use this configuration.
572 The -D option is used to pass the path of the Exim binary to the configuration.
573 This is not standardly substituted, because there are two possible binaries
574 that might be used in the same test (one setuid to root, the other to the exim
575 user). Some tests also make use of -D to vary the configuration for different
576 calls to the Exim binary.
578 Normally, of course, Exim gives up root privilege when -C and -D are used by
579 unprivileged users. We do not want this to happen when running the tests,
580 because we want to be able to test all aspects of Exim, including receiving
581 mail from unprivileged users. The way this is handled is as follows:
583 At the start of the runtest script, the patchexim script is run as root. This
584 script makes a copy of the Exim binary that is to be tested, patching it as it
585 does so. (This is a binary patch, not a source patch.) The patch causes the
586 binary, when run, to "know" that it is running in the test harness. It does not
587 give up root privilege when -C and -D are used, and in a few places it takes
588 other special actions, such as delaying when starting a subprocess to allow
589 debug output from the parent to be written first. If you want to know more,
590 grep the Exim source files for "running_in_test_harness".
592 The patched binary is placed in the directory eximdir/exim and given the normal
593 setuid root privilege. This is, of course, a dangerous binary to have lying
594 around, especially if there are unprivileged users on the system. To protect
595 it, the eximdir directory is created with the current user as owner, exim as
596 the group owner, and with access drwx--x---. Thus, only the user who is running
597 the tests (who is known to have access to root) and the exim user have access
598 to the modified Exim binary. When runtest terminates, the patched binary is
601 Each set of tests proceeds by interpreting its controlling script. The scripts
602 are in subdirectories of the "scripts" directory. They are split up according
603 to the requirements of the tests they contain, with the 0000-Basic directory
604 containing tests that can always be run. Run the "listtests" script to obtain a
611 Output from script runs is written to the files test-stdout and test-stderr.
612 When an Exim server is involved, test-stdout-server and test-stderr-server are
613 used for its output. Before being compared with the saved output, the
614 non-server and server files are concatenated, so a single saved file contains
617 A directory called spool is used for Exim's spool files, and for Exim logs.
618 These locations are specified in every test's configuration file.
620 When messages are delivered to files, the files are put in the test-mail
621 directory. Output from comparisons is written to test-cf.
623 Before comparisons are done, output texts are modified ("munged") to change or
624 remove parts that are expected to vary from run to run. The modified files all
625 end with the suffix "-munged". Thus, you will see test-stdout-munged,
626 test-mainlog-munged, test-mail-munged, and so on. Other files whose names start
627 with "test-" are created and used by some of the tests.
629 At the end of a successful test run, the spool directory and all the files
630 whose names begin with "test-" are removed. If the run ends unsuccessfully
631 (typically after a "Q" response to a prompt), the spool and test files are left
632 in existence so that the problem can be investigated.
638 Each test script consists of a list of commands, each optionally preceded by
639 comments (lines starting with #) and (also optionally) a line containing an
640 expected return code. Some of the commands are followed by data lines
641 terminated by a line of four asterisks.
643 The first line of each script must be a comment that briefly describes the
646 # -bS Use of HELO/RSET
648 A line consisting just of digits is interpreted as the expected return code
649 for the command that follows. The default expectation when no such line exists
650 is a zero return code. For example, here is a complete test script, containing
653 # -bS Unexpected EOF in headers
656 mail from:<someone@some.where>
657 rcpt to:<blackhole@HOSTNAME>
662 The expected return code in this case is 1, and the data lines are passed to
663 Exim on its standard input. Both the command line and the data lines have the
664 standard substitions applied to them. Thus, HOSTNAME in the example above will
665 be replaced by the local host's name. Long commands can be continued over
666 several lines by using \ as a continuation character. This does *not* apply to
669 Here follows a list of supported commands. They can be divided into two groups:
672 Commands with no input
673 ----------------------
675 These commands are not followed by any input data, or by a line of asterisks.
678 dbmbuild <file1> <file1>
680 This command runs the exim_dbmbuild utility to build a DBM file. It is used
681 only when DBM support is available in Exim, and typically follows the use of a
682 "write" command (see below) that creates the input file.
687 This command runs the exim_dumpdb utility on the testing spool directory, using
688 the database name given, for example: "dumpdb retry".
693 The text is written to the screen; this is used to output comments from
697 exim_lock [options] <file name>
699 This command runs the exim_lock utility with the given options and file name.
700 The file remains locked with the following command (normally exim) is obeyed.
705 This command runs the exinext utility with the given argument data.
710 This command runs the exigrep utility with the given data (the search pattern)
711 on the current mainlog file.
716 This command is present at the start of all but one of the tests that use
717 GnuTLS. It copies a pre-existing parameter file into the spool directory, so
718 that Exim does not have to re-create the file each time. The first GnuTLS test
719 does not do this, in order to test that Exim can create the file.
724 This command must be given in any script that starts an Exim daemon, normally
725 at the end. It searches for the PID file in the spool directory, and sends a
726 SIGINT signal to the Exim daemon process whose PID it finds. See below for
727 comments about starting Exim daemons.
732 This command causes the script to sleep for m milliseconds. Nothing is output
738 This command requests custom munging of the test outputs. The munge names
739 used are coded in the runtest script (look for 'name of munge').
744 This command must be at the head of a script. If no IPv4 interface has been
745 found, the entire script is skipped, and a comment is output.
750 This command must be at the head of a script. If no IPv6 interface has been
751 found, the entire script is skipped, and a comment is output.
756 This command must be at the head of a script. If the Exim binary does not
757 suppport large files (off_t is <= 4), the entire script is skipped, and a
761 need_move_frozen_messages
763 This command must be at the head of a script. If the Exim binary does not have
764 support for moving frozen messages (which is an optional feature), the entire
765 script is skipped, and a comment is output.
770 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, messages that are
771 delivered when the script runs are not compared with saved versions.
776 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, message log files that
777 are still in existence at the end of the run (for messages that were not
778 delivered) are not compared with saved versions.
783 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, the stderr output from
784 the run is not compared with a saved version.
789 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, the stdout output from
790 the run is not compared with a saved version.
795 This command indicates that the script is for a certain type of filter test, in
796 which there are a lot of repetitive stdout lines that get in the way, because
797 filter tests output data about the sender and recipient. Such lines are removed
798 from the stdout output before comparing, for ease of human perusal.
803 This command causes the script to sleep for n seconds. If n is greater than
804 one, "sleep <n>" is output to the screen, followed by a dot for every second
810 This command causes special sorting to occur on the mainlog file before
811 comparison. Every sequence of contiguous delivery lines (lines containing the
812 => -> or *> flags) is sorted. This is necessary in some tests that use parallel
813 deliveries because on different systems the processes may terminate in a
817 A number of standard file management commands are also recognized. These are
818 cat, chmod, chown, cp, du, ln, ls, du, mkdir, mkfifo, rm, rmdir, and touch.
819 Some are run as root using "sudo".
825 The remaining commands are followed by data lines for their standard input,
826 terminated by four asterisks. Even if no data is required for the particular
827 usage, the asterisks must be given.
830 catwrite <file name> [nxm[=start-of-line-text]]*
832 This command operates like the "write" command, which is described below,
833 except that the data it generates is copied to the end of the test-stdout file
834 as well as to the named file.
838 client [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>]
840 This command runs the auxiliary "client" program that simulates an SMTP client.
841 It is controlled by a script read from its standard input, details of which are
842 given below. There are two options. One is -t, which must be followed directly
843 by a number, to specify the command timeout in seconds (e.g. -t5). The default
844 timeout is 5 seconds. The other option is -tls-on-connect, which causes the
845 client to try to start up a TLS session as soon as it has connected, without
846 using the STARTTLS command. The client program connects to the given IP address
847 and port, using the specified interface, if one is given.
850 client-ssl [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>] \
851 [<cert file>] [<key file>]
853 When OpenSSL is available on the host, an alternative version of the client
854 program is compiled, one that supports TLS using OpenSSL. The additional
855 arguments specify a certificate and key file when required for the connection.
856 There are two additional options: -tls-on-connect, that causes the client to
857 initiate TLS negociation immediately on connection; -ocsp that causes the TLS
858 negotiation to include a certificate-status request. The latter takes a
859 filename argument, the CA info for verifying the stapled response.
862 client-gnutls [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>] \
863 [<cert file>] [<key file>]
865 When GnuTLS is available on the host, an alternative version of the client
866 program is compiled, one that supports TLS using GnuTLS. The additional
867 arguments specify a certificate and key file when required. There is one
868 additional option, -tls-on-connect, that causes the client to initiate TLS
869 negotiation immediately on connection.
872 exim [<options>] [<arguments>]
874 This command runs the testing version of Exim. Any occurrence of "$msg1" in the
875 command line is replaced by the ID of the first (oldest) message in Exim's
876 (testing) spool. "$msg2" refers to the second, and so on. The name "exim" can
877 be preceded by an environment setting as in this example:
879 LDAPTLS_REQCERT=never exim -be
881 It can also be preceded by a number; this specifies a number of seconds to wait
882 before closing the stdout pipe to Exim, and is used for some timeout tests. For
887 Finally, "exim" can be preceded by "sudo", to run Exim as root. If more than
888 one of these prefixes is present, they must be in the above order.
890 If the options include "-DSERVER" but not "-DNOTDAEMON", the script waits for
891 Exim to start but then continues without waiting for it to terminate. Typically
892 this will be for a daemon-mode "-bd" operation. The daemon should be later
893 terminated using "killdaemon".
896 exim_exim [<options>] [<arguments>]
898 This runs an alternative version of Exim that is setuid to exim rather than to
902 server [<options>] <port or socket> [<connection count>]
904 This command runs the auxiliary "server" program that simulates an SMTP (or
905 other) server. It is controlled by a script that is read from its standard
906 input, details of which are given below. A number of options are implemented:
908 -d causes the server to output debugging information
910 -t <sec> sets a timeout (default 5) for when the server is
911 awaiting an incoming connection
913 -noipv4 causes the server not to set up an IPv4 socket
915 -noipv6 causes the server not to set up an IPv6 socket
917 -i <sec> sets an initial pause, to delay before creating the listen sockets
919 By default, in an IPv6 environment, both kinds of socket are set up. However,
920 the test script knows which interfaces actually exist on the host, and it adds
921 -noipv4 or -noipv6 to the server command as required. An error occurs if both
922 these options are given.
924 The only required argument is either a port number or the path name of a Unix
925 domain socket. The port is normally PORT_S, which is changed to an actual
926 number by the standard substitutions. The optional final argument specifies the
927 number of different connections to expect (default 1). These must happen
928 serially (one at a time). There is no support for multiple simultaneous
929 connections. Here are some example commands:
932 server -t 10 PORT_S 3
933 server /tmp/somesocket
935 The following lines, up to a line of four asterisks, are the server's
936 controlling standard input (described below). These lines are read and
937 remembered; during the following commands, until an "exim" command is reached,
938 the server is run in parallel.
941 write <file name> [nxm[=start-of-line-text]]*
943 The "write" command is a way of creating files of specific sizes for buffering
944 tests, or containing specific data lines. Being able to do this from within the
945 script saves holding lots of little test files. The optional argument specifies
946 n lines of length m. The lines consist of the letter "a". If start of line text
947 is supplied, it replaces "a"s at the start of each line. Underscores in the
948 start of line text are turned into spaces. The optional argument may be
949 repeated. The data lines that follow a "write" command are split into two by a
950 line of four plus signs. Any above the split are written before the
951 fixed-length lines, and any below the split are written after. For example:
953 write test-data 3x30=AB_ 1x50
961 This command generates a file containing:
965 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
966 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
967 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
968 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
972 If there are no fixed-length line specifiers, there is no need to split the
973 data, and a line of plusses is not needed.
978 This command runs Perl, with the data as its standard input, to allow arbitrary
979 one-off things to be done.
985 Lines in client scripts are of two kinds:
987 (1) If a line begins with three question marks and a space, the rest of the
988 line defines the start of expected output from the server. If what is
989 received does not match, the client bombs out with an error message.
991 (2) If a line starts with three plus signs followed by a space, the rest of the
992 line specifies a number of seconds to sleep for before proceeding.
994 (3) Otherwise, the line is an input line line that is sent to the server. Any
995 occurrences of \r and \n in the line are turned into carriage return and
996 linefeed, respectively. This is used for testing PIPELINING.
998 Here is a simple example:
1000 client 127.0.0.1 PORT_D
1005 AUTH PLAIN AbdXi0AdnD2CVy
1011 In the case of client-gnutls and client-ssl, if a command is "starttls", this
1012 is remembered, and after a subsequent OK response, an attempt to move into TLS
1013 mode occurs. If a command is "starttls_wait", the client sends "starttls" but
1014 does not start up TLS; this is for testing timeouts. If a command is "stoptls",
1015 an existing TLS connection is shut down, but nothing is sent.
1021 The server program sleeps till a connection occurs or its timeout is reached,
1022 in which case it bombs out. The next set of command lines are interpreted. They
1023 are of the following kinds:
1025 (1) A line that starts with '>' or with a digit is an output line that is sent
1026 to the client. In the case of '>':
1028 (a) If the line starts with ">>", no terminating CRLF is sent.
1029 (b) If the line starts with ">CR>", just CR is sent at the end.
1030 (c) If the line starts with ">LF>", just LF is sent at the end.
1031 (d) If the line starts with ">*eof", nothing is sent and the connection
1034 The data that is sent starts after the initial '>' sequence. Within
1035 each line the sequence '\x' followed by two hex digits can be used
1036 to specify an arbitrary byte value. The sequence '\\' specifies a
1039 (2) A line that starts with "*sleep" specifies a number of seconds to wait
1042 (3) A line containing "*eof" specifies that the client is expected to close
1043 the connection at this point.
1045 (4) A line containing just '.' specifies that the client is expected to send
1046 many lines, terminated by one that contains just a dot.
1048 (5) Otherwise, the line defines the start of an input line that the client
1049 is expected to send. To allow for lines that start with digits, the line
1050 may start with '<', which is not taken as part of the input data. If the
1051 lines starts with '<<' then only the characters are expected; no return-
1052 linefeed terminator. If the input does not match, the server bombs out
1053 with an error message. Backslash-escape sequences may be used in the
1054 line content as for output lines.
1056 Here is a simple example of server use in a test script:
1074 After a "server" command in a test script, the server runs in parallel until an
1075 "exim" command is reached. The "exim" command attempts to deliver one or more
1076 messages to port PORT_S on the local host. When it has finished, the test
1077 script waits for the "server" process to finish.
1079 The "mtpscript" program is like "server", except that it uses stdin/stdout for
1080 its input and output instead of a script. However, it is not called from test
1081 scripts; instead it is used as the command for pipe transports in some
1082 configurations, to simulate non-socket LMTP servers.
1085 AUXILIARY DATA FILES
1086 --------------------
1088 Many of the tests make use of auxiliary data files. There are two types; those
1089 whose content is fixed, and those whose content needs to be varied according to
1090 the current environment. The former are kept in the directory aux-fixed. The
1091 latter are distributed in the directory aux-var-src, and copied with the
1092 standard substitutions into the directory aux-var at the start of each test
1095 Most of the auxiliary files have names that start with a test number,
1096 indicating that they are specific to that one test. A few fixed files (for
1097 example, some TLS certificates) are used by more than one test, and so their
1098 names are not of this form.
1100 There are also some auxilary DNS zone files, which are described in the next
1104 DNS LOOKUPS AND GETHOSTBYNAME
1105 -----------------------------
1107 The original test suite required special testing zones to be loaded into a
1108 local nameserver. This is no longer a requirement for the new suite. Instead, a
1109 program called fakens is used to simulate a nameserver. When Exim is running in
1110 the test harness, instead of calling res_search() - the normal call to the DNS
1111 resolver - it calls a testing function. This handles a few special names itself
1112 (for compatibility with the old test suite), but otherwise passes the query to
1115 The fakens program consults "zone files" in the directory called dnszones, and
1116 returns data in the standard resource record format for Exim to process as if
1117 it came from the DNS. However, if the requested domain is not in any of the
1118 zones that fakens knows about, it returns a special code that causes Exim to
1119 pass the query on to res_search(). The zone files are:
1121 db.test.ex A zone for the domain test.ex.
1122 db.ip4.10 A zone for one special case in 10.250.0.0/16 (see below)
1123 db.ip4.V4NET A zone for the domain V4NET.in-addr.arpa.
1124 db.ip4.127 A zone for the domain 127.in-addr.arpa.
1125 db.ip6.V6NET A zone for the domain inverted(V6NET).ip6.arpa.
1126 db.ip6.0 A zone for the domain 0.ip6.arpa.
1128 V4NET and V6NET are substituted with the current testing networks (see above).
1129 In the case of V6NET, the network is four hex digits, and it is split and
1130 inverted appropriately when setting up the zone.
1132 These fake zone files are built dynamically from sources in the dnszones-src
1133 directory by applying the standard substitutions. The test suite also builds
1134 dynamic zone files for the name of the current host and its IP address(es). The
1135 idea is that there should not be any need to rely on an external DNS.
1137 The fakens program handles some names programmatically rather than using the
1138 fake zone files. These are:
1140 manyhome.test.ex This name is used for testing hosts with ridiculously large
1141 numbers of IP addresses; 2048 IP addresses are generated
1142 and returned. Doing it this way saves having to make the
1143 interface to fakens handle more records that can fit in the
1144 data block. The addresses that are generated are in the
1145 10.250.0.0/16 network.
1147 The domain names that are handled directly by Exim, without being passed to
1150 test.again.dns This always provokes a TRY_AGAIN response, for testing the
1151 handling of temporary DNS error. If the full domain name
1152 starts with digits, a delay of that many seconds occurs.
1154 test.fail.dns This always provokes a NO_RECOVERY response, for testing
1155 DNS server failures.
1157 This special handling could now be done in the fakens program, but while the
1158 old test suite is still being used it has to be done in Exim itself, so for the
1159 moment it remains there.
1161 The use of gethostbyname() and its IPv6 friends is also subverted when Exim is
1162 running in the test harness. The test code handles a few special names
1163 directly; for all the others it uses DNS lookups, which are then handled as
1164 just described. Thus, the use of /etc/hosts is completely bypassed. The names
1165 that are specially handled are:
1167 localhost Always returns 127.0.0.1 or ::1, for IPv4 and IPv6 lookups,
1170 <an IP address> If the IP address is of the correct form for the lookup
1171 type (IPv4 or IPv6), it is returned. Otherwise a panic-die
1174 The reverse zone db.ip4.10 is provided just for the manyhome.test.ex case. It
1175 contains a single wildcard resource record. It also contains the line
1179 Whenever fakens finds this line in a zone file, it returns PASS_ON instead of
1180 HOST_NOT_FOUND. This causes Exim to pass the query to res_search().