1 $Cambridge: exim/test/README,v 1.8 2007/02/20 15:58:02 ph10 Exp $
3 EXPORTABLE EXIM TEST SUITE
4 --------------------------
6 This document last updated for:
8 Test Suite Version: 4.67
15 For a long time, the Exim test suite was confined to Philip Hazel's
16 workstation, because it relied on that particular environment. The problem is
17 that an MTA such as Exim interacts a great deal with its environment, so if you
18 run it somewhere else, the output will be different, which makes automatic
19 checking difficult. Even in a single environment, things are not all that easy.
20 For instance, if Exim delivers a message, the log line (which one would want to
21 compare) contains a timestamp and an Exim message id that will be different
22 each time. This issue is dealt with by a Perl script that munges the output by
23 recognizing changing sequences and replacing them with fixed values before
24 doing a comparison. Another problem with exporting the original test suite is
25 that it assumes a version of Exim with more or less every optional feature
28 This README describes a new test suite that is intended to be exportable and to
29 run in a number of different environments. The tests themselves are in no
30 particular order; they accumulated over the years as Exim was extended and
31 modified. They vary greatly in size and complexity. Some were specifically
32 constructed to test new features; others were made to demonstrate that a bug
35 A few of the original tests have had to be omitted from this more general
36 suite because differences in operating system behaviour make it impossible to
37 generalize them. An example is a test that uses a version of Exim that is
38 setuid to the Exim user rather than root, with the deliver_drop_privilege
39 option set. In Linux, such a binary is able to deliver a message as the caller
40 of Exim, because it can revert to the caller's uid. In FreeBSD this is not the
47 In order to run this test suite, the following requirements must be met:
49 (1) You should run the tests on a matching version of Exim, because the suite
50 is continuously updated to test the latest features and bug fixes. The
51 version you test does not, however, have to be installed as the live
52 version. You can of course try the tests on any version of Exim, but some
53 may fail. In particular, the test suite will fall apart horrible with
54 versions of Exim prior to 4.54.
56 (2) You can use any non-root login to run the tests, but there must be access
57 via "sudo" to root from this login. Privilege is required to override
58 configuration change checks and for things like cleaning up spool files,
59 but on the other hand, the tests themselves need to call Exim from a
60 non-root process. The use of "sudo" is the easiest way to achieve all this.
61 The test script uses "sudo" to do a number of things as root, so it is best
62 if you set a sudo timeout so that you do not have to keep typing a
63 password. For example, if you put
65 Defaults timestamp_timeout=480
67 in /etc/sudoers, a password lasts for 8 hours (a working day). It is
68 not permitted to run the tests as the Exim user because the test suite
69 tracks the two users independently. Using the same user would result
70 in false positives on some tests.
72 (3) The login under which you run the tests must be in the exim group so that
73 it has access to logs, spool files, etc. The login should not be one of the
74 names "userx", "usery", "userz", or a few other simple ones such as "abcd"
75 and "xyz" and single letters that are used in the tests. The test suite
76 expects the login to have a gecos name; I think it will now run if the
77 gecos field is empty but there may be anomalies.
79 (4) The directory into which you unpack the test suite must be accessible by
80 the Exim user, so that code running as exim can access the files therein. A
81 world-readable directory is fine. However, there may be problems if the
82 path name of the directory is excessively long. This is because it
83 sometimes appears in log lines or debug output, and if it is truncated, it
84 is no longer recognized.
86 (5) Exim must be built with its user and group specified at build time, and
87 with certain minimum facilities, namely:
89 Routers: accept, dnslookup, manualroute, redirect
90 Transports: appendfile, autoreply, pipe, smtp
93 Most Exim binaries will have these included.
95 (6) A C compiler is needed to build some test programs, and the test script is
96 written in Perl, so you need that.
98 (7) Some of the tests run Exim as a daemon, and others use a testing server
99 (described below). These require TCP ports. In the configurations and
100 scripts, the ports are parameterized, but at present, fixed values are
101 written into the controlling script. These are ports 1224 to 1229. If these
102 ports are not available for use, some of the tests will fail.
104 (8) There is an underlying assumption that the host on which the tests are
105 being run has an IPv4 address (which the test script seeks out). If there
106 is also an IPv6 address, additional tests are run when the Exim binary
107 contains IPv6 support. There are checks in the scripts for a running IPv4
108 interface; when one is not found, some tests are skipped (with a warning
115 If the Exim binary that is being tested contains extra functionality in
116 addition to the minimum specified above, additional tests are run to exercise
117 the extra functionality, except for a few special cases such as the databases
118 (MySQL, PostgreSQL, LDAP) where special data is needed for the tests.
121 RUNNING THE TEST SUITE
122 ----------------------
124 (1) Download the tarball exim-testsuite-x.xx.tar.bz2 and unpack it, preferably
125 in a directory alongside an Exim source directory (see below).
127 (2) cd into the exim-testsuite-x.xx directory.
129 (3) Run "./configure" and then "make". This builds a few auxiliary programs
130 that are written in C.
132 (4) Run "./runtest" (a Perl script) as described below.
134 (5) If you want to see what tests are available, run "./listtests".
137 BREAKING OUT OF THE TEST SCRIPT
138 -------------------------------
140 If you abandon the test run by typing ^C, the interrupt may be passed to a
141 program that the script is running, or it may be passed to the script itself.
142 In the former case, the script should detect that the program has ended
143 abnormally. In both cases, the script tries to clean up everything, including
144 killing any Exim daemons that it has started. However, there may be race
145 conditions in which the clean up does not happen. If, after breaking out of a
146 run, you see strange errors in the next run, look for any left-over Exim
147 daemons, and kill them by hand.
153 The individual test scripts are in subdirectories of the "scripts" directory.
154 If you do not supply any arguments to ./listtests, it scans all the scripts in
155 all the directories, and outputs the heading line from each script. The output
156 is piped through "less", and begins like this:
159 Basic/0001 Basic configuration setting
160 Basic/0002 Common string expansions
161 Basic/0003 Caseless address blocking
164 Lines that start === give the name of the subdirectory containing the test
165 scripts that follow. If you supply an argument to ./listtests, it is used as a
166 Perl pattern to match case-independently against the names of the
167 subdirectories. Only those that match are scanned. For example, "./listtests
170 === 1000-Basic-ipv6 ===
171 === Requires: support IPv6
172 Basic-ipv6/1000 -bh and non-canonical IPv6 addresses
173 Basic-ipv6/1001 recognizing IPv6 address in HELO/EHLO
175 === 2250-dnsdb-ipv6 ===
176 === Requires: support IPv6
178 dnsdb-ipv6/2250 dnsdb ipv6 lookup in string expansions
180 If you supply a second argument to ./listtests, it is used as a Perl pattern to
181 match case-independently against the individual script titles. For example,
182 "./listtests . mx" lists all tests whose titles contain "mx", because "."
183 matches all the subdirectory names.
189 If you do not supply any arguments to ./runtest, it searches for an Exim
190 source tree at the same level as the test suite directory. It then looks for an
191 Exim binary in a "build" directory of that source tree. If there are several
192 Exim source trees, it chooses the latest version of Exim. Consider the
196 exim-4.60/ exim-4.62/ exim-testsuite-x.xx/
198 A simple ./runtest from within the test suite will use a 4.62 binary if it
199 finds one, otherwise a 4.60 binary. If a binary cannot be found, the script
200 prompts for one. Alternatively, you can supply the binary on the command line:
202 ./runtest /usr/exim/bin/exim
204 A matching test suite is released with each Exim release; if you use a test
205 suite that does not match the binary, some tests may fail.
207 The test suite uses some of the Exim utilities (such as exim_dbmbuild), and it
208 expects to find them in the same directory as Exim itself. If they are not
209 found, the tests that use them are omitted. A suitable comment is output.
211 On the ./runtest command line, following the name of the binary, if present,
212 there may be a number of options and then one or two numbers. The full syntax
215 ./runtest [binary name] [runtest options] [exim options] \
216 [first test] [last test]
218 There are some options for the ./runtest script itself:
220 -DEBUG This option is for debugging the test script. It causes some
221 tracing information to be output.
223 -DIFF By default, file comparisons are done using a private compare
224 command called "cf", which is built from source that is provided in
225 the src directory. This is a command I've had for nearly 20 years -
226 look at the source comments for its history - whose output I
227 prefer. However, if you want to use "diff" instead, give -DIFF as a
228 runtest option. In that case, "diff -u" is used for comparisons.
229 (If it turns out that most people prefer to use diff, I'll change
232 -KEEP Normally, after a successful run, the test output files are
233 deleted. This option prevents this. It is useful when running a
234 single test, in order to look at the actual output before it is
235 modified for comparison with saved output.
237 -NOIPV4 Pretend that an IPv4 interface was not found. This is useful for
238 testing that the test suite correctly skips tests that require
239 a running IPv4 interface.
241 -NOIPV6 Pretend that an IPv6 interface was not found. This is useful for
242 testing that the test suite correctly skips tests that require
243 a running IPv6 interface.
245 -UPDATE If this option is set, any detected changes in test output are
246 automatically accepted and used to update the stored copies of the
247 output. It is a dangerous option, but it useful for the test suite
248 maintainer after making a change to the code that affects a lot of
249 tests (for example, the wording of a message).
251 The options for ./runtest must be given first (but after the name of the
252 binary, if present). Any further options, that is, items on the command line
253 that start with a hyphen, are passed to the Exim binary when it is run as part
254 of a test. The only sensible use of this is to pass "-d" in order to run a test
255 with debugging enabled. Any other options are likely to conflict with options
256 that are set in the tests. Some tests are already set up to run with debugging.
257 In these cases, -d on the command line overrides their own debug settings.
259 The final two arguments specify the range of tests to be run. Test numbers lie
260 in the range 1 to 9999. If no numbers are given, the defaults are 1 and 8999
261 (sic). Tests with higher numbers (9000 upwards) are not run automatically
262 because they require specific data (such as a particular MySQL table) that is
263 unlikely to be generally available.
265 Tests that require certain optional features of Exim are grouped by number, so
266 in any given range, not all the tests will exist. Non-existent tests are just
267 skipped, but if there are no tests at all in the given range, a message is
270 If you give only one number, just that test is run (if it exists). Instead of a
271 second number, you can give the character "+", which is interpreted as "to the
272 end". Normally this is 8999; if the starting number is 9000 or higher, "+" is
273 interpreted as 9999. Examples:
277 ./runtest /usr/sbin/exim 5000 +
278 ./runtest -DIFF -d 81
280 When the script starts up, the first thing it does is to check that you have
281 sudo access to root. Then it outputs the version number of the Exim binary that
282 it is testing, and also information about the optional facilities that are
283 present (obtained from "exim -bV"). This is followed by some environmental
284 information, including the current login id and the hosts's IP address. The
285 script checks that the current user is in the Exim group, and that the Exim
286 user has access to the test suite directory.
288 The script outputs the list of tests requested, and a list of tests that will
289 be omitted because the relevant optional facilities are not in the binary. You
290 are then invited to press Return to start the tests running.
296 When all goes well, the only permanent output is the identity of the tests as
297 they are run, and "Script completed" for each test script, for example:
299 Basic/0001 Basic configuration setting
301 Basic/0002 Basic string expansions
303 Basic/0003 Caseless address blocking
305 Basic/0004 Caseful address blocking
307 Basic/0005 -bs to simple local delivery
310 While a script is running, it shows "Test n" on the screen, for each of the
311 Exim tests within the script. There may also be comments from some tests when a
312 delay is expected, for example, if there is a "sleep" while testing a timeout.
314 Before each set of optional tests, an extra identifying line is output. For
317 >>> The following tests require: authenticator cram_md5
318 CRAM-MD5/2500 CRAM-MD5 server tests
320 CRAM-MD5/2501 CRAM-MD5 client tests
323 If a test fails, you are shown the output of the text comparison that failed,
324 and prompted as to what to do next. The output is shown using the "less"
325 command, or "more" if "less" is not available. The options for "less" are set
326 to that it automatically exits if there is less that a screenful of output. By
327 default, the output is from the "cf" program, and might look like this:
329 DBM/1300 DBM files and exim_dbmbuild
331 Lines 7-9 of "test-stdout-munged" do not match lines 7-11 of "stdout/1300".
333 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 1
334 Continued set of lines is too long: max permitted length is 99999
335 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 1
338 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 2
339 Continued set of lines is too long: max permitted length is 99999
341 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 2
344 "test-stdout-munged" contains 16 lines; "stdout/1300" contains 18 lines.
346 Continue, Update & retry, Quit? [Q]
348 This example was generated by running the test with a version of Exim
349 that had a bug in the exim_dbmbuild utility (the bug was fixed at release
350 4.53). See "How the tests work" below for a description of the files that are
351 used. In this case, the standard output differed from what was expected.
353 The reply to the prompt must either be empty, in which case it takes the
354 default that is given in brackets (in this case Q), or a single letter, in
355 upper or lower case (in this case, one of C, U, or Q). If you type anything
356 else, the prompt is repeated.
358 "Continue" carries on as if the files had matched; that is, it ignores the
359 mismatch. Any other output files for the same test will be compared before
360 moving on to the next test.
362 "Update & retry" copies the new file to the saved file, and reruns the test
363 after doing any further comparisons that may be necessary.
365 Other circumstances give rise to other prompts. If a test generates output for
366 which there is no saved data, the prompt (after a message stating which file is
367 unexpectely not empty) is:
369 Continue, Show, or Quit? [Q]
371 "Show" displays the data on the screen, and then you get the "Continue..."
372 prompt. If a test ends with an unexpected return code, the prompt is:
374 show stdErr, show stdOut, Continue (without file comparison), or Quit? [Q]
376 Typically in these cases there will be something interesting in the stderr
377 or stdout output. There is a similar prompt after the "server" auxiliary
381 OPENSSL AND GNUTLS ERROR MESSAGES
382 ---------------------------------
384 Some of the TLS tests deliberately cause errors to check how Exim handles them.
385 It has been observed that different releases of the OpenSSL and GnuTLS
386 libraries generate different error messages. This may cause the comparison with
387 the saved output to fail. Such errors can be ignored.
393 . Some of the tests are time-sensitive (e.g. when testing timeouts, as in test
394 461). These may fail if run on a host that is also running a lot of other
397 . Some versions of "ls" use a different format for times and dates. This can
398 cause test 345 to fail.
400 . Test 0142 tests open file descriptors; on some hosts the output may vary.
403 OTHER SCRIPTS AND PROGRAMS
404 --------------------------
406 There is a freestanding Perl script called "listtests" that scans the test
407 scripts and outputs a list of all the tests, with a short descriptive comment
408 for each one. Special requirements for groups of tests are also noted.
410 The main runtest script makes use of a second Perl script and some compiled C
413 patchexim A Perl script that makes a patched version of Exim (see the
414 next section for details).
416 bin/cf A text comparison program (see above).
418 bin/checkaccess A program that is run as root; it changes uid/gid to the
419 Exim user and group, and then checks that it can access
420 files in the test suite's directory.
422 bin/client A script-driven SMTP client simulation.
424 bin/client-gnutls A script-driven SMTP client simulation with GnuTLS support.
425 This is built only if GnuTLS support is detected on the host.
427 bin/client-ssl A script-driven SMTP client simulation with OpenSSL support.
428 This is built only if OpenSSL support is detected on the
431 bin/fakens A fake "nameserver" for DNS tests (see below for details).
433 bin/fd A program that outputs details of open file descriptors.
435 bin/iefbr14 A program that does nothing, and returns 0. It's just like
436 the "true" command, but it is in a known place.
438 bin/loaded Some dynamically loaded functions for testing dlfunc support.
440 bin/mtpscript A script-driven SMTP/LMTP server simulation, on std{in,out}.
442 bin/server A script-driven SMTP server simulation, over a socket.
444 bin/showids Output the current uid, gid, euid, egid.
446 The runtest script also makes use of a number of ordinary commands such as
447 "cp", "kill", "more", and "rm", via the system() call. In some cases these are
448 run as root by means of sudo.
451 STANDARD SUBSTITUTIONS
452 ----------------------
454 In the following sections, there are several references to the "standard
455 substitutions". These make changes to some of the stored files when they are
456 used in a test. To save repetition, the substitutions themselves are documented
459 CALLER is replaced by the login name of the user running the tests
460 CALLERGROUP is replaced by the caller's group id
461 CALLER_GID is replaced by the caller's group id
462 CALLER_UID is replaced by the caller's user id
463 DIR is replaced by the name of the test-suite directory
464 EXIMGROUP is replaced by the name of the Exim group
465 EXIMUSER is replaced by the name of the Exim user
466 HOSTIPV4 is replaced by the local host's IPv4 address
467 HOSTIPV6 is replaced by the local host's IPv6 address
468 HOSTNAME is replaced by the local host's name
469 PORT_D is replaced by a port number for normal daemon use
470 PORT_N is replaced by a port number that should never respond
471 PORT_S is replaced by a port number for normal bin/server use
472 TESTNUM is replaced by the current test number
473 V4NET is replaced by an IPv4 network number for testing
474 V6NET is replaced by an IPv6 network number for testing
476 PORT_D is currently hard-wired to 1225, PORT_N to 1223, and PORT_S to 1224.
477 V4NET is hardwired to 224 and V6NET to ff00. These networks are used for DNS
478 testing purposes, and for testing Exim with -bh. The only requirement is that
479 they are networks that can never be used for an IP address of a real host. I've
480 chosen two multicast networks for the moment.
482 If the host has no IPv6 address, "<no IPv6 address found>" is substituted but
483 that does not matter because no IPv6 tests will be run. A similar substitution
484 is made if there is no IPv4 address, and again, tests that actually require a
485 running IPv4 interface should be skipped.
487 If the host has more than one IPv4 or IPv6 address, the first one that
488 "ifconfig" lists is used. If the only available address is 127.0.0.1 (or ::1
489 for IPv6) it is used, but another value is preferred if available.
491 In situations where a specific test is not being run (for example, when setting
492 up dynamic data files), TESTNUM is replaced by an empty string, but should not
493 in fact occur in such files.
499 Each numbered script runs Exim (sometimes several times) with its own Exim
500 configuration file. The configurations are stored in the "confs" directory,
501 and before running each test, a copy of the appropriate configuration, with the
502 standard substitutions, is made in the file test-config. The -C command line
503 option is used to tell Exim to use this configuration.
505 The -D option is used to pass the path of the Exim binary to the configuration.
506 This is not standardly substituted, because there are two possible binaries
507 that might be used in the same test (one setuid to root, the other to the exim
508 user). Some tests also make use of -D to vary the configuration for different
509 calls to the Exim binary.
511 Normally, of course, Exim gives up root privilege when -C and -D are used by
512 unprivileged users. We do not want this to happen when running the tests,
513 because we want to be able to test all aspects of Exim, including receiving
514 mail from unprivileged users. The way this is handled is as follows:
516 At the start of the runtest script, the patchexim script is run as root. This
517 script makes a copy of the Exim binary that is to be tested, patching it as it
518 does so. (This is a binary patch, not a source patch.) The patch causes the
519 binary, when run, to "know" that it is running in the test harness. It does not
520 give up root privilege when -C and -D are used, and in a few places it takes
521 other special actions, such as delaying when starting a subprocess to allow
522 debug output from the parent to be written first. If you want to know more,
523 grep the Exim source files for "running_in_test_harness".
525 The patched binary is placed in the directory eximdir/exim and given the normal
526 setuid root privilege. This is, of course, a dangerous binary to have lying
527 around, especially if there are unprivileged users on the system. To protect
528 it, the eximdir directory is created with the current user as owner, exim as
529 the group owner, and with access drwx--x---. Thus, only the user who is running
530 the tests (who is known to have access to root) and the exim user have access
531 to the modified Exim binary. When runtest terminates, the patched binary is
534 Each set of tests proceeds by interpreting its controlling script. The scripts
535 are in subdirectories of the "scripts" directory. They are split up according
536 to the requirements of the tests they contain, with the 0000-Basic directory
537 containing tests that can always be run. Run the "listtests" script to obtain a
544 Output from script runs is written to the files test-stdout and test-stderr.
545 When an Exim server is involved, test-stdout-server and test-stderr-server are
546 used for its output. Before being compared with the saved output, the
547 non-server and server files are concatenated, so a single saved file contains
550 A directory called spool is used for Exim's spool files, and for Exim logs.
551 These locations are specified in every test's configuration file.
553 When messages are delivered to files, the files are put in the test-mail
554 directory. Output from comparisons is written to test-cf.
556 Before comparisons are done, output texts are modified ("munged") to change or
557 remove parts that are expected to vary from run to run. The modified files all
558 end with the suffix "-munged". Thus, you will see test-stdout-munged,
559 test-mainlog-munged, test-mail-munged, and so on. Other files whose names start
560 with "test-" are created and used by some of the tests.
562 At the end of a successful test run, the spool directory and all the files
563 whose names begin with "test-" are removed. If the run ends unsuccessfully
564 (typically after a "Q" response to a prompt), the spool and test files are left
565 in existence so that the problem can be investigated.
571 Each test script consists of a list of commands, each optionally preceded by
572 comments (lines starting with #) and (also optionally) a line containing an
573 expected return code. Some of the commands are followed by data lines
574 terminated by a line of four asterisks.
576 The first line of each script must be a comment that briefly describes the
579 # -bS Use of HELO/RSET
581 A line consisting just of digits is interpreted as the expected return code
582 for the command that follows. The default expectation when no such line exists
583 is a zero return code. For example, here is a complete test script, containing
586 # -bS Unexpected EOF in headers
589 mail from:<someone@some.where>
590 rcpt to:<blackhole@HOSTNAME>
595 The expected return code in this case is 1, and the data lines are passed to
596 Exim on its standard input. Both the command line and the data lines have the
597 standard substitions applied to them. Thus, HOSTNAME in the example above will
598 be replaced by the local host's name. Long commands can be continued over
599 several lines by using \ as a continuation character. This does *not* apply to
602 Here follows a list of supported commands. They can be divided into two groups:
605 Commands with no input
606 ----------------------
608 These commands are not followed by any input data, or by a line of asterisks.
611 dbmbuild <file1> <file1>
613 This command runs the exim_dbmbuild utility to build a DBM file. It is used
614 only when DBM support is available in Exim, and typically follows the use of a
615 "write" command (see below) that creates the input file.
620 This command runs the exim_dumpdb utility on the testing spool directory, using
621 the database name given, for example: "dumpdb retry".
626 The text is written to the screen; this is used to output comments from
630 exim_lock [options] <file name>
632 This command runs the exim_lock utility with the given options and file name.
633 The file remains locked with the following command (normally exim) is obeyed.
638 This command runs the exinext utility with the given argument data.
643 This command runs the exigrep utility with the given data (the search pattern)
644 on the current mainlog file.
649 This command is present at the start of all but one of the tests that use
650 GnuTLS. It copies a pre-existing parameter file into the spool directory, so
651 that Exim does not have to re-create the file each time. The first GnuTLS test
652 does not do this, in order to test that Exim can create the file.
657 This command must be given in any script that starts an Exim daemon, normally
658 at the end. It searches for the PID file in the spool directory, and sends a
659 SIGINT signal to the Exim daemon process whose PID it finds. See below for
660 comments about starting Exim daemons.
665 This command causes the script to sleep for m milliseconds. Nothing is output
671 This command must be at the head of a script. If no IPv4 interface has been
672 found, the entire script is skipped, and a comment is output.
677 This command must be at the head of a script. If no IPv6 interface has been
678 found, the entire script is skipped, and a comment is output.
683 This command must be at the head of a script. If the Exim binary does not
684 suppport large files (off_t is <= 4), the entire script is skipped, and a
688 need_move_frozen_messages
690 This command must be at the head of a script. If the Exim binary does not have
691 support for moving frozen messages (which is an optional feature), the entire
692 script is skipped, and a comment is output.
697 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, messages that are
698 delivered when the script runs are not compared with saved versions.
703 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, message log files that
704 are still in existence at the end of the run (for messages that were not
705 delivered) are not compared with saved versions.
710 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, the stderr output from
711 the run is not compared with a saved version.
716 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, the stdout output from
717 the run is not compared with a saved version.
722 This command indicates that the script is for a certain type of filter test, in
723 which there are a lot of repetitive stdout lines that get in the way, because
724 filter tests output data about the sender and recipient. Such lines are removed
725 from the stdout output before comparing, for ease of human perusal.
730 This command causes the script to sleep for n seconds. If n is greater than
731 one, "sleep <n>" is output to the screen, followed by a dot for every second
737 This command causes special sorting to occur on the mainlog file before
738 comparison. Every sequence of contiguous delivery lines (lines containing the
739 => -> or *> flags) is sorted. This is necessary in some tests that use parallel
740 deliveries because on different systems the processes may terminate in a
744 A number of standard file management commands are also recognized. These are
745 cat, chmod, chown, cp, du, ln, ls, du, mkdir, mkfifo, rm, rmdir, and touch.
746 Some are run as root using "sudo".
752 The remaining commands are followed by data lines for their standard input,
753 terminated by four asterisks. Even if no data is required for the particular
754 usage, the asterisks must be given.
757 catwrite <file name> [nxm[=start-of-line-text]]*
759 This command operates like the "write" command, which is described below,
760 except that the data it generates is copied to the end of the test-stdout file
761 as well as to the named file.
765 client [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>]
767 This command runs the auxiliary "client" program that simulates an SMTP client.
768 It is controlled by a script read from its standard input, details of which are
769 given below. There are two options. One is -t, which must be followed directly
770 by a number, to specify the command timeout in seconds (e.g. -t5). The default
771 timeout is 1 second. The other option is -tls-on-connect, which causes the
772 client to try to start up a TLS session as soon as it has connected, without
773 using the STARTTLS command. The client program connects to the given IP address
774 and port, using the specified interface, if one is given.
777 client-ssl [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>] \
778 [<cert file>] [<key file>]
780 When OpenSSL is available on the host, an alternative version of the client
781 program is compiled, one that supports TLS using OpenSSL. The additional
782 arguments specify a certificate and key file when required. There is one
783 additional option, -tls-on-connect, that causes the client to initiate TLS
784 negotiation immediately on connection.
787 client-gnutls [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>] \
788 [<cert file>] [<key file>]
790 When GnuTLS is available on the host, an alternative version of the client
791 program is compiled, one that supports TLS using GnuTLS. The additional
792 arguments specify a certificate and key file when required. There is one
793 additional option, -tls-on-connect, that causes the client to initiate TLS
794 negotiation immediately on connection.
797 exim [<options>] [<arguments>]
799 This command runs the testing version of Exim. Any occurrence of "$msg1" in the
800 command line is replaced by the ID of the first (oldest) message in Exim's
801 (testing) spool. "$msg2" refers to the second, and so on. The name "exim" can
802 be preceded by an environment setting as in this example:
804 LDAPTLS_REQCERT=never exim -be
806 It can also be preceded by a number; this specifies a number of seconds to wait
807 before closing the stdout pipe to Exim, and is used for some timeout tests. For
812 Finally, "exim" can be preceded by "sudo", to run Exim as root. If more than
813 one of these prefixes is present, they must be in the above order.
816 exim_exim [<options>] [<arguments>]
818 This runs an alternative version of Exim that is setuid to exim rather than to
822 server [<options>] <port or socket> [<connection count>]
824 This command runs the auxiliary "server" program that simulates an SMTP (or
825 other) server. It is controlled by a script that is read from its standard
826 input, details of which are given below. A number of options are implemented:
828 -d causes the server to output debugging information
830 -t sets a timeout in seconds (default 5) for when the server is
831 awaiting an incoming connection
833 -noipv4 causes the server not to set up an IPv4 socket
835 -noipv6 causes the server not to set up an IPv6 socket
837 By default, in an IPv6 environment, both kinds of socket are set up. However,
838 the test script knows which interfaces actually exist on the host, and it adds
839 -noipv4 or -noipv6 to the server command as required. An error occurs if both
840 these options are given.
842 The only required argument is either a port number or the path name of a Unix
843 domain socket. The port is normally PORT_S, which is changed to an actual
844 number by the standard substitutions. The optional final argument specifies the
845 number of different connections to expect (default 1). These must happen
846 serially (one at a time). There is no support for multiple simultaneous
847 connections. Here are some example commands:
850 server -t 10 PORT_S 3
851 server /tmp/somesocket
853 The following lines, up to a line of four asterisks, are the server's
854 controlling standard input (described below). These lines are read and
855 remembered; during the following commands, until an "exim" command is reached,
856 the server is run in parallel.
859 write <file name> [nxm[=start-of-line-text]]*
861 The "write" command is a way of creating files of specific sizes for buffering
862 tests, or containing specific data lines. Being able to do this from within the
863 script saves holding lots of little test files. The optional argument specifies
864 n lines of length m. The lines consist of the letter "a". If start of line text
865 is supplied, it replaces "a"s at the start of each line. Underscores in the
866 start of line text are turned into spaces. The optional argument may be
867 repeated. The data lines that follow a "write" command are split into two by a
868 line of four plus signs. Any above the split are written before the
869 fixed-length lines, and any below the split are written after. For example:
871 write test-data 3x30=AB_ 1x50
879 This command generates a file containing:
883 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
884 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
885 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
886 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
890 If there are no fixed-length line specifiers, there is no need to split the
891 data, and a line of plusses is not needed.
896 This command runs Perl, with the data as its standard input, to allow arbitrary
897 one-off things to be done.
903 Lines in client scripts are of two kinds:
905 (1) If a line begins with three question marks and a space, the rest of the
906 line defines the start of expected output from the server. If what is
907 received does not match, the client bombs out with an error message.
909 (2) If a line starts with three plus signs followed by a space, the rest of the
910 line specifies a number of seconds to sleep for before proceeding.
912 (3) Otherwise, the line is an input line line that is sent to the server. Any
913 occurrences of \r and \n in the line are turned into carriage return and
914 linefeed, respectively. This is used for testing PIPELINING.
916 Here is a simple example:
918 client 127.0.0.1 PORT_D
923 AUTH PLAIN AbdXi0AdnD2CVy
929 In the case of client-gnutls and client-ssl, if a command is "starttls", this
930 is remembered, and after a subsequent OK response, an attempt to move into TLS
931 mode occurs. If a command is "starttls_wait", the client sends "starttls" but
932 does not start up TLS; this is for testing timeouts. If a command is "stoptls",
933 an existing TLS connection is shut down, but nothing is sent.
939 The server program sleeps till a connection occurs or its timeout is reached,
940 in which case it bombs out. The next set of command lines are interpreted. They
941 are of the following kinds:
943 (1) A line that starts with '>' or with a digit is an output line that is sent
944 to the client. In the case of '>':
946 (a) If the line starts with ">>", no terminating CRLF is sent.
947 (b) If the line starts with ">CR>", just CR is sent at the end.
948 (c) If the line starts with ">LF>", just LF is sent at the end.
949 (d) If the line starts with ">*eof", nothing is sent and the connection
952 The data that is sent starts after the initial '>' sequence.
954 (2) A line that starts with "*sleep" specifies a number of seconds to wait
957 (3) A line containing "*eof" specifies that the client is expected to close
958 the connection at this point.
960 (4) A line containing just '.' specifies that the client is expected to send
961 many lines, terminated by one that contains just a dot.
963 (5) Otherwise, the line defines the start of an input line that the client
964 is expected to send. To allow for lines that start with digits, the line
965 may start with '<', which is not taken as part of the input data. If the
966 input does not match, the server bombs out with an error message.
968 Here is a simple example of server use in a test script:
986 After a "server" command in a test script, the server runs in parallel until an
987 "exim" command is reached. The "exim" command attempts to deliver one or more
988 messages to port PORT_S on the local host. When it has finished, the test
989 script waits for the "server" process to finish.
991 The "mtpscript" program is like "server", except that it uses stdin/stdout for
992 its input and output instead of a script. However, it is not called from test
993 scripts; instead it is used as the command for pipe transports in some
994 configurations, to simulate non-socket LMTP servers.
1000 Many of the tests make use of auxiliary data files. There are two types; those
1001 whose content is fixed, and those whose content needs to be varied according to
1002 the current environment. The former are kept in the directory aux-fixed. The
1003 latter are distributed in the directory aux-var-src, and copied with the
1004 standard substitutions into the directory aux-var at the start of each test
1007 Most of the auxiliary files have names that start with a test number,
1008 indicating that they are specific to that one test. A few fixed files (for
1009 example, some TLS certificates) are used by more than one test, and so their
1010 names are not of this form.
1012 There are also some auxilary DNS zone files, which are described in the next
1016 DNS LOOKUPS AND GETHOSTBYNAME
1017 -----------------------------
1019 The original test suite required special testing zones to be loaded into a
1020 local nameserver. This is no longer a requirement for the new suite. Instead, a
1021 program called fakens is used to simulate a nameserver. When Exim is running in
1022 the test harness, instead of calling res_search() - the normal call to the DNS
1023 resolver - it calls a testing function. This handles a few special names itself
1024 (for compatibility with the old test suite), but otherwise passes the query to
1027 The fakens program consults "zone files" in the directory called dnszones, and
1028 returns data in the standard resource record format for Exim to process as if
1029 it came from the DNS. However, if the requested domain is not in any of the
1030 zones that fakens knows about, it returns a special code that causes Exim to
1031 pass the query on to res_search(). The zone files are:
1033 db.test.ex A zone for the domain test.ex.
1034 db.ip4.10 A zone for one special case in 10.250.0.0/16 (see below)
1035 db.ip4.V4NET A zone for the domain V4NET.in-addr.arpa.
1036 db.ip4.127 A zone for the domain 127.in-addr.arpa.
1037 db.ip6.V6NET A zone for the domain inverted(V6NET).ip6.arpa.
1038 db.ip6.0 A zone for the domain 0.ip6.arpa.
1040 V4NET and V6NET are substituted with the current testing networks (see above).
1041 In the case of V6NET, the network is four hex digits, and it is split and
1042 inverted appropriately when setting up the zone.
1044 These fake zone files are built dynamically from sources in the dnszones-src
1045 directory by applying the standard substitutions. The test suite also builds
1046 dynamic zone files for the name of the current host and its IP address(es). The
1047 idea is that there should not be any need to rely on an external DNS.
1049 The domain names that are handled directly by Exim, without being passed to
1052 test.again.dns This always provokes a TRY_AGAIN response, for testing the
1053 handling of temporary DNS error. If the full domain name
1054 starts with digits, a delay of that many seconds occurs.
1056 test.fail.dns This always provokes a NO_RECOVERY response, for testing
1057 DNS server failures.
1059 This special handling could now be done in the fakens program, but while the
1060 old test suite is still being used it has to be done in Exim itself, so for the
1061 moment it remains there.
1063 The use of gethostbyname() and its IPv6 friends is also subverted when Exim is
1064 running in the test harness. The test code handles a few special names
1065 directly; for all the others it uses DNS lookups, which are then handled as
1066 just described. Thus, the use of /etc/hosts is completely bypassed. The names
1067 that are specially handled are:
1069 manyhome.test.ex This name is used for testing hosts with ridiculously large
1070 numbers of IP addresses; 2048 IP addresses are generated
1071 and returned. Doing it this way saves having to make the
1072 interface to fakens handle more records that can fit in the
1073 data block. The addresses that are generated are in the
1074 10.250.0.0/16 network.
1076 localhost Always returns 127.0.0.1 or ::1, for IPv4 and IPv6 lookups,
1079 <an IP address> If the IP address is of the correct form for the lookup
1080 type (IPv4 or IPv6), it is returned. Otherwise a panic-die
1083 The reverse zone db.ip4.10 is provided just for the manyhome.test.ex case. It
1084 contains a single wildcard resource record. It also contains the line
1088 Whenever fakens finds this line in a zone file, it returns PASS_ON instead of
1089 HOST_NOT_FOUND. This causes Exim to pass the query to res_search().