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 Further, some tests invoke sudo in an environment where there might not be
73 a TTY, so tickets should be global, not per-TTY. Taking this all together
74 and assuming a user of "exim-build", you might have this in sudoers:
76 Defaults:exim-build timestamp_timeout=480,!tty_tickets
78 (3) The login under which you run the tests must be in the exim group so that
79 it has access to logs, spool files, etc. The login should not be one of the
80 names "userx", "usery", "userz", or a few other simple ones such as "abcd"
81 and "xyz" and single letters that are used in the tests. The test suite
82 expects the login to have a gecos name; I think it will now run if the
83 gecos field is empty but there may be anomalies.
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. A
87 world-readable directory is fine. However, there may be problems if the
88 path name of the directory is excessively long. This is because it
89 sometimes appears in log lines or debug output, and if it is truncated, it
90 is no longer recognized.
92 (5) Exim must be built with its user and group specified at build time, and
93 with certain minimum facilities, namely:
95 Routers: accept, dnslookup, manualroute, redirect
96 Transports: appendfile, autoreply, pipe, smtp
99 Most Exim binaries will have these included.
101 (6) A C compiler is needed to build some test programs, and the test script is
102 written in Perl, so you need that.
104 (7) Some of the tests run Exim as a daemon, and others use a testing server
105 (described below). These require TCP ports. In the configurations and
106 scripts, the ports are parameterized, but at present, fixed values are
107 written into the controlling script. These are ports 1224 to 1229. If these
108 ports are not available for use, some of the tests will fail.
110 (8) There is an underlying assumption that the host on which the tests are
111 being run has an IPv4 address (which the test script seeks out). If there
112 is also an IPv6 address, additional tests are run when the Exim binary
113 contains IPv6 support. There are checks in the scripts for a running IPv4
114 interface; when one is not found, some tests are skipped (with a warning
117 (9) Exim must be built with TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST support, so that the test
118 configs can be placed into it. DISABLE_D_OPTION must not be used. If
119 ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX is used, it must contain the directory of the test-suite.
120 WHITELIST_D_MACROS should contain:
122 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
124 (10) Exim must *not* be built with USE_READLINE, as the test-suite's automation
125 assumes the simpler I/O model.
126 Exim must *not* be built with HEADERS_CHARSET set to UTF-8.
133 If the Exim binary that is being tested contains extra functionality in
134 addition to the minimum specified above, additional tests are run to exercise
135 the extra functionality, except for a few special cases such as the databases
136 (MySQL, PostgreSQL, LDAP) where special data is needed for the tests.
139 RUNNING THE TEST SUITE
140 ----------------------
142 (1) Download the tarball exim-testsuite-x.xx.tar.bz2 and unpack it, preferably
143 in a directory alongside an Exim source directory (see below).
145 (2) cd into the exim-testsuite-x.xx directory.
147 (3) Run "./configure" and then "make". This builds a few auxiliary programs
148 that are written in C.
150 (4) echo $PWD/test-config >> your_TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST_filename
152 (5) Run "./runtest" (a Perl script) as described below.
154 (6) If you want to see what tests are available, run "./listtests".
157 BREAKING OUT OF THE TEST SCRIPT
158 -------------------------------
160 If you abandon the test run by typing ^C, the interrupt may be passed to a
161 program that the script is running, or it may be passed to the script itself.
162 In the former case, the script should detect that the program has ended
163 abnormally. In both cases, the script tries to clean up everything, including
164 killing any Exim daemons that it has started. However, there may be race
165 conditions in which the clean up does not happen. If, after breaking out of a
166 run, you see strange errors in the next run, look for any left-over Exim
167 daemons, and kill them by hand.
173 The individual test scripts are in subdirectories of the "scripts" directory.
174 If you do not supply any arguments to ./listtests, it scans all the scripts in
175 all the directories, and outputs the heading line from each script. The output
176 is piped through "less", and begins like this:
179 Basic/0001 Basic configuration setting
180 Basic/0002 Common string expansions
181 Basic/0003 Caseless address blocking
184 Lines that start === give the name of the subdirectory containing the test
185 scripts that follow. If you supply an argument to ./listtests, it is used as a
186 Perl pattern to match case-independently against the names of the
187 subdirectories. Only those that match are scanned. For example, "./listtests
190 === 1000-Basic-ipv6 ===
191 === Requires: support IPv6
192 Basic-ipv6/1000 -bh and non-canonical IPv6 addresses
193 Basic-ipv6/1001 recognizing IPv6 address in HELO/EHLO
195 === 2250-dnsdb-ipv6 ===
196 === Requires: support IPv6
198 dnsdb-ipv6/2250 dnsdb ipv6 lookup in string expansions
200 If you supply a second argument to ./listtests, it is used as a Perl pattern to
201 match case-independently against the individual script titles. For example,
202 "./listtests . mx" lists all tests whose titles contain "mx", because "."
203 matches all the subdirectory names.
209 If you do not supply any arguments to ./runtest, it searches for an Exim
210 source tree at the same level as the test suite directory. It then looks for an
211 Exim binary in a "build" directory of that source tree. If there are several
212 Exim source trees, it chooses the latest version of Exim. Consider the
216 exim-4.60/ exim-4.62/ exim-testsuite-x.xx/
218 A simple ./runtest from within the test suite will use a 4.62 binary if it
219 finds one, otherwise a 4.60 binary. If a binary cannot be found, the script
220 prompts for one. Alternatively, you can supply the binary on the command line:
222 ./runtest /usr/exim/bin/exim
224 A matching test suite is released with each Exim release; if you use a test
225 suite that does not match the binary, some tests may fail.
227 The test suite uses some of the Exim utilities (such as exim_dbmbuild), and it
228 expects to find them in the same directory as Exim itself. If they are not
229 found, the tests that use them are omitted. A suitable comment is output.
231 On the ./runtest command line, following the name of the binary, if present,
232 there may be a number of options and then one or two numbers. The full syntax
235 ./runtest [binary name] [runtest options] [exim options] \
236 [first test] [last test]
238 There are some options for the ./runtest script itself:
240 -DEBUG This option is for debugging the test script. It causes some
241 tracing information to be output.
243 -DIFF By default, file comparisons are done using a private compare
244 command called "cf", which is built from source that is provided in
245 the src directory. This is a command I've had for nearly 20 years -
246 look at the source comments for its history - whose output I
247 prefer. However, if you want to use "diff" instead, give -DIFF as a
248 runtest option. In that case, "diff -u" is used for comparisons.
249 (If it turns out that most people prefer to use diff, I'll change
252 -KEEP Normally, after a successful run, the test output files are
253 deleted. This option prevents this. It is useful when running a
254 single test, in order to look at the actual output before it is
255 modified for comparison with saved output.
257 -NOIPV4 Pretend that an IPv4 interface was not found. This is useful for
258 testing that the test suite correctly skips tests that require
259 a running IPv4 interface.
261 -NOIPV6 Pretend that an IPv6 interface was not found. This is useful for
262 testing that the test suite correctly skips tests that require
263 a running IPv6 interface.
265 -UPDATE If this option is set, any detected changes in test output are
266 automatically accepted and used to update the stored copies of the
267 output. It is a dangerous option, but it useful for the test suite
268 maintainer after making a change to the code that affects a lot of
269 tests (for example, the wording of a message).
271 The options for ./runtest must be given first (but after the name of the
272 binary, if present). Any further options, that is, items on the command line
273 that start with a hyphen, are passed to the Exim binary when it is run as part
274 of a test. The only sensible use of this is to pass "-d" in order to run a test
275 with debugging enabled. Any other options are likely to conflict with options
276 that are set in the tests. Some tests are already set up to run with debugging.
277 In these cases, -d on the command line overrides their own debug settings.
279 The final two arguments specify the range of tests to be run. Test numbers lie
280 in the range 1 to 9999. If no numbers are given, the defaults are 1 and 8999
281 (sic). Tests with higher numbers (9000 upwards) are not run automatically
282 because they require specific data (such as a particular MySQL table) that is
283 unlikely to be generally available.
285 Tests that require certain optional features of Exim are grouped by number, so
286 in any given range, not all the tests will exist. Non-existent tests are just
287 skipped, but if there are no tests at all in the given range, a message is
290 If you give only one number, just that test is run (if it exists). Instead of a
291 second number, you can give the character "+", which is interpreted as "to the
292 end". Normally this is 8999; if the starting number is 9000 or higher, "+" is
293 interpreted as 9999. Examples:
297 ./runtest /usr/sbin/exim 5000 +
298 ./runtest -DIFF -d 81
300 When the script starts up, the first thing it does is to check that you have
301 sudo access to root. Then it outputs the version number of the Exim binary that
302 it is testing, and also information about the optional facilities that are
303 present (obtained from "exim -bV"). This is followed by some environmental
304 information, including the current login id and the hosts's IP address. The
305 script checks that the current user is in the Exim group, and that the Exim
306 user has access to the test suite directory.
308 The script outputs the list of tests requested, and a list of tests that will
309 be omitted because the relevant optional facilities are not in the binary. You
310 are then invited to press Return to start the tests running.
316 When all goes well, the only permanent output is the identity of the tests as
317 they are run, and "Script completed" for each test script, for example:
319 Basic/0001 Basic configuration setting
321 Basic/0002 Basic string expansions
323 Basic/0003 Caseless address blocking
325 Basic/0004 Caseful address blocking
327 Basic/0005 -bs to simple local delivery
330 While a script is running, it shows "Test n" on the screen, for each of the
331 Exim tests within the script. There may also be comments from some tests when a
332 delay is expected, for example, if there is a "sleep" while testing a timeout.
334 Before each set of optional tests, an extra identifying line is output. For
337 >>> The following tests require: authenticator cram_md5
338 CRAM-MD5/2500 CRAM-MD5 server tests
340 CRAM-MD5/2501 CRAM-MD5 client tests
343 If a test fails, you are shown the output of the text comparison that failed,
344 and prompted as to what to do next. The output is shown using the "less"
345 command, or "more" if "less" is not available. The options for "less" are set
346 to that it automatically exits if there is less that a screenful of output. By
347 default, the output is from the "cf" program, and might look like this:
349 DBM/1300 DBM files and exim_dbmbuild
351 Lines 7-9 of "test-stdout-munged" do not match lines 7-11 of "stdout/1300".
353 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 1
354 Continued set of lines is too long: max permitted length is 99999
355 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 1
358 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 2
359 Continued set of lines is too long: max permitted length is 99999
361 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 2
364 "test-stdout-munged" contains 16 lines; "stdout/1300" contains 18 lines.
366 Continue, Update & retry, Quit? [Q]
368 This example was generated by running the test with a version of Exim
369 that had a bug in the exim_dbmbuild utility (the bug was fixed at release
370 4.53). See "How the tests work" below for a description of the files that are
371 used. In this case, the standard output differed from what was expected.
373 The reply to the prompt must either be empty, in which case it takes the
374 default that is given in brackets (in this case Q), or a single letter, in
375 upper or lower case (in this case, one of C, U, or Q). If you type anything
376 else, the prompt is repeated.
378 "Continue" carries on as if the files had matched; that is, it ignores the
379 mismatch. Any other output files for the same test will be compared before
380 moving on to the next test.
382 "Update & retry" copies the new file to the saved file, and reruns the test
383 after doing any further comparisons that may be necessary.
385 Other circumstances give rise to other prompts. If a test generates output for
386 which there is no saved data, the prompt (after a message stating which file is
387 unexpectely not empty) is:
389 Continue, Show, or Quit? [Q]
391 "Show" displays the data on the screen, and then you get the "Continue..."
392 prompt. If a test ends with an unexpected return code, the prompt is:
394 show stdErr, show stdOut, Continue (without file comparison), or Quit? [Q]
396 Typically in these cases there will be something interesting in the stderr
397 or stdout output. There is a similar prompt after the "server" auxiliary
401 OPENSSL AND GNUTLS ERROR MESSAGES
402 ---------------------------------
404 Some of the TLS tests deliberately cause errors to check how Exim handles them.
405 It has been observed that different releases of the OpenSSL and GnuTLS
406 libraries generate different error messages. This may cause the comparison with
407 the saved output to fail. Such errors can be ignored.
413 . Some of the tests are time-sensitive (e.g. when testing timeouts, as in test
414 461). These may fail if run on a host that is also running a lot of other
417 . Some versions of "ls" use a different format for times and dates. This can
418 cause test 345 to fail.
420 . Test 0142 tests open file descriptors; on some hosts the output may vary.
423 OTHER SCRIPTS AND PROGRAMS
424 --------------------------
426 There is a freestanding Perl script called "listtests" that scans the test
427 scripts and outputs a list of all the tests, with a short descriptive comment
428 for each one. Special requirements for groups of tests are also noted.
430 The main runtest script makes use of a second Perl script and some compiled C
433 patchexim A Perl script that makes a patched version of Exim (see the
434 next section for details).
436 bin/cf A text comparison program (see above).
438 bin/checkaccess A program that is run as root; it changes uid/gid to the
439 Exim user and group, and then checks that it can access
440 files in the test suite's directory.
442 bin/client A script-driven SMTP client simulation.
444 bin/client-gnutls A script-driven SMTP client simulation with GnuTLS support.
445 This is built only if GnuTLS support is detected on the host.
447 bin/client-ssl A script-driven SMTP client simulation with OpenSSL support.
448 This is built only if OpenSSL support is detected on the
451 bin/fakens A fake "nameserver" for DNS tests (see below for details).
453 bin/fd A program that outputs details of open file descriptors.
455 bin/iefbr14 A program that does nothing, and returns 0. It's just like
456 the "true" command, but it is in a known place.
458 bin/loaded Some dynamically loaded functions for testing dlfunc support.
460 bin/mtpscript A script-driven SMTP/LMTP server simulation, on std{in,out}.
462 bin/server A script-driven SMTP server simulation, over a socket.
464 bin/showids Output the current uid, gid, euid, egid.
466 The runtest script also makes use of a number of ordinary commands such as
467 "cp", "kill", "more", and "rm", via the system() call. In some cases these are
468 run as root by means of sudo.
471 STANDARD SUBSTITUTIONS
472 ----------------------
474 In the following sections, there are several references to the "standard
475 substitutions". These make changes to some of the stored files when they are
476 used in a test. To save repetition, the substitutions themselves are documented
479 CALLER is replaced by the login name of the user running the tests
480 CALLERGROUP is replaced by the caller's group id
481 CALLER_GID is replaced by the caller's group id
482 CALLER_UID is replaced by the caller's user id
483 DIR is replaced by the name of the test-suite directory
484 EXIMGROUP is replaced by the name of the Exim group
485 EXIMUSER is replaced by the name of the Exim user
486 HOSTIPV4 is replaced by the local host's IPv4 address
487 HOSTIPV6 is replaced by the local host's IPv6 address
488 HOSTNAME is replaced by the local host's name
489 PORT_D is replaced by a port number for normal daemon use
490 PORT_N is replaced by a port number that should never respond
491 PORT_S is replaced by a port number for normal bin/server use
492 TESTNUM is replaced by the current test number
493 V4NET is replaced by an IPv4 network number for testing
494 V6NET is replaced by an IPv6 network number for testing
496 PORT_D is currently hard-wired to 1225, PORT_N to 1223, and PORT_S to 1224.
497 V4NET is hardwired to 224 and V6NET to ff00. These networks are used for DNS
498 testing purposes, and for testing Exim with -bh. The only requirement is that
499 they are networks that can never be used for an IP address of a real host. I've
500 chosen two multicast networks for the moment.
502 If the host has no IPv6 address, "<no IPv6 address found>" is substituted but
503 that does not matter because no IPv6 tests will be run. A similar substitution
504 is made if there is no IPv4 address, and again, tests that actually require a
505 running IPv4 interface should be skipped.
507 If the host has more than one IPv4 or IPv6 address, the first one that
508 "ifconfig" lists is used. If the only available address is 127.0.0.1 (or ::1
509 for IPv6) it is used, but another value is preferred if available.
511 In situations where a specific test is not being run (for example, when setting
512 up dynamic data files), TESTNUM is replaced by an empty string, but should not
513 in fact occur in such files.
519 Each numbered script runs Exim (sometimes several times) with its own Exim
520 configuration file. The configurations are stored in the "confs" directory,
521 and before running each test, a copy of the appropriate configuration, with the
522 standard substitutions, is made in the file test-config. The -C command line
523 option is used to tell Exim to use this configuration.
525 The -D option is used to pass the path of the Exim binary to the configuration.
526 This is not standardly substituted, because there are two possible binaries
527 that might be used in the same test (one setuid to root, the other to the exim
528 user). Some tests also make use of -D to vary the configuration for different
529 calls to the Exim binary.
531 Normally, of course, Exim gives up root privilege when -C and -D are used by
532 unprivileged users. We do not want this to happen when running the tests,
533 because we want to be able to test all aspects of Exim, including receiving
534 mail from unprivileged users. The way this is handled is as follows:
536 At the start of the runtest script, the patchexim script is run as root. This
537 script makes a copy of the Exim binary that is to be tested, patching it as it
538 does so. (This is a binary patch, not a source patch.) The patch causes the
539 binary, when run, to "know" that it is running in the test harness. It does not
540 give up root privilege when -C and -D are used, and in a few places it takes
541 other special actions, such as delaying when starting a subprocess to allow
542 debug output from the parent to be written first. If you want to know more,
543 grep the Exim source files for "running_in_test_harness".
545 The patched binary is placed in the directory eximdir/exim and given the normal
546 setuid root privilege. This is, of course, a dangerous binary to have lying
547 around, especially if there are unprivileged users on the system. To protect
548 it, the eximdir directory is created with the current user as owner, exim as
549 the group owner, and with access drwx--x---. Thus, only the user who is running
550 the tests (who is known to have access to root) and the exim user have access
551 to the modified Exim binary. When runtest terminates, the patched binary is
554 Each set of tests proceeds by interpreting its controlling script. The scripts
555 are in subdirectories of the "scripts" directory. They are split up according
556 to the requirements of the tests they contain, with the 0000-Basic directory
557 containing tests that can always be run. Run the "listtests" script to obtain a
564 Output from script runs is written to the files test-stdout and test-stderr.
565 When an Exim server is involved, test-stdout-server and test-stderr-server are
566 used for its output. Before being compared with the saved output, the
567 non-server and server files are concatenated, so a single saved file contains
570 A directory called spool is used for Exim's spool files, and for Exim logs.
571 These locations are specified in every test's configuration file.
573 When messages are delivered to files, the files are put in the test-mail
574 directory. Output from comparisons is written to test-cf.
576 Before comparisons are done, output texts are modified ("munged") to change or
577 remove parts that are expected to vary from run to run. The modified files all
578 end with the suffix "-munged". Thus, you will see test-stdout-munged,
579 test-mainlog-munged, test-mail-munged, and so on. Other files whose names start
580 with "test-" are created and used by some of the tests.
582 At the end of a successful test run, the spool directory and all the files
583 whose names begin with "test-" are removed. If the run ends unsuccessfully
584 (typically after a "Q" response to a prompt), the spool and test files are left
585 in existence so that the problem can be investigated.
591 Each test script consists of a list of commands, each optionally preceded by
592 comments (lines starting with #) and (also optionally) a line containing an
593 expected return code. Some of the commands are followed by data lines
594 terminated by a line of four asterisks.
596 The first line of each script must be a comment that briefly describes the
599 # -bS Use of HELO/RSET
601 A line consisting just of digits is interpreted as the expected return code
602 for the command that follows. The default expectation when no such line exists
603 is a zero return code. For example, here is a complete test script, containing
606 # -bS Unexpected EOF in headers
609 mail from:<someone@some.where>
610 rcpt to:<blackhole@HOSTNAME>
615 The expected return code in this case is 1, and the data lines are passed to
616 Exim on its standard input. Both the command line and the data lines have the
617 standard substitions applied to them. Thus, HOSTNAME in the example above will
618 be replaced by the local host's name. Long commands can be continued over
619 several lines by using \ as a continuation character. This does *not* apply to
622 Here follows a list of supported commands. They can be divided into two groups:
625 Commands with no input
626 ----------------------
628 These commands are not followed by any input data, or by a line of asterisks.
631 dbmbuild <file1> <file1>
633 This command runs the exim_dbmbuild utility to build a DBM file. It is used
634 only when DBM support is available in Exim, and typically follows the use of a
635 "write" command (see below) that creates the input file.
640 This command runs the exim_dumpdb utility on the testing spool directory, using
641 the database name given, for example: "dumpdb retry".
646 The text is written to the screen; this is used to output comments from
650 exim_lock [options] <file name>
652 This command runs the exim_lock utility with the given options and file name.
653 The file remains locked with the following command (normally exim) is obeyed.
658 This command runs the exinext utility with the given argument data.
663 This command runs the exigrep utility with the given data (the search pattern)
664 on the current mainlog file.
669 This command is present at the start of all but one of the tests that use
670 GnuTLS. It copies a pre-existing parameter file into the spool directory, so
671 that Exim does not have to re-create the file each time. The first GnuTLS test
672 does not do this, in order to test that Exim can create the file.
677 This command must be given in any script that starts an Exim daemon, normally
678 at the end. It searches for the PID file in the spool directory, and sends a
679 SIGINT signal to the Exim daemon process whose PID it finds. See below for
680 comments about starting Exim daemons.
685 This command causes the script to sleep for m milliseconds. Nothing is output
691 This command must be at the head of a script. If no IPv4 interface has been
692 found, the entire script is skipped, and a comment is output.
697 This command must be at the head of a script. If no IPv6 interface has been
698 found, the entire script is skipped, and a comment is output.
703 This command must be at the head of a script. If the Exim binary does not
704 suppport large files (off_t is <= 4), the entire script is skipped, and a
708 need_move_frozen_messages
710 This command must be at the head of a script. If the Exim binary does not have
711 support for moving frozen messages (which is an optional feature), the entire
712 script is skipped, and a comment is output.
717 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, messages that are
718 delivered when the script runs are not compared with saved versions.
723 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, message log files that
724 are still in existence at the end of the run (for messages that were not
725 delivered) are not compared with saved versions.
730 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, the stderr output from
731 the run is not compared with a saved version.
736 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, the stdout output from
737 the run is not compared with a saved version.
742 This command indicates that the script is for a certain type of filter test, in
743 which there are a lot of repetitive stdout lines that get in the way, because
744 filter tests output data about the sender and recipient. Such lines are removed
745 from the stdout output before comparing, for ease of human perusal.
750 This command causes the script to sleep for n seconds. If n is greater than
751 one, "sleep <n>" is output to the screen, followed by a dot for every second
757 This command causes special sorting to occur on the mainlog file before
758 comparison. Every sequence of contiguous delivery lines (lines containing the
759 => -> or *> flags) is sorted. This is necessary in some tests that use parallel
760 deliveries because on different systems the processes may terminate in a
764 A number of standard file management commands are also recognized. These are
765 cat, chmod, chown, cp, du, ln, ls, du, mkdir, mkfifo, rm, rmdir, and touch.
766 Some are run as root using "sudo".
772 The remaining commands are followed by data lines for their standard input,
773 terminated by four asterisks. Even if no data is required for the particular
774 usage, the asterisks must be given.
777 catwrite <file name> [nxm[=start-of-line-text]]*
779 This command operates like the "write" command, which is described below,
780 except that the data it generates is copied to the end of the test-stdout file
781 as well as to the named file.
785 client [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>]
787 This command runs the auxiliary "client" program that simulates an SMTP client.
788 It is controlled by a script read from its standard input, details of which are
789 given below. There are two options. One is -t, which must be followed directly
790 by a number, to specify the command timeout in seconds (e.g. -t5). The default
791 timeout is 1 second. The other option is -tls-on-connect, which causes the
792 client to try to start up a TLS session as soon as it has connected, without
793 using the STARTTLS command. The client program connects to the given IP address
794 and port, using the specified interface, if one is given.
797 client-ssl [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>] \
798 [<cert file>] [<key file>]
800 When OpenSSL is available on the host, an alternative version of the client
801 program is compiled, one that supports TLS using OpenSSL. The additional
802 arguments specify a certificate and key file when required. There is one
803 additional option, -tls-on-connect, that causes the client to initiate TLS
804 negotiation immediately on connection.
807 client-gnutls [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>] \
808 [<cert file>] [<key file>]
810 When GnuTLS is available on the host, an alternative version of the client
811 program is compiled, one that supports TLS using GnuTLS. The additional
812 arguments specify a certificate and key file when required. There is one
813 additional option, -tls-on-connect, that causes the client to initiate TLS
814 negotiation immediately on connection.
817 exim [<options>] [<arguments>]
819 This command runs the testing version of Exim. Any occurrence of "$msg1" in the
820 command line is replaced by the ID of the first (oldest) message in Exim's
821 (testing) spool. "$msg2" refers to the second, and so on. The name "exim" can
822 be preceded by an environment setting as in this example:
824 LDAPTLS_REQCERT=never exim -be
826 It can also be preceded by a number; this specifies a number of seconds to wait
827 before closing the stdout pipe to Exim, and is used for some timeout tests. For
832 Finally, "exim" can be preceded by "sudo", to run Exim as root. If more than
833 one of these prefixes is present, they must be in the above order.
836 exim_exim [<options>] [<arguments>]
838 This runs an alternative version of Exim that is setuid to exim rather than to
842 server [<options>] <port or socket> [<connection count>]
844 This command runs the auxiliary "server" program that simulates an SMTP (or
845 other) server. It is controlled by a script that is read from its standard
846 input, details of which are given below. A number of options are implemented:
848 -d causes the server to output debugging information
850 -t sets a timeout in seconds (default 5) for when the server is
851 awaiting an incoming connection
853 -noipv4 causes the server not to set up an IPv4 socket
855 -noipv6 causes the server not to set up an IPv6 socket
857 By default, in an IPv6 environment, both kinds of socket are set up. However,
858 the test script knows which interfaces actually exist on the host, and it adds
859 -noipv4 or -noipv6 to the server command as required. An error occurs if both
860 these options are given.
862 The only required argument is either a port number or the path name of a Unix
863 domain socket. The port is normally PORT_S, which is changed to an actual
864 number by the standard substitutions. The optional final argument specifies the
865 number of different connections to expect (default 1). These must happen
866 serially (one at a time). There is no support for multiple simultaneous
867 connections. Here are some example commands:
870 server -t 10 PORT_S 3
871 server /tmp/somesocket
873 The following lines, up to a line of four asterisks, are the server's
874 controlling standard input (described below). These lines are read and
875 remembered; during the following commands, until an "exim" command is reached,
876 the server is run in parallel.
879 write <file name> [nxm[=start-of-line-text]]*
881 The "write" command is a way of creating files of specific sizes for buffering
882 tests, or containing specific data lines. Being able to do this from within the
883 script saves holding lots of little test files. The optional argument specifies
884 n lines of length m. The lines consist of the letter "a". If start of line text
885 is supplied, it replaces "a"s at the start of each line. Underscores in the
886 start of line text are turned into spaces. The optional argument may be
887 repeated. The data lines that follow a "write" command are split into two by a
888 line of four plus signs. Any above the split are written before the
889 fixed-length lines, and any below the split are written after. For example:
891 write test-data 3x30=AB_ 1x50
899 This command generates a file containing:
903 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
904 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
905 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
906 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
910 If there are no fixed-length line specifiers, there is no need to split the
911 data, and a line of plusses is not needed.
916 This command runs Perl, with the data as its standard input, to allow arbitrary
917 one-off things to be done.
923 Lines in client scripts are of two kinds:
925 (1) If a line begins with three question marks and a space, the rest of the
926 line defines the start of expected output from the server. If what is
927 received does not match, the client bombs out with an error message.
929 (2) If a line starts with three plus signs followed by a space, the rest of the
930 line specifies a number of seconds to sleep for before proceeding.
932 (3) Otherwise, the line is an input line line that is sent to the server. Any
933 occurrences of \r and \n in the line are turned into carriage return and
934 linefeed, respectively. This is used for testing PIPELINING.
936 Here is a simple example:
938 client 127.0.0.1 PORT_D
943 AUTH PLAIN AbdXi0AdnD2CVy
949 In the case of client-gnutls and client-ssl, if a command is "starttls", this
950 is remembered, and after a subsequent OK response, an attempt to move into TLS
951 mode occurs. If a command is "starttls_wait", the client sends "starttls" but
952 does not start up TLS; this is for testing timeouts. If a command is "stoptls",
953 an existing TLS connection is shut down, but nothing is sent.
959 The server program sleeps till a connection occurs or its timeout is reached,
960 in which case it bombs out. The next set of command lines are interpreted. They
961 are of the following kinds:
963 (1) A line that starts with '>' or with a digit is an output line that is sent
964 to the client. In the case of '>':
966 (a) If the line starts with ">>", no terminating CRLF is sent.
967 (b) If the line starts with ">CR>", just CR is sent at the end.
968 (c) If the line starts with ">LF>", just LF is sent at the end.
969 (d) If the line starts with ">*eof", nothing is sent and the connection
972 The data that is sent starts after the initial '>' sequence.
974 (2) A line that starts with "*sleep" specifies a number of seconds to wait
977 (3) A line containing "*eof" specifies that the client is expected to close
978 the connection at this point.
980 (4) A line containing just '.' specifies that the client is expected to send
981 many lines, terminated by one that contains just a dot.
983 (5) Otherwise, the line defines the start of an input line that the client
984 is expected to send. To allow for lines that start with digits, the line
985 may start with '<', which is not taken as part of the input data. If the
986 input does not match, the server bombs out with an error message.
988 Here is a simple example of server use in a test script:
1006 After a "server" command in a test script, the server runs in parallel until an
1007 "exim" command is reached. The "exim" command attempts to deliver one or more
1008 messages to port PORT_S on the local host. When it has finished, the test
1009 script waits for the "server" process to finish.
1011 The "mtpscript" program is like "server", except that it uses stdin/stdout for
1012 its input and output instead of a script. However, it is not called from test
1013 scripts; instead it is used as the command for pipe transports in some
1014 configurations, to simulate non-socket LMTP servers.
1017 AUXILIARY DATA FILES
1018 --------------------
1020 Many of the tests make use of auxiliary data files. There are two types; those
1021 whose content is fixed, and those whose content needs to be varied according to
1022 the current environment. The former are kept in the directory aux-fixed. The
1023 latter are distributed in the directory aux-var-src, and copied with the
1024 standard substitutions into the directory aux-var at the start of each test
1027 Most of the auxiliary files have names that start with a test number,
1028 indicating that they are specific to that one test. A few fixed files (for
1029 example, some TLS certificates) are used by more than one test, and so their
1030 names are not of this form.
1032 There are also some auxilary DNS zone files, which are described in the next
1036 DNS LOOKUPS AND GETHOSTBYNAME
1037 -----------------------------
1039 The original test suite required special testing zones to be loaded into a
1040 local nameserver. This is no longer a requirement for the new suite. Instead, a
1041 program called fakens is used to simulate a nameserver. When Exim is running in
1042 the test harness, instead of calling res_search() - the normal call to the DNS
1043 resolver - it calls a testing function. This handles a few special names itself
1044 (for compatibility with the old test suite), but otherwise passes the query to
1047 The fakens program consults "zone files" in the directory called dnszones, and
1048 returns data in the standard resource record format for Exim to process as if
1049 it came from the DNS. However, if the requested domain is not in any of the
1050 zones that fakens knows about, it returns a special code that causes Exim to
1051 pass the query on to res_search(). The zone files are:
1053 db.test.ex A zone for the domain test.ex.
1054 db.ip4.10 A zone for one special case in 10.250.0.0/16 (see below)
1055 db.ip4.V4NET A zone for the domain V4NET.in-addr.arpa.
1056 db.ip4.127 A zone for the domain 127.in-addr.arpa.
1057 db.ip6.V6NET A zone for the domain inverted(V6NET).ip6.arpa.
1058 db.ip6.0 A zone for the domain 0.ip6.arpa.
1060 V4NET and V6NET are substituted with the current testing networks (see above).
1061 In the case of V6NET, the network is four hex digits, and it is split and
1062 inverted appropriately when setting up the zone.
1064 These fake zone files are built dynamically from sources in the dnszones-src
1065 directory by applying the standard substitutions. The test suite also builds
1066 dynamic zone files for the name of the current host and its IP address(es). The
1067 idea is that there should not be any need to rely on an external DNS.
1069 The domain names that are handled directly by Exim, without being passed to
1072 test.again.dns This always provokes a TRY_AGAIN response, for testing the
1073 handling of temporary DNS error. If the full domain name
1074 starts with digits, a delay of that many seconds occurs.
1076 test.fail.dns This always provokes a NO_RECOVERY response, for testing
1077 DNS server failures.
1079 This special handling could now be done in the fakens program, but while the
1080 old test suite is still being used it has to be done in Exim itself, so for the
1081 moment it remains there.
1083 The use of gethostbyname() and its IPv6 friends is also subverted when Exim is
1084 running in the test harness. The test code handles a few special names
1085 directly; for all the others it uses DNS lookups, which are then handled as
1086 just described. Thus, the use of /etc/hosts is completely bypassed. The names
1087 that are specially handled are:
1089 manyhome.test.ex This name is used for testing hosts with ridiculously large
1090 numbers of IP addresses; 2048 IP addresses are generated
1091 and returned. Doing it this way saves having to make the
1092 interface to fakens handle more records that can fit in the
1093 data block. The addresses that are generated are in the
1094 10.250.0.0/16 network.
1096 localhost Always returns 127.0.0.1 or ::1, for IPv4 and IPv6 lookups,
1099 <an IP address> If the IP address is of the correct form for the lookup
1100 type (IPv4 or IPv6), it is returned. Otherwise a panic-die
1103 The reverse zone db.ip4.10 is provided just for the manyhome.test.ex case. It
1104 contains a single wildcard resource record. It also contains the line
1108 Whenever fakens finds this line in a zone file, it returns PASS_ON instead of
1109 HOST_NOT_FOUND. This causes Exim to pass the query to res_search().