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 probably not a good idea to run the tests as the Exim user, as this is
69 recognized as special by Exim.
71 (3) The login under which you run the tests must be in the exim group so that
72 it has access to logs, spool files, etc. The login should not be one of the
73 names "userx", "usery", "userz", or a few other simple ones such as "abcd"
74 and "xyz" and single letters that are used in the tests. The test suite
75 expects the login to have a gecos name; I think it will now run if the
76 gecos field is empty but there may be anomalies.
78 (4) The directory into which you unpack the test suite must be accessible by
79 the Exim user, so that code running as exim can access the files therein. A
80 world-readable directory is fine. However, there may be problems if the
81 path name of the directory is excessively long. This is because it
82 sometimes appears in log lines or debug output, and if it is truncated, it
83 is no longer recognized.
85 (5) Exim must be built with its user and group specified at build time, and
86 with certain minimum facilities, namely:
88 Routers: accept, dnslookup, manualroute, redirect
89 Transports: appendfile, autoreply, pipe, smtp
92 Most Exim binaries will have these included.
94 (6) A C compiler is needed to build some test programs, and the test script is
95 written in Perl, so you need that.
97 (7) Some of the tests run Exim as a daemon, and others use a testing server
98 (described below). These require TCP ports. In the configurations and
99 scripts, the ports are parameterized, but at present, fixed values are
100 written into the controlling script. These are ports 1224 to 1229. If these
101 ports are not available for use, some of the tests will fail.
103 (8) There is an underlying assumption that the host on which the tests are
104 being run has an IPv4 address (which the test script seeks out). If there
105 is also an IPv6 address, additional tests are run when the Exim binary
106 contains IPv6 support. There are checks in the scripts for a running IPv4
107 interface; when one is not found, some tests are skipped (with a warning
114 If the Exim binary that is being tested contains extra functionality in
115 addition to the minimum specified above, additional tests are run to exercise
116 the extra functionality, except for a few special cases such as the databases
117 (MySQL, PostgreSQL, LDAP) where special data is needed for the tests.
120 RUNNING THE TEST SUITE
121 ----------------------
123 (1) Download the tarball exim-testsuite-x.xx.tar.bz2 and unpack it, preferably
124 in a directory alongside an Exim source directory (see below).
126 (2) cd into the exim-testsuite-x.xx directory.
128 (3) Run "./configure" and then "make". This builds a few auxiliary programs
129 that are written in C.
131 (4) Run "./runtest" (a Perl script) as described below.
133 (5) If you want to see what tests are available, run "./listtests".
136 BREAKING OUT OF THE TEST SCRIPT
137 -------------------------------
139 If you abandon the test run by typing ^C, the interrupt may be passed to a
140 program that the script is running, or it may be passed to the script itself.
141 In the former case, the script should detect that the program has ended
142 abnormally. In both cases, the script tries to clean up everything, including
143 killing any Exim daemons that it has started. However, there may be race
144 conditions in which the clean up does not happen. If, after breaking out of a
145 run, you see strange errors in the next run, look for any left-over Exim
146 daemons, and kill them by hand.
152 The individual test scripts are in subdirectories of the "scripts" directory.
153 If you do not supply any arguments to ./listtests, it scans all the scripts in
154 all the directories, and outputs the heading line from each script. The output
155 is piped through "less", and begins like this:
158 Basic/0001 Basic configuration setting
159 Basic/0002 Common string expansions
160 Basic/0003 Caseless address blocking
163 Lines that start === give the name of the subdirectory containing the test
164 scripts that follow. If you supply an argument to ./listtests, it is used as a
165 Perl pattern to match case-independently against the names of the
166 subdirectories. Only those that match are scanned. For example, "./listtests
169 === 1000-Basic-ipv6 ===
170 === Requires: support IPv6
171 Basic-ipv6/1000 -bh and non-canonical IPv6 addresses
172 Basic-ipv6/1001 recognizing IPv6 address in HELO/EHLO
174 === 2250-dnsdb-ipv6 ===
175 === Requires: support IPv6
177 dnsdb-ipv6/2250 dnsdb ipv6 lookup in string expansions
179 If you supply a second argument to ./listtests, it is used as a Perl pattern to
180 match case-independently against the individual script titles. For example,
181 "./listtests . mx" lists all tests whose titles contain "mx", because "."
182 matches all the subdirectory names.
188 If you do not supply any arguments to ./runtest, it searches for an Exim
189 source tree at the same level as the test suite directory. It then looks for an
190 Exim binary in a "build" directory of that source tree. If there are several
191 Exim source trees, it chooses the latest version of Exim. Consider the
195 exim-4.60/ exim-4.62/ exim-testsuite-x.xx/
197 A simple ./runtest from within the test suite will use a 4.62 binary if it
198 finds one, otherwise a 4.60 binary. If a binary cannot be found, the script
199 prompts for one. Alternatively, you can supply the binary on the command line:
201 ./runtest /usr/exim/bin/exim
203 A matching test suite is released with each Exim release; if you use a test
204 suite that does not match the binary, some tests may fail.
206 The test suite uses some of the Exim utilities (such as exim_dbmbuild), and it
207 expects to find them in the same directory as Exim itself. If they are not
208 found, the tests that use them are omitted. A suitable comment is output.
210 On the ./runtest command line, following the name of the binary, if present,
211 there may be a number of options and then one or two numbers. The full syntax
214 ./runtest [binary name] [runtest options] [exim options] \
215 [first test] [last test]
217 There are some options for the ./runtest script itself:
219 -DEBUG This option is for debugging the test script. It causes some
220 tracing information to be output.
222 -DIFF By default, file comparisons are done using a private compare
223 command called "cf", which is built from source that is provided in
224 the src directory. This is a command I've had for nearly 20 years -
225 look at the source comments for its history - whose output I
226 prefer. However, if you want to use "diff" instead, give -DIFF as a
227 runtest option. In that case, "diff -u" is used for comparisons.
228 (If it turns out that most people prefer to use diff, I'll change
231 -KEEP Normally, after a successful run, the test output files are
232 deleted. This option prevents this. It is useful when running a
233 single test, in order to look at the actual output before it is
234 modified for comparison with saved output.
236 -NOIPV4 Pretend that an IPv4 interface was not found. This is useful for
237 testing that the test suite correctly skips tests that require
238 a running IPv4 interface.
240 -NOIPV6 Pretend that an IPv6 interface was not found. This is useful for
241 testing that the test suite correctly skips tests that require
242 a running IPv6 interface.
244 -UPDATE If this option is set, any detected changes in test output are
245 automatically accepted and used to update the stored copies of the
246 output. It is a dangerous option, but it useful for the test suite
247 maintainer after making a change to the code that affects a lot of
248 tests (for example, the wording of a message).
250 The options for ./runtest must be given first (but after the name of the
251 binary, if present). Any further options, that is, items on the command line
252 that start with a hyphen, are passed to the Exim binary when it is run as part
253 of a test. The only sensible use of this is to pass "-d" in order to run a test
254 with debugging enabled. Any other options are likely to conflict with options
255 that are set in the tests. Some tests are already set up to run with debugging.
256 In these cases, -d on the command line overrides their own debug settings.
258 The final two arguments specify the range of tests to be run. Test numbers lie
259 in the range 1 to 9999. If no numbers are given, the defaults are 1 and 8999
260 (sic). Tests with higher numbers (9000 upwards) are not run automatically
261 because they require specific data (such as a particular MySQL table) that is
262 unlikely to be generally available.
264 Tests that require certain optional features of Exim are grouped by number, so
265 in any given range, not all the tests will exist. Non-existent tests are just
266 skipped, but if there are no tests at all in the given range, a message is
269 If you give only one number, just that test is run (if it exists). Instead of a
270 second number, you can give the character "+", which is interpreted as "to the
271 end". Normally this is 8999; if the starting number is 9000 or higher, "+" is
272 interpreted as 9999. Examples:
276 ./runtest /usr/sbin/exim 5000 +
277 ./runtest -DIFF -d 81
279 When the script starts up, the first thing it does is to check that you have
280 sudo access to root. Then it outputs the version number of the Exim binary that
281 it is testing, and also information about the optional facilities that are
282 present (obtained from "exim -bV"). This is followed by some environmental
283 information, including the current login id and the hosts's IP address. The
284 script checks that the current user is in the Exim group, and that the Exim
285 user has access to the test suite directory.
287 The script outputs the list of tests requested, and a list of tests that will
288 be omitted because the relevant optional facilities are not in the binary. You
289 are then invited to press Return to start the tests running.
295 When all goes well, the only permanent output is the identity of the tests as
296 they are run, and "Script completed" for each test script, for example:
298 Basic/0001 Basic configuration setting
300 Basic/0002 Basic string expansions
302 Basic/0003 Caseless address blocking
304 Basic/0004 Caseful address blocking
306 Basic/0005 -bs to simple local delivery
309 While a script is running, it shows "Test n" on the screen, for each of the
310 Exim tests within the script. There may also be comments from some tests when a
311 delay is expected, for example, if there is a "sleep" while testing a timeout.
313 Before each set of optional tests, an extra identifying line is output. For
316 >>> The following tests require: authenticator cram_md5
317 CRAM-MD5/2500 CRAM-MD5 server tests
319 CRAM-MD5/2501 CRAM-MD5 client tests
322 If a test fails, you are shown the output of the text comparison that failed,
323 and prompted as to what to do next. The output is shown using the "less"
324 command, or "more" if "less" is not available. The options for "less" are set
325 to that it automatically exits if there is less that a screenful of output. By
326 default, the output is from the "cf" program, and might look like this:
328 DBM/1300 DBM files and exim_dbmbuild
330 Lines 7-9 of "test-stdout-munged" do not match lines 7-11 of "stdout/1300".
332 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 1
333 Continued set of lines is too long: max permitted length is 99999
334 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 1
337 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 2
338 Continued set of lines is too long: max permitted length is 99999
340 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 2
343 "test-stdout-munged" contains 16 lines; "stdout/1300" contains 18 lines.
345 Continue, Update & retry, Quit? [Q]
347 This example was generated by running the test with a version of Exim
348 that had a bug in the exim_dbmbuild utility (the bug was fixed at release
349 4.53). See "How the tests work" below for a description of the files that are
350 used. In this case, the standard output differed from what was expected.
352 The reply to the prompt must either be empty, in which case it takes the
353 default that is given in brackets (in this case Q), or a single letter, in
354 upper or lower case (in this case, one of C, U, or Q). If you type anything
355 else, the prompt is repeated.
357 "Continue" carries on as if the files had matched; that is, it ignores the
358 mismatch. Any other output files for the same test will be compared before
359 moving on to the next test.
361 "Update & retry" copies the new file to the saved file, and reruns the test
362 after doing any further comparisons that may be necessary.
364 Other circumstances give rise to other prompts. If a test generates output for
365 which there is no saved data, the prompt (after a message stating which file is
366 unexpectely not empty) is:
368 Continue, Show, or Quit? [Q]
370 "Show" displays the data on the screen, and then you get the "Continue..."
371 prompt. If a test ends with an unexpected return code, the prompt is:
373 show stdErr, show stdOut, Continue (without file comparison), or Quit? [Q]
375 Typically in these cases there will be something interesting in the stderr
376 or stdout output. There is a similar prompt after the "server" auxiliary
380 OPENSSL AND GNUTLS ERROR MESSAGES
381 ---------------------------------
383 Some of the TLS tests deliberately cause errors to check how Exim handles them.
384 It has been observed that different releases of the OpenSSL and GnuTLS
385 libraries generate different error messages. This may cause the comparison with
386 the saved output to fail. Such errors can be ignored.
392 . Some of the tests are time-sensitive (e.g. when testing timeouts, as in test
393 461). These may fail if run on a host that is also running a lot of other
396 . Some versions of "ls" use a different format for times and dates. This can
397 cause test 345 to fail.
399 . Test 0142 tests open file descriptors; on some hosts the output may vary.
402 OTHER SCRIPTS AND PROGRAMS
403 --------------------------
405 There is a freestanding Perl script called "listtests" that scans the test
406 scripts and outputs a list of all the tests, with a short descriptive comment
407 for each one. Special requirements for groups of tests are also noted.
409 The main runtest script makes use of a second Perl script and some compiled C
412 patchexim A Perl script that makes a patched version of Exim (see the
413 next section for details).
415 bin/cf A text comparison program (see above).
417 bin/checkaccess A program that is run as root; it changes uid/gid to the
418 Exim user and group, and then checks that it can access
419 files in the test suite's directory.
421 bin/client A script-driven SMTP client simulation.
423 bin/client-gnutls A script-driven SMTP client simulation with GnuTLS support.
424 This is built only if GnuTLS support is detected on the host.
426 bin/client-ssl A script-driven SMTP client simulation with OpenSSL support.
427 This is built only if OpenSSL support is detected on the
430 bin/fakens A fake "nameserver" for DNS tests (see below for details).
432 bin/fd A program that outputs details of open file descriptors.
434 bin/iefbr14 A program that does nothing, and returns 0. It's just like
435 the "true" command, but it is in a known place.
437 bin/loaded Some dynamically loaded functions for testing dlfunc support.
439 bin/mtpscript A script-driven SMTP/LMTP server simulation, on std{in,out}.
441 bin/server A script-driven SMTP server simulation, over a socket.
443 bin/showids Output the current uid, gid, euid, egid.
445 The runtest script also makes use of a number of ordinary commands such as
446 "cp", "kill", "more", and "rm", via the system() call. In some cases these are
447 run as root by means of sudo.
450 STANDARD SUBSTITUTIONS
451 ----------------------
453 In the following sections, there are several references to the "standard
454 substitutions". These make changes to some of the stored files when they are
455 used in a test. To save repetition, the substitutions themselves are documented
458 CALLER is replaced by the login name of the user running the tests
459 CALLERGROUP is replaced by the caller's group id
460 CALLER_GID is replaced by the caller's group id
461 CALLER_UID is replaced by the caller's user id
462 DIR is replaced by the name of the test-suite directory
463 EXIMGROUP is replaced by the name of the Exim group
464 EXIMUSER is replaced by the name of the Exim user
465 HOSTIPV4 is replaced by the local host's IPv4 address
466 HOSTIPV6 is replaced by the local host's IPv6 address
467 HOSTNAME is replaced by the local host's name
468 PORT_D is replaced by a port number for normal daemon use
469 PORT_N is replaced by a port number that should never respond
470 PORT_S is replaced by a port number for normal bin/server use
471 TESTNUM is replaced by the current test number
472 V4NET is replaced by an IPv4 network number for testing
473 V6NET is replaced by an IPv6 network number for testing
475 PORT_D is currently hard-wired to 1225, PORT_N to 1223, and PORT_S to 1224.
476 V4NET is hardwired to 224 and V6NET to ff00. These networks are used for DNS
477 testing purposes, and for testing Exim with -bh. The only requirement is that
478 they are networks that can never be used for an IP address of a real host. I've
479 chosen two multicast networks for the moment.
481 If the host has no IPv6 address, "<no IPv6 address found>" is substituted but
482 that does not matter because no IPv6 tests will be run. A similar substitution
483 is made if there is no IPv4 address, and again, tests that actually require a
484 running IPv4 interface should be skipped.
486 If the host has more than one IPv4 or IPv6 address, the first one that
487 "ifconfig" lists is used. If the only available address is 127.0.0.1 (or ::1
488 for IPv6) it is used, but another value is preferred if available.
490 In situations where a specific test is not being run (for example, when setting
491 up dynamic data files), TESTNUM is replaced by an empty string, but should not
492 in fact occur in such files.
498 Each numbered script runs Exim (sometimes several times) with its own Exim
499 configuration file. The configurations are stored in the "confs" directory,
500 and before running each test, a copy of the appropriate configuration, with the
501 standard substitutions, is made in the file test-config. The -C command line
502 option is used to tell Exim to use this configuration.
504 The -D option is used to pass the path of the Exim binary to the configuration.
505 This is not standardly substituted, because there are two possible binaries
506 that might be used in the same test (one setuid to root, the other to the exim
507 user). Some tests also make use of -D to vary the configuration for different
508 calls to the Exim binary.
510 Normally, of course, Exim gives up root privilege when -C and -D are used by
511 unprivileged users. We do not want this to happen when running the tests,
512 because we want to be able to test all aspects of Exim, including receiving
513 mail from unprivileged users. The way this is handled is as follows:
515 At the start of the runtest script, the patchexim script is run as root. This
516 script makes a copy of the Exim binary that is to be tested, patching it as it
517 does so. (This is a binary patch, not a source patch.) The patch causes the
518 binary, when run, to "know" that it is running in the test harness. It does not
519 give up root privilege when -C and -D are used, and in a few places it takes
520 other special actions, such as delaying when starting a subprocess to allow
521 debug output from the parent to be written first. If you want to know more,
522 grep the Exim source files for "running_in_test_harness".
524 The patched binary is placed in the directory eximdir/exim and given the normal
525 setuid root privilege. This is, of course, a dangerous binary to have lying
526 around, especially if there are unprivileged users on the system. To protect
527 it, the eximdir directory is created with the current user as owner, exim as
528 the group owner, and with access drwx--x---. Thus, only the user who is running
529 the tests (who is known to have access to root) and the exim user have access
530 to the modified Exim binary. When runtest terminates, the patched binary is
533 Each set of tests proceeds by interpreting its controlling script. The scripts
534 are in subdirectories of the "scripts" directory. They are split up according
535 to the requirements of the tests they contain, with the 0000-Basic directory
536 containing tests that can always be run. Run the "listtests" script to obtain a
543 Output from script runs is written to the files test-stdout and test-stderr.
544 When an Exim server is involved, test-stdout-server and test-stderr-server are
545 used for its output. Before being compared with the saved output, the
546 non-server and server files are concatenated, so a single saved file contains
549 A directory called spool is used for Exim's spool files, and for Exim logs.
550 These locations are specified in every test's configuration file.
552 When messages are delivered to files, the files are put in the test-mail
553 directory. Output from comparisons is written to test-cf.
555 Before comparisons are done, output texts are modified ("munged") to change or
556 remove parts that are expected to vary from run to run. The modified files all
557 end with the suffix "-munged". Thus, you will see test-stdout-munged,
558 test-mainlog-munged, test-mail-munged, and so on. Other files whose names start
559 with "test-" are created and used by some of the tests.
561 At the end of a successful test run, the spool directory and all the files
562 whose names begin with "test-" are removed. If the run ends unsuccessfully
563 (typically after a "Q" response to a prompt), the spool and test files are left
564 in existence so that the problem can be investigated.
570 Each test script consists of a list of commands, each optionally preceded by
571 comments (lines starting with #) and (also optionally) a line containing an
572 expected return code. Some of the commands are followed by data lines
573 terminated by a line of four asterisks.
575 The first line of each script must be a comment that briefly describes the
578 # -bS Use of HELO/RSET
580 A line consisting just of digits is interpreted as the expected return code
581 for the command that follows. The default expectation when no such line exists
582 is a zero return code. For example, here is a complete test script, containing
585 # -bS Unexpected EOF in headers
588 mail from:<someone@some.where>
589 rcpt to:<blackhole@HOSTNAME>
594 The expected return code in this case is 1, and the data lines are passed to
595 Exim on its standard input. Both the command line and the data lines have the
596 standard substitions applied to them. Thus, HOSTNAME in the example above will
597 be replaced by the local host's name. Long commands can be continued over
598 several lines by using \ as a continuation character. This does *not* apply to
601 Here follows a list of supported commands. They can be divided into two groups:
604 Commands with no input
605 ----------------------
607 These commands are not followed by any input data, or by a line of asterisks.
610 dbmbuild <file1> <file1>
612 This command runs the exim_dbmbuild utility to build a DBM file. It is used
613 only when DBM support is available in Exim, and typically follows the use of a
614 "write" command (see below) that creates the input file.
619 This command runs the exim_dumpdb utility on the testing spool directory, using
620 the database name given, for example: "dumpdb retry".
625 The text is written to the screen; this is used to output comments from
629 exim_lock [options] <file name>
631 This command runs the exim_lock utility with the given options and file name.
632 The file remains locked with the following command (normally exim) is obeyed.
637 This command runs the exinext utility with the given argument data.
642 This command runs the exigrep utility with the given data (the search pattern)
643 on the current mainlog file.
648 This command is present at the start of all but one of the tests that use
649 GnuTLS. It copies a pre-existing parameter file into the spool directory, so
650 that Exim does not have to re-create the file each time. The first GnuTLS test
651 does not do this, in order to test that Exim can create the file.
656 This command must be given in any script that starts an Exim daemon, normally
657 at the end. It searches for the PID file in the spool directory, and sends a
658 SIGINT signal to the Exim daemon process whose PID it finds. See below for
659 comments about starting Exim daemons.
664 This command causes the script to sleep for m milliseconds. Nothing is output
670 This command must be at the head of a script. If no IPv4 interface has been
671 found, the entire script is skipped, and a comment is output.
676 This command must be at the head of a script. If no IPv6 interface has been
677 found, the entire script is skipped, and a comment is output.
682 This command must be at the head of a script. If the Exim binary does not
683 suppport large files (off_t is <= 4), the entire script is skipped, and a
687 need_move_frozen_messages
689 This command must be at the head of a script. If the Exim binary does not have
690 support for moving frozen messages (which is an optional feature), the entire
691 script is skipped, and a comment is output.
696 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, messages that are
697 delivered when the script runs are not compared with saved versions.
702 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, message log files that
703 are still in existence at the end of the run (for messages that were not
704 delivered) are not compared with saved versions.
709 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, the stderr output from
710 the run is not compared with a saved version.
715 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, the stdout output from
716 the run is not compared with a saved version.
721 This command indicates that the script is for a certain type of filter test, in
722 which there are a lot of repetitive stdout lines that get in the way, because
723 filter tests output data about the sender and recipient. Such lines are removed
724 from the stdout output before comparing, for ease of human perusal.
729 This command causes the script to sleep for n seconds. If n is greater than
730 one, "sleep <n>" is output to the screen, followed by a dot for every second
736 This command causes special sorting to occur on the mainlog file before
737 comparison. Every sequence of contiguous delivery lines (lines containing the
738 => -> or *> flags) is sorted. This is necessary in some tests that use parallel
739 deliveries because on different systems the processes may terminate in a
743 A number of standard file management commands are also recognized. These are
744 cat, chmod, chown, cp, du, ln, ls, du, mkdir, mkfifo, rm, rmdir, and touch.
745 Some are run as root using "sudo".
751 The remaining commands are followed by data lines for their standard input,
752 terminated by four asterisks. Even if no data is required for the particular
753 usage, the asterisks must be given.
756 catwrite <file name> [nxm[=start-of-line-text]]*
758 This command operates like the "write" command, which is described below,
759 except that the data it generates is copied to the end of the test-stdout file
760 as well as to the named file.
764 client [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>]
766 This command runs the auxiliary "client" program that simulates an SMTP client.
767 It is controlled by a script read from its standard input, details of which are
768 given below. There are two options. One is -t, which must be followed directly
769 by a number, to specify the command timeout in seconds (e.g. -t5). The default
770 timeout is 1 second. The other option is -tls-on-connect, which causes the
771 client to try to start up a TLS session as soon as it has connected, without
772 using the STARTTLS command. The client program connects to the given IP address
773 and port, using the specified interface, if one is given.
776 client-ssl [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>] \
777 [<cert file>] [<key file>]
779 When OpenSSL is available on the host, an alternative version of the client
780 program is compiled, one that supports TLS using OpenSSL. The additional
781 arguments specify a certificate and key file when required. There is one
782 additional option, -tls-on-connect, that causes the client to initiate TLS
783 negotiation immediately on connection.
786 client-gnutls [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>] \
787 [<cert file>] [<key file>]
789 When GnuTLS is available on the host, an alternative version of the client
790 program is compiled, one that supports TLS using GnuTLS. The additional
791 arguments specify a certificate and key file when required. There is one
792 additional option, -tls-on-connect, that causes the client to initiate TLS
793 negotiation immediately on connection.
796 exim [<options>] [<arguments>]
798 This command runs the testing version of Exim. Any occurrence of "$msg1" in the
799 command line is replaced by the ID of the first (oldest) message in Exim's
800 (testing) spool. "$msg2" refers to the second, and so on. The name "exim" can
801 be preceded by an environment setting as in this example:
803 LDAPTLS_REQCERT=never exim -be
805 It can also be preceded by a number; this specifies a number of seconds to wait
806 before closing the stdout pipe to Exim, and is used for some timeout tests. For
811 Finally, "exim" can be preceded by "sudo", to run Exim as root. If more than
812 one of these prefixes is present, they must be in the above order.
815 exim_exim [<options>] [<arguments>]
817 This runs an alternative version of Exim that is setuid to exim rather than to
821 server [<options>] <port or socket> [<connection count>]
823 This command runs the auxiliary "server" program that simulates an SMTP (or
824 other) server. It is controlled by a script that is read from its standard
825 input, details of which are given below. A number of options are implemented:
827 -d causes the server to output debugging information
829 -t sets a timeout in seconds (default 5) for when the server is
830 awaiting an incoming connection
832 -noipv4 causes the server not to set up an IPv4 socket
834 -noipv6 causes the server not to set up an IPv6 socket
836 By default, in an IPv6 environment, both kinds of socket are set up. However,
837 the test script knows which interfaces actually exist on the host, and it adds
838 -noipv4 or -noipv6 to the server command as required. An error occurs if both
839 these options are given.
841 The only required argument is either a port number or the path name of a Unix
842 domain socket. The port is normally PORT_S, which is changed to an actual
843 number by the standard substitutions. The optional final argument specifies the
844 number of different connections to expect (default 1). These must happen
845 serially (one at a time). There is no support for multiple simultaneous
846 connections. Here are some example commands:
849 server -t 10 PORT_S 3
850 server /tmp/somesocket
852 The following lines, up to a line of four asterisks, are the server's
853 controlling standard input (described below). These lines are read and
854 remembered; during the following commands, until an "exim" command is reached,
855 the server is run in parallel.
858 write <file name> [nxm[=start-of-line-text]]*
860 The "write" command is a way of creating files of specific sizes for buffering
861 tests, or containing specific data lines. Being able to do this from within the
862 script saves holding lots of little test files. The optional argument specifies
863 n lines of length m. The lines consist of the letter "a". If start of line text
864 is supplied, it replaces "a"s at the start of each line. Underscores in the
865 start of line text are turned into spaces. The optional argument may be
866 repeated. The data lines that follow a "write" command are split into two by a
867 line of four plus signs. Any above the split are written before the
868 fixed-length lines, and any below the split are written after. For example:
870 write test-data 3x30=AB_ 1x50
878 This command generates a file containing:
882 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
883 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
884 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
885 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
889 If there are no fixed-length line specifiers, there is no need to split the
890 data, and a line of plusses is not needed.
895 This command runs Perl, with the data as its standard input, to allow arbitrary
896 one-off things to be done.
902 Lines in client scripts are of two kinds:
904 (1) If a line begins with three question marks and a space, the rest of the
905 line defines the start of expected output from the server. If what is
906 received does not match, the client bombs out with an error message.
908 (2) If a line starts with three plus signs followed by a space, the rest of the
909 line specifies a number of seconds to sleep for before proceeding.
911 (3) Otherwise, the line is an input line line that is sent to the server. Any
912 occurrences of \r and \n in the line are turned into carriage return and
913 linefeed, respectively. This is used for testing PIPELINING.
915 Here is a simple example:
917 client 127.0.0.1 PORT_D
922 AUTH PLAIN AbdXi0AdnD2CVy
928 In the case of client-gnutls and client-ssl, if a command is "starttls", this
929 is remembered, and after a subsequent OK response, an attempt to move into TLS
930 mode occurs. If a command is "starttls_wait", the client sends "starttls" but
931 does not start up TLS; this is for testing timeouts. If a command is "stoptls",
932 an existing TLS connection is shut down, but nothing is sent.
938 The server program sleeps till a connection occurs or its timeout is reached,
939 in which case it bombs out. The next set of command lines are interpreted. They
940 are of the following kinds:
942 (1) A line that starts with '>' or with a digit is an output line that is sent
943 to the client. In the case of '>':
945 (a) If the line starts with ">>", no terminating CRLF is sent.
946 (b) If the line starts with ">CR>", just CR is sent at the end.
947 (c) If the line starts with ">LF>", just LF is sent at the end.
948 (d) If the line starts with ">*eof", nothing is sent and the connection
951 The data that is sent starts after the initial '>' sequence.
953 (2) A line that starts with "*sleep" specifies a number of seconds to wait
956 (3) A line containing "*eof" specifies that the client is expected to close
957 the connection at this point.
959 (4) A line containing just '.' specifies that the client is expected to send
960 many lines, terminated by one that contains just a dot.
962 (5) Otherwise, the line defines the start of an input line that the client
963 is expected to send. To allow for lines that start with digits, the line
964 may start with '<', which is not taken as part of the input data. If the
965 input does not match, the server bombs out with an error message.
967 Here is a simple example of server use in a test script:
985 After a "server" command in a test script, the server runs in parallel until an
986 "exim" command is reached. The "exim" command attempts to deliver one or more
987 messages to port PORT_S on the local host. When it has finished, the test
988 script waits for the "server" process to finish.
990 The "mtpscript" program is like "server", except that it uses stdin/stdout for
991 its input and output instead of a script. However, it is not called from test
992 scripts; instead it is used as the command for pipe transports in some
993 configurations, to simulate non-socket LMTP servers.
999 Many of the tests make use of auxiliary data files. There are two types; those
1000 whose content is fixed, and those whose content needs to be varied according to
1001 the current environment. The former are kept in the directory aux-fixed. The
1002 latter are distributed in the directory aux-var-src, and copied with the
1003 standard substitutions into the directory aux-var at the start of each test
1006 Most of the auxiliary files have names that start with a test number,
1007 indicating that they are specific to that one test. A few fixed files (for
1008 example, some TLS certificates) are used by more than one test, and so their
1009 names are not of this form.
1011 There are also some auxilary DNS zone files, which are described in the next
1015 DNS LOOKUPS AND GETHOSTBYNAME
1016 -----------------------------
1018 The original test suite required special testing zones to be loaded into a
1019 local nameserver. This is no longer a requirement for the new suite. Instead, a
1020 program called fakens is used to simulate a nameserver. When Exim is running in
1021 the test harness, instead of calling res_search() - the normal call to the DNS
1022 resolver - it calls a testing function. This handles a few special names itself
1023 (for compatibility with the old test suite), but otherwise passes the query to
1026 The fakens program consults "zone files" in the directory called dnszones, and
1027 returns data in the standard resource record format for Exim to process as if
1028 it came from the DNS. However, if the requested domain is not in any of the
1029 zones that fakens knows about, it returns a special code that causes Exim to
1030 pass the query on to res_search(). The zone files are:
1032 db.test.ex A zone for the domain test.ex.
1033 db.ip4.10 A zone for one special case in 10.250.0.0/16 (see below)
1034 db.ip4.V4NET A zone for the domain V4NET.in-addr.arpa.
1035 db.ip4.127 A zone for the domain 127.in-addr.arpa.
1036 db.ip6.V6NET A zone for the domain inverted(V6NET).ip6.arpa.
1037 db.ip6.0 A zone for the domain 0.ip6.arpa.
1039 V4NET and V6NET are substituted with the current testing networks (see above).
1040 In the case of V6NET, the network is four hex digits, and it is split and
1041 inverted appropriately when setting up the zone.
1043 These fake zone files are built dynamically from sources in the dnszones-src
1044 directory by applying the standard substitutions. The test suite also builds
1045 dynamic zone files for the name of the current host and its IP address(es). The
1046 idea is that there should not be any need to rely on an external DNS.
1048 The domain names that are handled directly by Exim, without being passed to
1051 test.again.dns This always provokes a TRY_AGAIN response, for testing the
1052 handling of temporary DNS error. If the full domain name
1053 starts with digits, a delay of that many seconds occurs.
1055 test.fail.dns This always provokes a NO_RECOVERY response, for testing
1056 DNS server failures.
1058 This special handling could now be done in the fakens program, but while the
1059 old test suite is still being used it has to be done in Exim itself, so for the
1060 moment it remains there.
1062 The use of gethostbyname() and its IPv6 friends is also subverted when Exim is
1063 running in the test harness. The test code handles a few special names
1064 directly; for all the others it uses DNS lookups, which are then handled as
1065 just described. Thus, the use of /etc/hosts is completely bypassed. The names
1066 that are specially handled are:
1068 manyhome.test.ex This name is used for testing hosts with ridiculously large
1069 numbers of IP addresses; 2048 IP addresses are generated
1070 and returned. Doing it this way saves having to make the
1071 interface to fakens handle more records that can fit in the
1072 data block. The addresses that are generated are in the
1073 10.250.0.0/16 network.
1075 localhost Always returns 127.0.0.1 or ::1, for IPv4 and IPv6 lookups,
1078 <an IP address> If the IP address is of the correct form for the lookup
1079 type (IPv4 or IPv6), it is returned. Otherwise a panic-die
1082 The reverse zone db.ip4.10 is provided just for the manyhome.test.ex case. It
1083 contains a single wildcard resource record. It also contains the line
1087 Whenever fakens finds this line in a zone file, it returns PASS_ON instead of
1088 HOST_NOT_FOUND. This causes Exim to pass the query to res_search().