1 EXPORTABLE EXIM TEST SUITE
2 --------------------------
4 This document last updated for:
6 Test Suite Version: 4.67
13 For a long time, the Exim test suite was confined to Philip Hazel's
14 workstation, because it relied on that particular environment. The problem is
15 that an MTA such as Exim interacts a great deal with its environment, so if you
16 run it somewhere else, the output will be different, which makes automatic
17 checking difficult. Even in a single environment, things are not all that easy.
18 For instance, if Exim delivers a message, the log line (which one would want to
19 compare) contains a timestamp and an Exim message id that will be different
20 each time. This issue is dealt with by a Perl script that munges the output by
21 recognizing changing sequences and replacing them with fixed values before
22 doing a comparison. Another problem with exporting the original test suite is
23 that it assumes a version of Exim with more or less every optional feature
26 This README describes a new test suite that is intended to be exportable and to
27 run in a number of different environments. The tests themselves are in no
28 particular order; they accumulated over the years as Exim was extended and
29 modified. They vary greatly in size and complexity. Some were specifically
30 constructed to test new features; others were made to demonstrate that a bug
33 A few of the original tests have had to be omitted from this more general
34 suite because differences in operating system behaviour make it impossible to
35 generalize them. An example is a test that uses a version of Exim that is
36 setuid to the Exim user rather than root, with the deliver_drop_privilege
37 option set. In Linux, such a binary is able to deliver a message as the caller
38 of Exim, because it can revert to the caller's uid. In FreeBSD this is not the
45 In order to run this test suite, the following requirements must be met:
47 (1) You should run the tests on a matching version of Exim, because the suite
48 is continuously updated to test the latest features and bug fixes. The
49 version you test does not, however, have to be installed as the live
50 version. You can of course try the tests on any version of Exim, but some
51 may fail. In particular, the test suite will fall apart horrible with
52 versions of Exim prior to 4.54.
54 (2) You can use any non-root login to run the tests, but there must be access
55 via "sudo" to root from this login. Privilege is required to override
56 configuration change checks and for things like cleaning up spool files,
57 but on the other hand, the tests themselves need to call Exim from a
58 non-root process. The use of "sudo" is the easiest way to achieve all this.
59 The test script uses "sudo" to do a number of things as root, so it is best
60 if you set a sudo timeout so that you do not have to keep typing a
61 password. For example, if you put
63 Defaults timestamp_timeout=480
65 in /etc/sudoers, a password lasts for 8 hours (a working day). It is
66 not permitted to run the tests as the Exim user because the test suite
67 tracks the two users independently. Using the same user would result
68 in false positives on some tests.
70 Further, some tests invoke sudo in an environment where there might not be
71 a TTY, so tickets should be global, not per-TTY. Taking this all together
72 and assuming a user of "exim-build", you might have this in sudoers:
74 Defaults:exim-build timestamp_timeout=480,!tty_tickets
76 (3) The login under which you run the tests must be in the exim group so that
77 it has access to logs, spool files, etc. The login should not be one of the
78 names "userx", "usery", "userz", or a few other simple ones such as "abcd"
79 and "xyz" and single letters that are used in the tests. The test suite
80 expects the login to have a gecos name; I think it will now run if the
81 gecos field is empty but there may be anomalies.
83 (4) The directory into which you unpack the test suite must be accessible by
84 the Exim user, so that code running as exim can access the files therein.
85 This includes search-access on all path elements leading to it. A
86 world-readable directory is fine. However, there may be problems if the
87 path name of the directory is excessively long. This is because it
88 sometimes appears in log lines or debug output, and if it is truncated, it
89 is no longer recognized.
91 (5) Exim must be built with its user and group specified at build time, and
92 with certain minimum facilities, namely:
94 Routers: accept, dnslookup, manualroute, redirect
95 Transports: appendfile, autoreply, pipe, smtp
98 Most Exim binaries will have these included.
100 (6) A C compiler is needed to build some test programs, and the test script is
101 written in Perl, so you need that.
103 (7) Some of the tests run Exim as a daemon, and others use a testing server
104 (described below). These require TCP ports. In the configurations and
105 scripts, the ports are parameterized, but at present, fixed values are
106 written into the controlling script. These are ports 1224 to 1229. If these
107 ports are not available for use, some of the tests will fail.
109 (8) There is an underlying assumption that the host on which the tests are
110 being run has an IPv4 address (which the test script seeks out). If there
111 is also an IPv6 address, additional tests are run when the Exim binary
112 contains IPv6 support. There are checks in the scripts for a running IPv4
113 interface; when one is not found, some tests are skipped (with a warning
116 (9) Exim must be built with TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST support, so that the test
117 configs can be placed into it. A suitable file location is .../exim/test/trusted_configs
118 DISABLE_D_OPTION must not be used. If ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX is used, it
119 must contain the directory of the test-suite. WHITELIST_D_MACROS should contain:
121 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
123 (10) Exim must *not* be built with USE_READLINE, as the test-suite's automation
124 assumes the simpler I/O model.
125 Exim must *not* be built with HEADERS_CHARSET set to UTF-8.
132 If the Exim binary that is being tested contains extra functionality in
133 addition to the minimum specified above, additional tests are run to exercise
134 the extra functionality, except for a few special cases such as the databases
135 (MySQL, PostgreSQL, LDAP) where special data is needed for the tests.
138 RUNNING THE TEST SUITE
139 ----------------------
141 (1) Download the tarball exim-testsuite-x.xx.tar.bz2 and unpack it, preferably
142 in a directory alongside an Exim source directory (see below).
144 (2) cd into the exim-testsuite-x.xx directory.
146 (3) Run "autoconf" then "./configure" and then "make". This builds a few
147 auxiliary programs that are written in C.
149 (4) echo $PWD/test-config >> your_TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST_filename
150 Typically that is .../exim/test/trusted_configs
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 -CONTINUE This will allow the script to move past some failing tests. It will
241 write a simple failure line with the test number in a temporary
242 logfile test/failed-summary.log. Unexpected exit codes will still
243 stall the test execution and require interaction.
245 -DEBUG This option is for debugging the test script. It causes some
246 tracing information to be output.
248 -DIFF By default, file comparisons are done using a private compare
249 command called "cf", which is built from source that is provided in
250 the src directory. This is a command I've had for nearly 20 years -
251 look at the source comments for its history - whose output I
252 prefer. However, if you want to use "diff" instead, give -DIFF as a
253 runtest option. In that case, "diff -u" is used for comparisons.
254 (If it turns out that most people prefer to use diff, I'll change
257 -KEEP Normally, after a successful run, the test output files are
258 deleted. This option prevents this. It is useful when running a
259 single test, in order to look at the actual output before it is
260 modified for comparison with saved output.
262 -NOIPV4 Pretend that an IPv4 interface was not found. This is useful for
263 testing that the test suite correctly skips tests that require
264 a running IPv4 interface.
266 -NOIPV6 Pretend that an IPv6 interface was not found. This is useful for
267 testing that the test suite correctly skips tests that require
268 a running IPv6 interface.
270 -UPDATE If this option is set, any detected changes in test output are
271 automatically accepted and used to update the stored copies of the
272 output. It is a dangerous option, but it useful for the test suite
273 maintainer after making a change to the code that affects a lot of
274 tests (for example, the wording of a message).
276 The options for ./runtest must be given first (but after the name of the
277 binary, if present). Any further options, that is, items on the command line
278 that start with a hyphen, are passed to the Exim binary when it is run as part
279 of a test. The only sensible use of this is to pass "-d" in order to run a test
280 with debugging enabled. Any other options are likely to conflict with options
281 that are set in the tests. Some tests are already set up to run with debugging.
282 In these cases, -d on the command line overrides their own debug settings.
284 The final two arguments specify the range of tests to be run. Test numbers lie
285 in the range 1 to 9999. If no numbers are given, the defaults are 1 and 8999
286 (sic). Tests with higher numbers (9000 upwards) are not run automatically
287 because they require specific data (such as a particular MySQL table) that is
288 unlikely to be generally available.
290 Tests that require certain optional features of Exim are grouped by number, so
291 in any given range, not all the tests will exist. Non-existent tests are just
292 skipped, but if there are no tests at all in the given range, a message is
295 If you give only one number, just that test is run (if it exists). Instead of a
296 second number, you can give the character "+", which is interpreted as "to the
297 end". Normally this is 8999; if the starting number is 9000 or higher, "+" is
298 interpreted as 9999. Examples:
302 ./runtest /usr/sbin/exim 5000 +
303 ./runtest -DIFF -d 81
305 When the script starts up, the first thing it does is to check that you have
306 sudo access to root. Then it outputs the version number of the Exim binary that
307 it is testing, and also information about the optional facilities that are
308 present (obtained from "exim -bV"). This is followed by some environmental
309 information, including the current login id and the hosts's IP address. The
310 script checks that the current user is in the Exim group, and that the Exim
311 user has access to the test suite directory.
313 The script outputs the list of tests requested, and a list of tests that will
314 be omitted because the relevant optional facilities are not in the binary. You
315 are then invited to press Return to start the tests running.
321 When all goes well, the only permanent output is the identity of the tests as
322 they are run, and "Script completed" for each test script, for example:
324 Basic/0001 Basic configuration setting
326 Basic/0002 Basic string expansions
328 Basic/0003 Caseless address blocking
330 Basic/0004 Caseful address blocking
332 Basic/0005 -bs to simple local delivery
335 While a script is running, it shows "Test n" on the screen, for each of the
336 Exim tests within the script. There may also be comments from some tests when a
337 delay is expected, for example, if there is a "sleep" while testing a timeout.
339 Before each set of optional tests, an extra identifying line is output. For
342 >>> The following tests require: authenticator cram_md5
343 CRAM-MD5/2500 CRAM-MD5 server tests
345 CRAM-MD5/2501 CRAM-MD5 client tests
348 If a test fails, you are shown the output of the text comparison that failed,
349 and prompted as to what to do next. The output is shown using the "less"
350 command, or "more" if "less" is not available. The options for "less" are set
351 to that it automatically exits if there is less that a screenful of output. By
352 default, the output is from the "cf" program, and might look like this:
354 DBM/1300 DBM files and exim_dbmbuild
356 Lines 7-9 of "test-stdout-munged" do not match lines 7-11 of "stdout/1300".
358 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 1
359 Continued set of lines is too long: max permitted length is 99999
360 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 1
363 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 2
364 Continued set of lines is too long: max permitted length is 99999
366 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 2
369 "test-stdout-munged" contains 16 lines; "stdout/1300" contains 18 lines.
371 Continue, Retry, Update & retry, Quit? [Q]
373 This example was generated by running the test with a version of Exim
374 that had a bug in the exim_dbmbuild utility (the bug was fixed at release
375 4.53). See "How the tests work" below for a description of the files that are
376 used. In this case, the standard output differed from what was expected.
378 The reply to the prompt must either be empty, in which case it takes the
379 default that is given in brackets (in this case Q), or a single letter, in
380 upper or lower case (in this case, one of C, R, U, or Q). If you type anything
381 else, the prompt is repeated.
383 "Continue" carries on as if the files had matched; that is, it ignores the
384 mismatch. Any other output files for the same test will be compared before
385 moving on to the next test.
387 "Update & retry" copies the new file to the saved file, and reruns the test
388 after doing any further comparisons that may be necessary.
390 "Retry" does the same apart from the file copy.
392 Other circumstances give rise to other prompts. If a test generates output for
393 which there is no saved data, the prompt (after a message stating which file is
394 unexpectely not empty) is:
396 Continue, Show, or Quit? [Q]
398 "Show" displays the data on the screen, and then you get the "Continue..."
399 prompt. If a test ends with an unexpected return code, the prompt is:
401 show stdErr, show stdOut, Continue (without file comparison), or Quit? [Q]
403 Typically in these cases there will be something interesting in the stderr
404 or stdout output. There is a similar prompt after the "server" auxiliary
408 OPENSSL AND GNUTLS ERROR MESSAGES
409 ---------------------------------
411 Some of the TLS tests deliberately cause errors to check how Exim handles them.
412 It has been observed that different releases of the OpenSSL and GnuTLS
413 libraries generate different error messages. This may cause the comparison with
414 the saved output to fail. Such errors can be ignored.
420 . Some of the tests are time-sensitive (e.g. when testing timeouts, as in test
421 461). These may fail if run on a host that is also running a lot of other
424 . Some versions of "ls" use a different format for times and dates. This can
425 cause test 345 to fail.
427 . Test 0142 tests open file descriptors; on some hosts the output may vary.
429 . Some tests may fail, for example 0022, because it says it uses cached data
430 when the expected output thinks it should not be in cache. Item #5 in the
431 Requirements section has:
432 "Exim must be built with its user and group specified at build time"
433 This means that you cannot use the "ref:username" in your Local/Makefile
434 when building the exim binary, in any of the following fields:
435 EXIM_USER EXIM_GROUP CONFIGURE_OWNER CONFIGURE_GROUP
437 . If the runtest script warns that the hostname is not a Fully Qualified
438 Domain Name (FQDN), expect that some tests will fail, for example 0036,
439 with an extra log line saying the hostname doesn't resolve. You must use a
440 FQDN for the hostname for proper test functionality.
442 . If you change your hostname to a FQDN, you must delete the test/dnszones
443 subdirectory. When you next run the runtest script, it will rebuild the
444 content to use the new hostname.
446 . If your hostname has an uppercase characters in it, expect that some tests
447 will fail, for example, 0036, because some log lines will have the hostname
448 in all lowercase. The regex which extracts the hostname from the log lines
449 will not match the lowercased version.
451 . Some tests may fail, for example 0015, with a cryptic error message:
452 Server return code 99
453 Due to security concerns, some specific files MUST have the group write bit
454 off. For the purposes of the test suite, some test/aux-fixed/* files MUST
455 have the group write bit off, so it's easier to just remove the group write
456 bit for all of them. If your umask is set to 002, the group write bit will
457 be on by default and you'll see this problem, so make sure your umask is
458 022 and re-checkout the test/ subdirectory.
461 OTHER SCRIPTS AND PROGRAMS
462 --------------------------
464 There is a freestanding Perl script called "listtests" that scans the test
465 scripts and outputs a list of all the tests, with a short descriptive comment
466 for each one. Special requirements for groups of tests are also noted.
468 The main runtest script makes use of a second Perl script and some compiled C
471 patchexim A Perl script that makes a patched version of Exim (see the
472 next section for details).
474 bin/cf A text comparison program (see above).
476 bin/checkaccess A program that is run as root; it changes uid/gid to the
477 Exim user and group, and then checks that it can access
478 files in the test suite's directory.
480 bin/client A script-driven SMTP client simulation.
482 bin/client-gnutls A script-driven SMTP client simulation with GnuTLS support.
483 This is built only if GnuTLS support is detected on the host.
485 bin/client-ssl A script-driven SMTP client simulation with OpenSSL support.
486 This is built only if OpenSSL support is detected on the
489 bin/fakens A fake "nameserver" for DNS tests (see below for details).
491 bin/fd A program that outputs details of open file descriptors.
493 bin/iefbr14 A program that does nothing, and returns 0. It's just like
494 the "true" command, but it is in a known place.
496 bin/loaded Some dynamically loaded functions for testing dlfunc support.
498 bin/mtpscript A script-driven SMTP/LMTP server simulation, on std{in,out}.
500 bin/server A script-driven SMTP server simulation, over a socket.
502 bin/showids Output the current uid, gid, euid, egid.
504 The runtest script also makes use of a number of ordinary commands such as
505 "cp", "kill", "more", and "rm", via the system() call. In some cases these are
506 run as root by means of sudo.
509 STANDARD SUBSTITUTIONS
510 ----------------------
512 In the following sections, there are several references to the "standard
513 substitutions". These make changes to some of the stored files when they are
514 used in a test. To save repetition, the substitutions themselves are documented
517 CALLER is replaced by the login name of the user running the tests
518 CALLERGROUP is replaced by the caller's group id
519 CALLER_GID is replaced by the caller's group id
520 CALLER_UID is replaced by the caller's user id
521 DIR is replaced by the name of the test-suite directory
522 EXIMGROUP is replaced by the name of the Exim group
523 EXIMUSER is replaced by the name of the Exim user
524 HOSTIPV4 is replaced by the local host's IPv4 address
525 HOSTIPV6 is replaced by the local host's IPv6 address
526 HOSTNAME is replaced by the local host's name
527 PORT_D is replaced by a port number for normal daemon use
528 PORT_N is replaced by a port number that should never respond
529 PORT_S is replaced by a port number for normal bin/server use
530 TESTNUM is replaced by the current test number
531 V4NET is replaced by an IPv4 network number for testing
532 V6NET is replaced by an IPv6 network number for testing
534 PORT_D is currently hard-wired to 1225, PORT_N to 1223, and PORT_S to 1224.
535 V4NET is hardwired to 224 and V6NET to ff00. These networks are used for DNS
536 testing purposes, and for testing Exim with -bh. The only requirement is that
537 they are networks that can never be used for an IP address of a real host. I've
538 chosen two multicast networks for the moment.
540 If the host has no IPv6 address, "<no IPv6 address found>" is substituted but
541 that does not matter because no IPv6 tests will be run. A similar substitution
542 is made if there is no IPv4 address, and again, tests that actually require a
543 running IPv4 interface should be skipped.
545 If the host has more than one IPv4 or IPv6 address, the first one that
546 "ifconfig" lists is used. If the only available address is 127.0.0.1 (or ::1
547 for IPv6) it is used, but another value is preferred if available.
549 In situations where a specific test is not being run (for example, when setting
550 up dynamic data files), TESTNUM is replaced by an empty string, but should not
551 in fact occur in such files.
557 Each numbered script runs Exim (sometimes several times) with its own Exim
558 configuration file. The configurations are stored in the "confs" directory,
559 and before running each test, a copy of the appropriate configuration, with the
560 standard substitutions, is made in the file test-config. The -C command line
561 option is used to tell Exim to use this configuration.
563 The -D option is used to pass the path of the Exim binary to the configuration.
564 This is not standardly substituted, because there are two possible binaries
565 that might be used in the same test (one setuid to root, the other to the exim
566 user). Some tests also make use of -D to vary the configuration for different
567 calls to the Exim binary.
569 Normally, of course, Exim gives up root privilege when -C and -D are used by
570 unprivileged users. We do not want this to happen when running the tests,
571 because we want to be able to test all aspects of Exim, including receiving
572 mail from unprivileged users. The way this is handled is as follows:
574 At the start of the runtest script, the patchexim script is run as root. This
575 script makes a copy of the Exim binary that is to be tested, patching it as it
576 does so. (This is a binary patch, not a source patch.) The patch causes the
577 binary, when run, to "know" that it is running in the test harness. It does not
578 give up root privilege when -C and -D are used, and in a few places it takes
579 other special actions, such as delaying when starting a subprocess to allow
580 debug output from the parent to be written first. If you want to know more,
581 grep the Exim source files for "running_in_test_harness".
583 The patched binary is placed in the directory eximdir/exim and given the normal
584 setuid root privilege. This is, of course, a dangerous binary to have lying
585 around, especially if there are unprivileged users on the system. To protect
586 it, the eximdir directory is created with the current user as owner, exim as
587 the group owner, and with access drwx--x---. Thus, only the user who is running
588 the tests (who is known to have access to root) and the exim user have access
589 to the modified Exim binary. When runtest terminates, the patched binary is
592 Each set of tests proceeds by interpreting its controlling script. The scripts
593 are in subdirectories of the "scripts" directory. They are split up according
594 to the requirements of the tests they contain, with the 0000-Basic directory
595 containing tests that can always be run. Run the "listtests" script to obtain a
602 Output from script runs is written to the files test-stdout and test-stderr.
603 When an Exim server is involved, test-stdout-server and test-stderr-server are
604 used for its output. Before being compared with the saved output, the
605 non-server and server files are concatenated, so a single saved file contains
608 A directory called spool is used for Exim's spool files, and for Exim logs.
609 These locations are specified in every test's configuration file.
611 When messages are delivered to files, the files are put in the test-mail
612 directory. Output from comparisons is written to test-cf.
614 Before comparisons are done, output texts are modified ("munged") to change or
615 remove parts that are expected to vary from run to run. The modified files all
616 end with the suffix "-munged". Thus, you will see test-stdout-munged,
617 test-mainlog-munged, test-mail-munged, and so on. Other files whose names start
618 with "test-" are created and used by some of the tests.
620 At the end of a successful test run, the spool directory and all the files
621 whose names begin with "test-" are removed. If the run ends unsuccessfully
622 (typically after a "Q" response to a prompt), the spool and test files are left
623 in existence so that the problem can be investigated.
629 Each test script consists of a list of commands, each optionally preceded by
630 comments (lines starting with #) and (also optionally) a line containing an
631 expected return code. Some of the commands are followed by data lines
632 terminated by a line of four asterisks.
634 The first line of each script must be a comment that briefly describes the
637 # -bS Use of HELO/RSET
639 A line consisting just of digits is interpreted as the expected return code
640 for the command that follows. The default expectation when no such line exists
641 is a zero return code. For example, here is a complete test script, containing
644 # -bS Unexpected EOF in headers
647 mail from:<someone@some.where>
648 rcpt to:<blackhole@HOSTNAME>
653 The expected return code in this case is 1, and the data lines are passed to
654 Exim on its standard input. Both the command line and the data lines have the
655 standard substitions applied to them. Thus, HOSTNAME in the example above will
656 be replaced by the local host's name. Long commands can be continued over
657 several lines by using \ as a continuation character. This does *not* apply to
660 Here follows a list of supported commands. They can be divided into two groups:
663 Commands with no input
664 ----------------------
666 These commands are not followed by any input data, or by a line of asterisks.
669 dbmbuild <file1> <file1>
671 This command runs the exim_dbmbuild utility to build a DBM file. It is used
672 only when DBM support is available in Exim, and typically follows the use of a
673 "write" command (see below) that creates the input file.
678 This command runs the exim_dumpdb utility on the testing spool directory, using
679 the database name given, for example: "dumpdb retry".
684 The text is written to the screen; this is used to output comments from
688 exim_lock [options] <file name>
690 This command runs the exim_lock utility with the given options and file name.
691 The file remains locked with the following command (normally exim) is obeyed.
696 This command runs the exinext utility with the given argument data.
701 This command runs the exigrep utility with the given data (the search pattern)
702 on the current mainlog file.
707 This command is present at the start of all but one of the tests that use
708 GnuTLS. It copies a pre-existing parameter file into the spool directory, so
709 that Exim does not have to re-create the file each time. The first GnuTLS test
710 does not do this, in order to test that Exim can create the file.
715 This command must be given in any script that starts an Exim daemon, normally
716 at the end. It searches for the PID file in the spool directory, and sends a
717 SIGINT signal to the Exim daemon process whose PID it finds. See below for
718 comments about starting Exim daemons.
723 This command causes the script to sleep for m milliseconds. Nothing is output
729 This command requests custom munging of the test outputs. The munge names
730 used are coded in the runtest script.
735 This command must be at the head of a script. If no IPv4 interface has been
736 found, the entire script is skipped, and a comment is output.
741 This command must be at the head of a script. If no IPv6 interface has been
742 found, the entire script is skipped, and a comment is output.
747 This command must be at the head of a script. If the Exim binary does not
748 suppport large files (off_t is <= 4), the entire script is skipped, and a
752 need_move_frozen_messages
754 This command must be at the head of a script. If the Exim binary does not have
755 support for moving frozen messages (which is an optional feature), the entire
756 script is skipped, and a comment is output.
761 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, messages that are
762 delivered when the script runs are not compared with saved versions.
767 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, message log files that
768 are still in existence at the end of the run (for messages that were not
769 delivered) are not compared with saved versions.
774 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, the stderr output from
775 the run is not compared with a saved version.
780 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, the stdout output from
781 the run is not compared with a saved version.
786 This command indicates that the script is for a certain type of filter test, in
787 which there are a lot of repetitive stdout lines that get in the way, because
788 filter tests output data about the sender and recipient. Such lines are removed
789 from the stdout output before comparing, for ease of human perusal.
794 This command causes the script to sleep for n seconds. If n is greater than
795 one, "sleep <n>" is output to the screen, followed by a dot for every second
801 This command causes special sorting to occur on the mainlog file before
802 comparison. Every sequence of contiguous delivery lines (lines containing the
803 => -> or *> flags) is sorted. This is necessary in some tests that use parallel
804 deliveries because on different systems the processes may terminate in a
808 A number of standard file management commands are also recognized. These are
809 cat, chmod, chown, cp, du, ln, ls, du, mkdir, mkfifo, rm, rmdir, and touch.
810 Some are run as root using "sudo".
816 The remaining commands are followed by data lines for their standard input,
817 terminated by four asterisks. Even if no data is required for the particular
818 usage, the asterisks must be given.
821 catwrite <file name> [nxm[=start-of-line-text]]*
823 This command operates like the "write" command, which is described below,
824 except that the data it generates is copied to the end of the test-stdout file
825 as well as to the named file.
829 client [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>]
831 This command runs the auxiliary "client" program that simulates an SMTP client.
832 It is controlled by a script read from its standard input, details of which are
833 given below. There are two options. One is -t, which must be followed directly
834 by a number, to specify the command timeout in seconds (e.g. -t5). The default
835 timeout is 1 second. The other option is -tls-on-connect, which causes the
836 client to try to start up a TLS session as soon as it has connected, without
837 using the STARTTLS command. The client program connects to the given IP address
838 and port, using the specified interface, if one is given.
841 client-ssl [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>] \
842 [<cert file>] [<key file>]
844 When OpenSSL is available on the host, an alternative version of the client
845 program is compiled, one that supports TLS using OpenSSL. The additional
846 arguments specify a certificate and key file when required. There is one
847 additional option, -tls-on-connect, that causes the client to initiate TLS
848 negotiation immediately on connection.
851 client-gnutls [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>] \
852 [<cert file>] [<key file>]
854 When GnuTLS is available on the host, an alternative version of the client
855 program is compiled, one that supports TLS using GnuTLS. The additional
856 arguments specify a certificate and key file when required. There is one
857 additional option, -tls-on-connect, that causes the client to initiate TLS
858 negotiation immediately on connection.
861 exim [<options>] [<arguments>]
863 This command runs the testing version of Exim. Any occurrence of "$msg1" in the
864 command line is replaced by the ID of the first (oldest) message in Exim's
865 (testing) spool. "$msg2" refers to the second, and so on. The name "exim" can
866 be preceded by an environment setting as in this example:
868 LDAPTLS_REQCERT=never exim -be
870 It can also be preceded by a number; this specifies a number of seconds to wait
871 before closing the stdout pipe to Exim, and is used for some timeout tests. For
876 Finally, "exim" can be preceded by "sudo", to run Exim as root. If more than
877 one of these prefixes is present, they must be in the above order.
880 exim_exim [<options>] [<arguments>]
882 This runs an alternative version of Exim that is setuid to exim rather than to
886 server [<options>] <port or socket> [<connection count>]
888 This command runs the auxiliary "server" program that simulates an SMTP (or
889 other) server. It is controlled by a script that is read from its standard
890 input, details of which are given below. A number of options are implemented:
892 -d causes the server to output debugging information
894 -t sets a timeout in seconds (default 5) for when the server is
895 awaiting an incoming connection
897 -noipv4 causes the server not to set up an IPv4 socket
899 -noipv6 causes the server not to set up an IPv6 socket
901 By default, in an IPv6 environment, both kinds of socket are set up. However,
902 the test script knows which interfaces actually exist on the host, and it adds
903 -noipv4 or -noipv6 to the server command as required. An error occurs if both
904 these options are given.
906 The only required argument is either a port number or the path name of a Unix
907 domain socket. The port is normally PORT_S, which is changed to an actual
908 number by the standard substitutions. The optional final argument specifies the
909 number of different connections to expect (default 1). These must happen
910 serially (one at a time). There is no support for multiple simultaneous
911 connections. Here are some example commands:
914 server -t 10 PORT_S 3
915 server /tmp/somesocket
917 The following lines, up to a line of four asterisks, are the server's
918 controlling standard input (described below). These lines are read and
919 remembered; during the following commands, until an "exim" command is reached,
920 the server is run in parallel.
923 write <file name> [nxm[=start-of-line-text]]*
925 The "write" command is a way of creating files of specific sizes for buffering
926 tests, or containing specific data lines. Being able to do this from within the
927 script saves holding lots of little test files. The optional argument specifies
928 n lines of length m. The lines consist of the letter "a". If start of line text
929 is supplied, it replaces "a"s at the start of each line. Underscores in the
930 start of line text are turned into spaces. The optional argument may be
931 repeated. The data lines that follow a "write" command are split into two by a
932 line of four plus signs. Any above the split are written before the
933 fixed-length lines, and any below the split are written after. For example:
935 write test-data 3x30=AB_ 1x50
943 This command generates a file containing:
947 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
948 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
949 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
950 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
954 If there are no fixed-length line specifiers, there is no need to split the
955 data, and a line of plusses is not needed.
960 This command runs Perl, with the data as its standard input, to allow arbitrary
961 one-off things to be done.
967 Lines in client scripts are of two kinds:
969 (1) If a line begins with three question marks and a space, the rest of the
970 line defines the start of expected output from the server. If what is
971 received does not match, the client bombs out with an error message.
973 (2) If a line starts with three plus signs followed by a space, the rest of the
974 line specifies a number of seconds to sleep for before proceeding.
976 (3) Otherwise, the line is an input line line that is sent to the server. Any
977 occurrences of \r and \n in the line are turned into carriage return and
978 linefeed, respectively. This is used for testing PIPELINING.
980 Here is a simple example:
982 client 127.0.0.1 PORT_D
987 AUTH PLAIN AbdXi0AdnD2CVy
993 In the case of client-gnutls and client-ssl, if a command is "starttls", this
994 is remembered, and after a subsequent OK response, an attempt to move into TLS
995 mode occurs. If a command is "starttls_wait", the client sends "starttls" but
996 does not start up TLS; this is for testing timeouts. If a command is "stoptls",
997 an existing TLS connection is shut down, but nothing is sent.
1003 The server program sleeps till a connection occurs or its timeout is reached,
1004 in which case it bombs out. The next set of command lines are interpreted. They
1005 are of the following kinds:
1007 (1) A line that starts with '>' or with a digit is an output line that is sent
1008 to the client. In the case of '>':
1010 (a) If the line starts with ">>", no terminating CRLF is sent.
1011 (b) If the line starts with ">CR>", just CR is sent at the end.
1012 (c) If the line starts with ">LF>", just LF is sent at the end.
1013 (d) If the line starts with ">*eof", nothing is sent and the connection
1016 The data that is sent starts after the initial '>' sequence.
1018 (2) A line that starts with "*sleep" specifies a number of seconds to wait
1021 (3) A line containing "*eof" specifies that the client is expected to close
1022 the connection at this point.
1024 (4) A line containing just '.' specifies that the client is expected to send
1025 many lines, terminated by one that contains just a dot.
1027 (5) Otherwise, the line defines the start of an input line that the client
1028 is expected to send. To allow for lines that start with digits, the line
1029 may start with '<', which is not taken as part of the input data. If the
1030 input does not match, the server bombs out with an error message.
1032 Here is a simple example of server use in a test script:
1050 After a "server" command in a test script, the server runs in parallel until an
1051 "exim" command is reached. The "exim" command attempts to deliver one or more
1052 messages to port PORT_S on the local host. When it has finished, the test
1053 script waits for the "server" process to finish.
1055 The "mtpscript" program is like "server", except that it uses stdin/stdout for
1056 its input and output instead of a script. However, it is not called from test
1057 scripts; instead it is used as the command for pipe transports in some
1058 configurations, to simulate non-socket LMTP servers.
1061 AUXILIARY DATA FILES
1062 --------------------
1064 Many of the tests make use of auxiliary data files. There are two types; those
1065 whose content is fixed, and those whose content needs to be varied according to
1066 the current environment. The former are kept in the directory aux-fixed. The
1067 latter are distributed in the directory aux-var-src, and copied with the
1068 standard substitutions into the directory aux-var at the start of each test
1071 Most of the auxiliary files have names that start with a test number,
1072 indicating that they are specific to that one test. A few fixed files (for
1073 example, some TLS certificates) are used by more than one test, and so their
1074 names are not of this form.
1076 There are also some auxilary DNS zone files, which are described in the next
1080 DNS LOOKUPS AND GETHOSTBYNAME
1081 -----------------------------
1083 The original test suite required special testing zones to be loaded into a
1084 local nameserver. This is no longer a requirement for the new suite. Instead, a
1085 program called fakens is used to simulate a nameserver. When Exim is running in
1086 the test harness, instead of calling res_search() - the normal call to the DNS
1087 resolver - it calls a testing function. This handles a few special names itself
1088 (for compatibility with the old test suite), but otherwise passes the query to
1091 The fakens program consults "zone files" in the directory called dnszones, and
1092 returns data in the standard resource record format for Exim to process as if
1093 it came from the DNS. However, if the requested domain is not in any of the
1094 zones that fakens knows about, it returns a special code that causes Exim to
1095 pass the query on to res_search(). The zone files are:
1097 db.test.ex A zone for the domain test.ex.
1098 db.ip4.10 A zone for one special case in 10.250.0.0/16 (see below)
1099 db.ip4.V4NET A zone for the domain V4NET.in-addr.arpa.
1100 db.ip4.127 A zone for the domain 127.in-addr.arpa.
1101 db.ip6.V6NET A zone for the domain inverted(V6NET).ip6.arpa.
1102 db.ip6.0 A zone for the domain 0.ip6.arpa.
1104 V4NET and V6NET are substituted with the current testing networks (see above).
1105 In the case of V6NET, the network is four hex digits, and it is split and
1106 inverted appropriately when setting up the zone.
1108 These fake zone files are built dynamically from sources in the dnszones-src
1109 directory by applying the standard substitutions. The test suite also builds
1110 dynamic zone files for the name of the current host and its IP address(es). The
1111 idea is that there should not be any need to rely on an external DNS.
1113 The domain names that are handled directly by Exim, without being passed to
1116 test.again.dns This always provokes a TRY_AGAIN response, for testing the
1117 handling of temporary DNS error. If the full domain name
1118 starts with digits, a delay of that many seconds occurs.
1120 test.fail.dns This always provokes a NO_RECOVERY response, for testing
1121 DNS server failures.
1123 This special handling could now be done in the fakens program, but while the
1124 old test suite is still being used it has to be done in Exim itself, so for the
1125 moment it remains there.
1127 The use of gethostbyname() and its IPv6 friends is also subverted when Exim is
1128 running in the test harness. The test code handles a few special names
1129 directly; for all the others it uses DNS lookups, which are then handled as
1130 just described. Thus, the use of /etc/hosts is completely bypassed. The names
1131 that are specially handled are:
1133 manyhome.test.ex This name is used for testing hosts with ridiculously large
1134 numbers of IP addresses; 2048 IP addresses are generated
1135 and returned. Doing it this way saves having to make the
1136 interface to fakens handle more records that can fit in the
1137 data block. The addresses that are generated are in the
1138 10.250.0.0/16 network.
1140 localhost Always returns 127.0.0.1 or ::1, for IPv4 and IPv6 lookups,
1143 <an IP address> If the IP address is of the correct form for the lookup
1144 type (IPv4 or IPv6), it is returned. Otherwise a panic-die
1147 The reverse zone db.ip4.10 is provided just for the manyhome.test.ex case. It
1148 contains a single wildcard resource record. It also contains the line
1152 Whenever fakens finds this line in a zone file, it returns PASS_ON instead of
1153 HOST_NOT_FOUND. This causes Exim to pass the query to res_search().