1 EXPORTABLE EXIM TEST SUITE
2 --------------------------
4 This document last updated for:
6 Test Suite Version: 4.87
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 have the exim group as a
77 secondary so that it has access to logs, spool files, etc. However, it
78 should have a different primary group (eg. "users" vs. "eximgroup"). The
79 login should not be one of the names "userx", "usery", "userz", or a few
80 other simple ones such as "abcd" and "xyz" and single letters that are used
81 in the tests. The test suite expects the login to have a gecos name; I think
82 it will now run if the gecos field is empty but there may be anomalies.
83 The login must not contain a dash or an equal sign. (Otherwise some tests
84 about local_from_{suffix,prefix} will fail.)
86 (4) The directory into which you unpack the test suite must be accessible by
87 the Exim user, so that code running as exim can access the files therein.
88 This includes search-access on all path elements leading to it. A
89 world-readable directory is fine. However, there may be problems if the
90 path name of the directory is excessively long. This is because it
91 sometimes appears in log lines or debug output, and if it is truncated, it
92 is no longer recognized.
94 (5) Exim must be built with its user and group specified at build time, and
95 with certain minimum facilities, namely:
97 Routers: accept, dnslookup, manualroute, redirect
98 Transports: appendfile, autoreply, pipe, smtp
100 Authenticators: plaintext
102 Most Exim binaries will have these included.
104 (6) A C compiler is needed to build some test programs, and the test script is
105 written in Perl, so you need that.
107 (7) Some of the tests run Exim as a daemon, and others use a testing server
108 (described below). These require TCP ports. In the configurations and
109 scripts, the ports are parameterized, but at present, fixed values are
110 written into the controlling script. These are ports 1224 to 1229. If these
111 ports are not available for use, some of the tests will fail.
113 (8) There is an underlying assumption that the host on which the tests are
114 being run has an IPv4 address (which the test script seeks out). If there
115 is also an IPv6 address, additional tests are run when the Exim binary
116 contains IPv6 support. There are checks in the scripts for a running IPv4
117 interface; when one is not found, some tests are skipped (with a warning
118 message). The local net may not be in 10.0/8 as that is used by the suite.
120 (9) Exim must be built with TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST support, so that the test
121 configs can be placed into it. A suitable file location is .../exim/test/trusted_configs
122 with content .../exim/test/test-config [fill out the ... to make full
123 paths]. This file should be owner/group matching CONFIGURE_OWNER/GROUP,
124 or root/root, and it has to be accessible for the login, under which
125 you run the tests. The config files in .../exim/test/confs/ should be
126 owner/group the same. DISABLE_D_OPTION must not be used. If ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX is used, it
127 must contain the directory of the test-suite. WHITELIST_D_MACROS should contain:
129 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: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:SELECTOR:SELF:SERVER:SERVERS:SREQCIP:SREQMAC:SRV:STRICT:SUB:SUBMISSION_OPTIONS:TIMEOUTDEFER:TIMES:TRUSTED:TRYCLEAR:UL:USE_SENDER:UTF8:VALUE:WMF
131 (10) Exim must *not* be built with USE_READLINE, as the test-suite's automation
132 assumes the simpler I/O model.
133 Exim must *not* be built with HEADERS_CHARSET set to UTF-8.
140 If the Exim binary that is being tested contains extra functionality in
141 addition to the minimum specified above, additional tests are run to exercise
142 the extra functionality, except for a few special cases such as the databases
143 (MySQL, PostgreSQL, LDAP) where special data is needed for the tests.
146 RUNNING THE TEST SUITE
147 ----------------------
149 (1) Clone the git tree for Exim. This include both the Exim source and the
152 (2) cd into the test/ subdirectory (where this README lives).
154 (3) Run "./configure" and then "make". This builds a few auxiliary programs that
157 (4) echo $PWD/test-config >> your_TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST_filename
158 Typically that is .../exim/test/trusted_configs
160 (5) Run "./runtest" (a Perl script) as described below.
162 (6) If you want to see what tests are available, run "./listtests".
165 BREAKING OUT OF THE TEST SCRIPT
166 -------------------------------
168 If you abandon the test run by typing ^C, the interrupt may be passed to a
169 program that the script is running, or it may be passed to the script itself.
170 In the former case, the script should detect that the program has ended
171 abnormally. In both cases, the script tries to clean up everything, including
172 killing any Exim daemons that it has started. However, there may be race
173 conditions in which the clean up does not happen. If, after breaking out of a
174 run, you see strange errors in the next run, look for any left-over Exim
175 daemons, and kill them by hand.
181 The individual test scripts are in subdirectories of the "scripts" directory.
182 If you do not supply any arguments to ./listtests, it scans all the scripts in
183 all the directories, and outputs the heading line from each script. The output
184 is piped through "less", and begins like this:
187 Basic/0001 Basic configuration setting
188 Basic/0002 Common string expansions
189 Basic/0003 Caseless address blocking
192 Lines that start === give the name of the subdirectory containing the test
193 scripts that follow. If you supply an argument to ./listtests, it is used as a
194 Perl pattern to match case-independently against the names of the
195 subdirectories. Only those that match are scanned. For example, "./listtests
198 === 1000-Basic-ipv6 ===
199 === Requires: support IPv6
200 Basic-ipv6/1000 -bh and non-canonical IPv6 addresses
201 Basic-ipv6/1001 recognizing IPv6 address in HELO/EHLO
203 === 2250-dnsdb-ipv6 ===
204 === Requires: support IPv6
206 dnsdb-ipv6/2250 dnsdb ipv6 lookup in string expansions
208 If you supply a second argument to ./listtests, it is used as a Perl pattern to
209 match case-independently against the individual script titles. For example,
210 "./listtests . mx" lists all tests whose titles contain "mx", because "."
211 matches all the subdirectory names.
217 If you do not supply any arguments to ./runtest, it searches for an Exim
218 source tree at the same level as the test suite directory. A source tree
219 is a source tree, if it contains a build-* directory.
221 It then looks for an Exim binary in a "build" directory of that source
222 tree. If there are several Exim source trees, it chooses the latest
223 version of Exim. Consider the following example:
226 exim-4.60/ exim-4.62/ exim-testsuite-x.xx/
228 A simple ./runtest from within the test suite will use a 4.62 binary if it
229 finds one, otherwise a 4.60 binary. If a binary cannot be found, the script
230 prompts for one. Alternatively, you can supply the binary on the command line:
232 ./runtest /usr/exim/bin/exim
234 A matching test suite is released with each Exim release; if you use a test
235 suite that does not match the binary, some tests may fail.
237 The test suite uses some of the Exim utilities (such as exim_dbmbuild), and it
238 expects to find them in the same directory as Exim itself. If they are not
239 found, the tests that use them are omitted. A suitable comment is output.
241 On the ./runtest command line, following the name of the binary, if present,
242 there may be a number of options and then one or two numbers. The full syntax
245 ./runtest [binary name] [runtest options] [exim options] \
246 [first test] [last test]
248 There are some options for the ./runtest script itself:
250 -CONTINUE This will allow the script to move past some failing tests. It will
251 write a simple failure line with the test number in a temporary
252 logfile test/failed-summary.log. Unexpected exit codes will still
253 stall the test execution and require interaction.
255 -DEBUG This option is for debugging the test script. It causes some
256 tracing information to be output.
258 -DIFF By default, file comparisons are done using a private compare
259 command called "cf", which is built from source that is provided in
260 the src directory. This is a command I've had for nearly 20 years -
261 look at the source comments for its history - whose output I
262 prefer. However, if you want to use "diff" instead, give -DIFF as a
263 runtest option. In that case, "diff -u" is used for comparisons.
264 (If it turns out that most people prefer to use diff, I'll change
269 This allows "overrides" for the test results. It's intended
270 use is to deal with distro specific differences in the test
271 output. The default flavour is "FOO" if autodetection fails.
272 (Autodetection is possible for known flavours only. Known
273 flavours are computed after file name extensions in stdout/*
276 If during the test run differences between the current and
277 the expected output are found and no flavour file exists already,
278 you may update the "common" expected output or you may create a
279 flavour file. If a flavour file already exists, any updates will go
280 into that flavour file!
282 -KEEP Normally, after a successful run, the test output files are
283 deleted. This option prevents this. It is useful when running a
284 single test, in order to look at the actual output before it is
285 modified for comparison with saved output.
287 -NOIPV4 Pretend that an IPv4 interface was not found. This is useful for
288 testing that the test suite correctly skips tests that require
289 a running IPv4 interface.
291 -NOIPV6 Pretend that an IPv6 interface was not found. This is useful for
292 testing that the test suite correctly skips tests that require
293 a running IPv6 interface.
295 -UPDATE If this option is set, any detected changes in test output are
296 automatically accepted and used to update the stored copies of the
297 output. It is a dangerous option, but it useful for the test suite
298 maintainer after making a change to the code that affects a lot of
299 tests (for example, the wording of a message).
301 -SLOW For very slow hosts that appear to have Heisenbugs, delay before
302 comparing output files from a testcase
304 The options for ./runtest must be given first (but after the name of the
305 binary, if present). Any further options, that is, items on the command line
306 that start with a hyphen, are passed to the Exim binary when it is run as part
307 of a test. The only sensible use of this is to pass "-d" in order to run a test
308 with debugging enabled. Any other options are likely to conflict with options
309 that are set in the tests. Some tests are already set up to run with debugging.
310 In these cases, -d on the command line overrides their own debug settings.
312 The final two arguments specify the range of tests to be run. Test numbers lie
313 in the range 1 to 9999. If no numbers are given, the defaults are 1 and 8999
314 (sic). Tests with higher numbers (9000 upwards) are not run automatically
315 because they require specific data (such as a particular MySQL table) that is
316 unlikely to be generally available.
318 Tests that require certain optional features of Exim are grouped by number, so
319 in any given range, not all the tests will exist. Non-existent tests are just
320 skipped, but if there are no tests at all in the given range, a message is
323 If you give only one number, just that test is run (if it exists). Instead of a
324 second number, you can give the character "+", which is interpreted as "to the
325 end". Normally this is 8999; if the starting number is 9000 or higher, "+" is
326 interpreted as 9999. Examples:
330 ./runtest /usr/sbin/exim 5000 +
331 ./runtest -DIFF -d 81
333 When the script starts up, the first thing it does is to check that you have
334 sudo access to root. Then it outputs the version number of the Exim binary that
335 it is testing, and also information about the optional facilities that are
336 present (obtained from "exim -bV"). This is followed by some environmental
337 information, including the current login id and the hosts's IP address. The
338 script checks that the current user is in the Exim group, and that the Exim
339 user has access to the test suite directory.
341 The script outputs the list of tests requested, and a list of tests that will
342 be omitted because the relevant optional facilities are not in the binary. You
343 are then invited to press Return to start the tests running.
349 When all goes well, the only permanent output is the identity of the tests as
350 they are run, and "Script completed" for each test script, for example:
352 Basic/0001 Basic configuration setting
354 Basic/0002 Basic string expansions
356 Basic/0003 Caseless address blocking
358 Basic/0004 Caseful address blocking
360 Basic/0005 -bs to simple local delivery
363 While a script is running, it shows "Test n" on the screen, for each of the
364 Exim tests within the script. There may also be comments from some tests when a
365 delay is expected, for example, if there is a "sleep" while testing a timeout.
367 Before each set of optional tests, an extra identifying line is output. For
370 >>> The following tests require: authenticator cram_md5
371 CRAM-MD5/2500 CRAM-MD5 server tests
373 CRAM-MD5/2501 CRAM-MD5 client tests
376 If a test fails, you are shown the output of the text comparison that failed,
377 and prompted as to what to do next. The output is shown using the "less"
378 command, or "more" if "less" is not available. The options for "less" are set
379 to that it automatically exits if there is less that a screenful of output. By
380 default, the output is from the "cf" program, and might look like this:
382 DBM/1300 DBM files and exim_dbmbuild
384 Lines 7-9 of "test-stdout-munged" do not match lines 7-11 of "stdout/1300".
386 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 1
387 Continued set of lines is too long: max permitted length is 99999
388 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 1
391 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 2
392 Continued set of lines is too long: max permitted length is 99999
394 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 2
397 "test-stdout-munged" contains 16 lines; "stdout/1300" contains 18 lines.
399 Continue, Retry, Update & retry, Quit? [Q]
401 This example was generated by running the test with a version of Exim
402 that had a bug in the exim_dbmbuild utility (the bug was fixed at release
403 4.53). See "How the tests work" below for a description of the files that are
404 used. In this case, the standard output differed from what was expected.
406 The reply to the prompt must either be empty, in which case it takes the
407 default that is given in brackets (in this case Q), or a single letter, in
408 upper or lower case (in this case, one of C, R, U, or Q). If you type anything
409 else, the prompt is repeated.
411 "Continue" carries on as if the files had matched; that is, it ignores the
412 mismatch. Any other output files for the same test will be compared before
413 moving on to the next test.
415 "Update & retry" copies the new file to the saved file, and reruns the test
416 after doing any further comparisons that may be necessary.
418 "Retry" does the same apart from the file copy.
420 Other circumstances give rise to other prompts. If a test generates output for
421 which there is no saved data, the prompt (after a message stating which file is
422 unexpectedly not empty) is:
424 Continue, Show, or Quit? [Q]
426 "Show" displays the data on the screen, and then you get the "Continue..."
427 prompt. If a test ends with an unexpected return code, the prompt is:
429 show stdErr, show stdOut, Continue (without file comparison), or Quit? [Q]
431 Typically in these cases there will be something interesting in the stderr
432 or stdout output. There is a similar prompt after the "server" auxiliary
436 OPENSSL AND GNUTLS ERROR MESSAGES
437 ---------------------------------
439 Some of the TLS tests deliberately cause errors to check how Exim handles them.
440 It has been observed that different releases of the OpenSSL and GnuTLS
441 libraries generate different error messages. This may cause the comparison with
442 the saved output to fail. Such errors can be ignored.
448 . Some of the tests are time-sensitive (e.g. when testing timeouts, as in test
449 461). These may fail if run on a host that is also running a lot of other
452 . Some versions of "ls" use a different format for times and dates. This can
453 cause test 345 to fail.
455 . Test 0142 tests open file descriptors; on some hosts the output may vary.
457 . Some tests may fail, for example 0022, because it says it uses cached data
458 when the expected output thinks it should not be in cache. Item #5 in the
459 Requirements section has:
460 "Exim must be built with its user and group specified at build time"
461 This means that you cannot use the "ref:username" in your Local/Makefile
462 when building the exim binary, in any of the following fields:
463 EXIM_USER EXIM_GROUP CONFIGURE_OWNER CONFIGURE_GROUP
465 . If the runtest script warns that the hostname is not a Fully Qualified
466 Domain Name (FQDN), expect that some tests will fail, for example 0036,
467 with an extra log line saying the hostname doesn't resolve. You must use a
468 FQDN for the hostname for proper test functionality.
470 . If you change your hostname to a FQDN, you must delete the test/dnszones
471 subdirectory. When you next run the runtest script, it will rebuild the
472 content to use the new hostname.
474 . If your hostname has an uppercase characters in it, expect that some tests
475 will fail, for example, 0036, because some log lines will have the hostname
476 in all lowercase. The regex which extracts the hostname from the log lines
477 will not match the lowercased version.
479 . Some tests may fail, for example 0015, with a cryptic error message:
480 Server return code 99
481 Due to security concerns, some specific files MUST have the group write bit
482 off. For the purposes of the test suite, some test/aux-fixed/* files MUST
483 have the group write bit off, so it's easier to just remove the group write
484 bit for all of them. If your umask is set to 002, the group write bit will
485 be on by default and you'll see this problem, so make sure your umask is
486 022 and re-checkout the test/ subdirectory.
488 . Some tests will fail if the username and group name are different. It does
489 not have to be the primary group, a secondary group is sufficient.
492 OTHER SCRIPTS AND PROGRAMS
493 --------------------------
495 There is a freestanding Perl script called "listtests" that scans the test
496 scripts and outputs a list of all the tests, with a short descriptive comment
497 for each one. Special requirements for groups of tests are also noted.
499 The main runtest script makes use of a second Perl script and some compiled C
502 patchexim A Perl script that makes a patched version of Exim (see the
503 next section for details).
505 bin/cf A text comparison program (see above).
507 bin/checkaccess A program that is run as root; it changes uid/gid to the
508 Exim user and group, and then checks that it can access
509 files in the test suite's directory.
511 bin/client A script-driven SMTP client simulation.
513 bin/client-gnutls A script-driven SMTP client simulation with GnuTLS support.
514 This is built only if GnuTLS support is detected on the host.
516 bin/client-ssl A script-driven SMTP client simulation with OpenSSL support.
517 This is built only if OpenSSL support is detected on the
520 bin/fakens A fake "nameserver" for DNS tests (see below for details).
522 bin/fd A program that outputs details of open file descriptors.
524 bin/iefbr14 A program that does nothing, and returns 0. It's just like
525 the "true" command, but it is in a known place.
527 bin/loaded Some dynamically loaded functions for testing dlfunc support.
529 bin/mtpscript A script-driven SMTP/LMTP server simulation, on std{in,out}.
531 bin/server A script-driven SMTP server simulation, over a socket.
533 bin/showids Output the current uid, gid, euid, egid.
535 The runtest script also makes use of a number of ordinary commands such as
536 "cp", "kill", "more", and "rm", via the system() call. In some cases these are
537 run as root by means of sudo.
540 STANDARD SUBSTITUTIONS
541 ----------------------
543 In the following sections, there are several references to the "standard
544 substitutions". These make changes to some of the stored files when they are
545 used in a test. To save repetition, the substitutions themselves are documented
548 CALLER is replaced by the login name of the user running the tests
549 CALLERGROUP is replaced by the caller's group id
550 CALLER_GID is replaced by the caller's group id
551 CALLER_UID is replaced by the caller's user id
552 DIR is replaced by the name of the test-suite directory
553 EXIMGROUP is replaced by the name of the Exim group
554 EXIMUSER is replaced by the name of the Exim user
555 HOSTIPV4 is replaced by the local host's IPv4 address
556 HOSTIPV6 is replaced by the local host's IPv6 address
557 HOSTNAME is replaced by the local host's name
558 PORT_D is replaced by a port number for normal daemon use
559 PORT_N is replaced by a port number that should never respond
560 PORT_S is replaced by a port number for normal bin/server use
561 PORT_DYNAMIC is replaced by a port number allocated dynamically
562 TESTNUM is replaced by the current test number
563 V4NET is replaced by an IPv4 network number for testing
564 V6NET is replaced by an IPv6 network number for testing
566 PORT_D is currently hard-wired to 1225, PORT_N to 1223, and PORT_S to 1224.
567 V4NET is hardwired to 224 and V6NET to ff00. These networks are used for DNS
568 testing purposes, and for testing Exim with -bh. The only requirement is that
569 they are networks that can never be used for an IP address of a real host. I've
570 chosen two multicast networks for the moment.
572 PORT_DYNAMIC is allocated by hunting for a free port (starting at port
573 1024) a listener can bind to. This is done by runtest, for simulating
576 If the host has no IPv6 address, "<no IPv6 address found>" is substituted but
577 that does not matter because no IPv6 tests will be run. A similar substitution
578 is made if there is no IPv4 address, and again, tests that actually require a
579 running IPv4 interface should be skipped.
581 If the host has more than one IPv4 or IPv6 address, the first one that
582 "ifconfig" lists is used. If the only available address is 127.0.0.1 (or ::1
583 for IPv6) it is used, but another value is preferred if available.
585 In situations where a specific test is not being run (for example, when setting
586 up dynamic data files), TESTNUM is replaced by an empty string, but should not
587 in fact occur in such files.
593 Each numbered script runs Exim (sometimes several times) with its own Exim
594 configuration file. The configurations are stored in the "confs" directory,
595 and before running each test, a copy of the appropriate configuration, with the
596 standard substitutions, is made in the file test-config. The -C command line
597 option is used to tell Exim to use this configuration.
599 The -D option is used to pass the path of the Exim binary to the configuration.
600 This is not standardly substituted, because there are two possible binaries
601 that might be used in the same test (one setuid to root, the other to the exim
602 user). Some tests also make use of -D to vary the configuration for different
603 calls to the Exim binary.
605 Normally, of course, Exim gives up root privilege when -C and -D are used by
606 unprivileged users. We do not want this to happen when running the tests,
607 because we want to be able to test all aspects of Exim, including receiving
608 mail from unprivileged users. The way this is handled is as follows:
610 At the start of the runtest script, the patchexim script is run as root. This
611 script makes a copy of the Exim binary that is to be tested, patching it as it
612 does so. (This is a binary patch, not a source patch.) The patch causes the
613 binary, when run, to "know" that it is running in the test harness. It does not
614 give up root privilege when -C and -D are used, and in a few places it takes
615 other special actions, such as delaying when starting a subprocess to allow
616 debug output from the parent to be written first. If you want to know more,
617 grep the Exim source files for "running_in_test_harness".
619 The patched binary is placed in the directory eximdir/exim and given the normal
620 setuid root privilege. This is, of course, a dangerous binary to have lying
621 around, especially if there are unprivileged users on the system. To protect
622 it, the eximdir directory is created with the current user as owner, exim as
623 the group owner, and with access drwx--x---. Thus, only the user who is running
624 the tests (who is known to have access to root) and the exim user have access
625 to the modified Exim binary. When runtest terminates, the patched binary is
628 Each set of tests proceeds by interpreting its controlling script. The scripts
629 are in subdirectories of the "scripts" directory. They are split up according
630 to the requirements of the tests they contain, with the 0000-Basic directory
631 containing tests that can always be run. Run the "listtests" script to obtain a
638 Output from script runs is written to the files test-stdout and test-stderr.
639 When an Exim server is involved, test-stdout-server and test-stderr-server are
640 used for its output. Before being compared with the saved output, the
641 non-server and server files are concatenated, so a single saved file contains
644 A directory called spool is used for Exim's spool files, and for Exim logs.
645 These locations are specified in every test's configuration file.
647 When messages are delivered to files, the files are put in the test-mail
648 directory. Output from comparisons is written to test-cf.
650 Before comparisons are done, output texts are modified ("munged") to change or
651 remove parts that are expected to vary from run to run. The modified files all
652 end with the suffix "-munged". Thus, you will see test-stdout-munged,
653 test-mainlog-munged, test-mail-munged, and so on. Other files whose names start
654 with "test-" are created and used by some of the tests.
656 At the end of a successful test run, the spool directory and all the files
657 whose names begin with "test-" are removed. If the run ends unsuccessfully
658 (typically after a "Q" response to a prompt), the spool and test files are left
659 in existence so that the problem can be investigated.
665 Each test script consists of a list of commands, each optionally preceded by
666 comments (lines starting with #) and (also optionally) a line containing an
667 expected return code. Some of the commands are followed by data lines
668 terminated by a line of four asterisks.
670 The first line of each script must be a comment that briefly describes the
673 # -bS Use of HELO/RSET
675 A line consisting just of digits is interpreted as the expected return code
676 for the command that follows. The default expectation when no such line exists
677 is a zero return code. For example, here is a complete test script, containing
680 # -bS Unexpected EOF in headers
683 mail from:<someone@some.where>
684 rcpt to:<blackhole@HOSTNAME>
689 The expected return code in this case is 1, and the data lines are passed to
690 Exim on its standard input. Both the command line and the data lines have the
691 standard substitutions applied to them. Thus, HOSTNAME in the example above will
692 be replaced by the local host's name. Long commands can be continued over
693 several lines by using \ as a continuation character. This does *not* apply to
696 Here follows a list of supported commands. They can be divided into two groups:
699 Commands with no input
700 ----------------------
702 These commands are not followed by any input data, or by a line of asterisks.
705 ### This is a verbose comment
707 A line starting with three hashmarks and some space copies the following text to
708 both stdout and stderr file being written by the test.
710 dbmbuild <file1> <file1>
712 This command runs the exim_dbmbuild utility to build a DBM file. It is used
713 only when DBM support is available in Exim, and typically follows the use of a
714 "write" command (see below) that creates the input file.
719 This command runs the exim_dumpdb utility on the testing spool directory, using
720 the database name given, for example: "dumpdb retry".
725 The text is written to the screen; this is used to output comments from
729 exim_lock [options] <file name>
731 This command runs the exim_lock utility with the given options and file name.
732 The file remains locked with the following command (normally exim) is obeyed.
737 This command runs the exinext utility with the given argument data.
742 This command runs the exigrep utility with the given data (the search pattern)
743 on the current mainlog file.
748 This command is present at the start of all but one of the tests that use
749 GnuTLS. It copies a pre-existing parameter file into the spool directory, so
750 that Exim does not have to re-create the file each time. The first GnuTLS test
751 does not do this, in order to test that Exim can create the file.
756 This command must be given in any script that starts an Exim daemon, normally
757 at the end. It searches for the PID file in the spool directory, and sends a
758 SIGINT signal to the Exim daemon process whose PID it finds. See below for
759 comments about starting Exim daemons.
764 This command causes the script to sleep for m milliseconds. Nothing is output
770 This command requests custom munging of the test outputs. The munge names
771 used are coded in the runtest script (look for 'name of munge').
776 This command must be at the head of a script. If no IPv4 interface has been
777 found, the entire script is skipped, and a comment is output.
782 This command must be at the head of a script. If no IPv6 interface has been
783 found, the entire script is skipped, and a comment is output.
788 This command must be at the head of a script. If the Exim binary does not
789 support large files (off_t is <= 4), the entire script is skipped, and a
793 need_move_frozen_messages
795 This command must be at the head of a script. If the Exim binary does not have
796 support for moving frozen messages (which is an optional feature), the entire
797 script is skipped, and a comment is output.
802 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, messages that are
803 delivered when the script runs are not compared with saved versions.
808 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, message log files that
809 are still in existence at the end of the run (for messages that were not
810 delivered) are not compared with saved versions.
815 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, the stderr output from
816 the run is not compared with a saved version.
821 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, the stdout output from
822 the run is not compared with a saved version.
827 This command indicates that the script is for a certain type of filter test, in
828 which there are a lot of repetitive stdout lines that get in the way, because
829 filter tests output data about the sender and recipient. Such lines are removed
830 from the stdout output before comparing, for ease of human perusal.
835 This command causes the script to sleep for n seconds. If n is greater than
836 one, "sleep <n>" is output to the screen, followed by a dot for every second
842 This command causes special sorting to occur on the mainlog file before
843 comparison. Every sequence of contiguous delivery lines (lines containing the
844 => -> or *> flags) is sorted. This is necessary in some tests that use parallel
845 deliveries because on different systems the processes may terminate in a
849 A number of standard file management commands are also recognized. These are
850 cat, chmod, chown, cp, du, ln, ls, du, mkdir, mkfifo, rm, rmdir, and touch.
851 Some are run as root using "sudo".
857 The remaining commands are followed by data lines for their standard input,
858 terminated by four asterisks. Even if no data is required for the particular
859 usage, the asterisks must be given.
864 This command takes one script line and runs it in the background,
865 in parallel with following commands. For external daemons, eg. redis-server.
868 catwrite <file name> [nxm[=start-of-line-text]]*
870 This command operates like the "write" command, which is described below,
871 except that the data it generates is copied to the end of the test-stdout file
872 as well as to the named file.
876 client [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>]
878 This command runs the auxiliary "client" program that simulates an SMTP client.
879 It is controlled by a script read from its standard input, details of which are
880 given below. There are two options. One is -t, which must be followed directly
881 by a number, to specify the command timeout in seconds (e.g. -t5). The default
882 timeout is 5 seconds. The other option is -tls-on-connect, which causes the
883 client to try to start up a TLS session as soon as it has connected, without
884 using the STARTTLS command. The client program connects to the given IP address
885 and port, using the specified interface, if one is given.
888 client-ssl [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>] \
889 [<cert file>] [<key file>]
891 When OpenSSL is available on the host, an alternative version of the client
892 program is compiled, one that supports TLS using OpenSSL. The additional
893 arguments specify a certificate and key file when required for the connection.
894 There are two additional options: -tls-on-connect, that causes the client to
895 initiate TLS negotiation immediately on connection; -ocsp that causes the TLS
896 negotiation to include a certificate-status request. The latter takes a
897 filename argument, the CA info for verifying the stapled response.
900 client-gnutls [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>] \
901 [<cert file>] [<key file>]
903 When GnuTLS is available on the host, an alternative version of the client
904 program is compiled, one that supports TLS using GnuTLS. The additional
905 arguments specify a certificate and key file when required. There is one
906 additional option, -tls-on-connect, that causes the client to initiate TLS
907 negotiation immediately on connection.
910 exim [<options>] [<arguments>]
912 This command runs the testing version of Exim. Any occurrence of "$msg1" in the
913 command line is replaced by the ID of the first (oldest) message in Exim's
914 (testing) spool. "$msg2" refers to the second, and so on. The name "exim" can
915 be preceded by an environment setting as in this example:
917 LDAPTLS_REQCERT=never exim -be
919 It can also be preceded by a number; this specifies a number of seconds to wait
920 before closing the stdout pipe to Exim, and is used for some timeout tests. For
925 Finally, "exim" can be preceded by "sudo", to run Exim as root. If more than
926 one of these prefixes is present, they must be in the above order.
928 If the options include "-DSERVER" but not "-DNOTDAEMON", the script waits for
929 Exim to start but then continues without waiting for it to terminate. Typically
930 this will be for a daemon-mode "-bd" operation. The daemon should be later
931 terminated using "killdaemon".
934 exim_exim [<options>] [<arguments>]
936 This runs an alternative version of Exim that is setuid to exim rather than to
940 server [<options>] <port or socket> [<connection count>]
942 This command runs the auxiliary "server" program that simulates an SMTP (or
943 other) server. It is controlled by a script that is read from its standard
944 input, details of which are given below. A number of options are implemented:
946 -d causes the server to output debugging information
948 -t <sec> sets a timeout (default 5) for when the server is
949 awaiting an incoming connection. If negative, the
950 absolute value is used and a timeout results in a
953 -noipv4 causes the server not to set up an IPv4 socket
955 -noipv6 causes the server not to set up an IPv6 socket
957 -i <sec> sets an initial pause, to delay before creating the listen sockets
959 By default, in an IPv6 environment, both kinds of socket are set up. However,
960 the test script knows which interfaces actually exist on the host, and it adds
961 -noipv4 or -noipv6 to the server command as required. An error occurs if both
962 these options are given.
964 The only required argument is either a port number or the path name of a Unix
965 domain socket. The port is normally PORT_S, which is changed to an actual
966 number by the standard substitutions. The optional final argument specifies the
967 number of different connections to expect (default 1). These must happen
968 serially (one at a time). There is no support for multiple simultaneous
969 connections. Here are some example commands:
972 server -t 10 PORT_S 3
973 server /tmp/somesocket
975 The following lines, up to a line of four asterisks, are the server's
976 controlling standard input (described below). These lines are read and
977 remembered; during the following commands, until an "exim" command is reached,
978 the server is run in parallel.
981 write <file name> [nxm[=start-of-line-text]]*
983 The "write" command is a way of creating files of specific sizes for buffering
984 tests, or containing specific data lines. Being able to do this from within the
985 script saves holding lots of little test files. The optional argument specifies
986 n lines of length m. The lines consist of the letter "a". If start of line text
987 is supplied, it replaces "a"s at the start of each line. Underscores in the
988 start of line text are turned into spaces. The optional argument may be
989 repeated. The data lines that follow a "write" command are split into two by a
990 line of four plus signs. Any above the split are written before the
991 fixed-length lines, and any below the split are written after. For example:
993 write test-data 3x30=AB_ 1x50
1001 This command generates a file containing:
1005 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
1006 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
1007 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
1008 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
1012 If there are no fixed-length line specifiers, there is no need to split the
1013 data, and a line of plusses is not needed.
1018 This command runs Perl, with the data as its standard input, to allow arbitrary
1019 one-off things to be done.
1025 Lines in client scripts are of several kinds:
1027 (1) If a line begins with three question marks and a space, the rest of the
1028 line defines the start of expected output from the server. If what is
1029 received does not match, the client bombs out with an error message.
1031 (2) If a line begins with three question marks and an asterisk, the server
1032 is expected to close the connection.
1034 (3) If a line begins with four question marks, the rest of the line defines
1035 the start of one or more possible output lines from the server. When it
1036 matches, the client silently repeats the comparison using the next server
1037 line. When the match fails, the client silently proceeds to the next script
1038 line with the then-current server output unconsumed.
1040 (4) If a line starts with three plus signs followed by a space, the rest of the
1041 line specifies a number of seconds to sleep for before proceeding.
1043 (5) If a line begins with three '>' characters and a space, the rest of the
1044 line is input to be sent to the server. Backslash escaping is done as
1045 described below, but no trailing "\r\n" is sent.
1047 (6) If a line begin with three '<' characters and a space, the rest of the
1048 line is a filename; the content of the file is inserted intto the script
1051 (7) Otherwise, the line is an input line line that is sent to the server. Any
1052 occurrences of \r and \n in the line are turned into carriage return and
1053 linefeed, respectively. This is used for testing PIPELINING.
1054 Any sequences of \x followed by two hex digits are converted to the equivalent
1055 byte value. Any other character following a \ is sent verbatim.
1056 The line is sent with a trailing "\r\n".
1058 Here is a simple example:
1060 client 127.0.0.1 PORT_D
1065 AUTH PLAIN AbdXi0AdnD2CVy
1071 In the case of client-gnutls and client-ssl, if a command is "starttls", this
1072 is remembered, and after a subsequent OK response, an attempt to move into TLS
1073 mode occurs. If a command is "starttls_wait", the client sends "starttls" but
1074 does not start up TLS; this is for testing timeouts. If a command is "stoptls",
1075 an existing TLS connection is shut down, but nothing is sent.
1081 The server program sleeps till a connection occurs or its timeout is reached,
1082 in which case it bombs out. The next set of command lines are interpreted. They
1083 are of the following kinds:
1085 (1) A line that starts with '>' or with a digit is an output line that is sent
1086 to the client. In the case of '>':
1088 (a) If the line starts with ">>", no terminating CRLF is sent.
1089 (b) If the line starts with ">CR>", just CR is sent at the end.
1090 (c) If the line starts with ">LF>", just LF is sent at the end.
1091 (d) If the line starts with ">*eof", nothing is sent and the connection
1094 The data that is sent starts after the initial '>' sequence. Within
1095 each line the sequence '\x' followed by two hex digits can be used
1096 to specify an arbitrary byte value. The sequence '\\' specifies a
1099 (2) A line that starts with "*sleep" specifies a number of seconds to wait
1102 (3) A line containing "*eof" specifies that the client is expected to close
1103 the connection at this point.
1105 (4) A line containing just '.' specifies that the client is expected to send
1106 many lines, terminated by one that contains just a dot.
1108 (5) Otherwise, the line defines the start of an input line that the client
1109 is expected to send. To allow for lines that start with digits, the line
1110 may start with '<', which is not taken as part of the input data. If the
1111 lines starts with '<<' then only the characters are expected; no return-
1112 linefeed terminator. If the input does not match, the server bombs out
1113 with an error message. Backslash-escape sequences may be used in the
1114 line content as for output lines.
1116 Here is a simple example of server use in a test script:
1134 After a "server" command in a test script, the server runs in parallel until an
1135 "exim" command is reached. The "exim" command attempts to deliver one or more
1136 messages to port PORT_S on the local host. When it has finished, the test
1137 script waits for the "server" process to finish.
1139 The "mtpscript" program is like "server", except that it uses stdin/stdout for
1140 its input and output instead of a script. However, it is not called from test
1141 scripts; instead it is used as the command for pipe transports in some
1142 configurations, to simulate non-socket LMTP servers.
1145 AUXILIARY DATA FILES
1146 --------------------
1148 Many of the tests make use of auxiliary data files. There are two types; those
1149 whose content is fixed, and those whose content needs to be varied according to
1150 the current environment. The former are kept in the directory aux-fixed. The
1151 latter are distributed in the directory aux-var-src, and copied with the
1152 standard substitutions into the directory aux-var at the start of each test
1155 Most of the auxiliary files have names that start with a test number,
1156 indicating that they are specific to that one test. A few fixed files (for
1157 example, some TLS certificates) are used by more than one test, and so their
1158 names are not of this form.
1160 There are also some auxiliary DNS zone files, which are described in the next
1164 DNS LOOKUPS AND GETHOSTBYNAME
1165 -----------------------------
1167 The original test suite required special testing zones to be loaded into a
1168 local nameserver. This is no longer a requirement for the new suite. Instead, a
1169 program called fakens is used to simulate a nameserver. When Exim is running in
1170 the test harness, instead of calling res_search() - the normal call to the DNS
1171 resolver - it calls a testing function. This handles a few special names itself
1172 (for compatibility with the old test suite), but otherwise passes the query to
1175 The fakens program consults "zone files" in the directory called dnszones, and
1176 returns data in the standard resource record format for Exim to process as if
1177 it came from the DNS. However, if the requested domain is not in any of the
1178 zones that fakens knows about, it returns a special code that causes Exim to
1179 pass the query on to res_search(). The zone files are:
1181 db.test.ex A zone for the domain test.ex.
1182 db.ip4.10 A zone for one special case in 10.250.0.0/16 (see below)
1183 db.ip4.V4NET A zone for the domain V4NET.in-addr.arpa.
1184 db.ip4.127 A zone for the domain 127.in-addr.arpa.
1185 db.ip6.V6NET A zone for the domain inverted(V6NET).ip6.arpa.
1186 db.ip6.0 A zone for the domain 0.ip6.arpa.
1188 V4NET and V6NET are substituted with the current testing networks (see above).
1189 In the case of V6NET, the network is four hex digits, and it is split and
1190 inverted appropriately when setting up the zone.
1192 These fake zone files are built dynamically from sources in the dnszones-src
1193 directory by applying the standard substitutions. The test suite also builds
1194 dynamic zone files for the name of the current host and its IP address(es). The
1195 idea is that there should not be any need to rely on an external DNS.
1197 The fakens program handles some names programmatically rather than using the
1198 fake zone files. These are:
1200 manyhome.test.ex This name is used for testing hosts with ridiculously large
1201 numbers of IP addresses; 2048 IP addresses are generated
1202 and returned. Doing it this way saves having to make the
1203 interface to fakens handle more records that can fit in the
1204 data block. The addresses that are generated are in the
1205 10.250.0.0/16 network.
1207 test.again.dns This always provokes a TRY_AGAIN response, for testing the
1208 handling of temporary DNS error. If the full domain name
1209 starts with digits, a delay of that many seconds occurs.
1211 test.fail.dns This always provokes a NO_RECOVERY response, for testing
1212 DNS server failures.
1214 The use of gethostbyname() and its IPv6 friends is also subverted when Exim is
1215 running in the test harness. The test code handles a few special names
1216 directly; for all the others it uses DNS lookups, which are then handled as
1217 just described. Thus, the use of /etc/hosts is completely bypassed. The names
1218 that are specially handled are:
1220 localhost Always returns 127.0.0.1 or ::1, for IPv4 and IPv6 lookups,
1223 <an IP address> If the IP address is of the correct form for the lookup
1224 type (IPv4 or IPv6), it is returned. Otherwise a panic-die
1227 The reverse zone db.ip4.10 is provided just for the manyhome.test.ex case. It
1228 contains a single wildcard resource record. It also contains the line
1232 Whenever fakens finds this line in a zone file, it returns PASS_ON instead of
1233 HOST_NOT_FOUND. This causes Exim to pass the query to res_search().