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. The config files in .../exim/test/confs/ should be owner/group the same.
125 DISABLE_D_OPTION must not be used. If ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX is used, it
126 must contain the directory of the test-suite. WHITELIST_D_MACROS should contain:
128 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
130 (10) Exim must *not* be built with USE_READLINE, as the test-suite's automation
131 assumes the simpler I/O model.
132 Exim must *not* be built with HEADERS_CHARSET set to UTF-8.
139 If the Exim binary that is being tested contains extra functionality in
140 addition to the minimum specified above, additional tests are run to exercise
141 the extra functionality, except for a few special cases such as the databases
142 (MySQL, PostgreSQL, LDAP) where special data is needed for the tests.
145 RUNNING THE TEST SUITE
146 ----------------------
148 (1) Download the tarball exim-testsuite-x.xx.tar.bz2 and unpack it, preferably
149 in a directory alongside an Exim source directory (see below).
151 (2) cd into the exim-testsuite-x.xx directory.
153 (3) Run "autoconf" then "./configure" and then "make". This builds a few
154 auxiliary programs that are written in C.
156 (4) echo $PWD/test-config >> your_TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST_filename
157 Typically that is .../exim/test/trusted_configs
159 (5) Run "./runtest" (a Perl script) as described below.
161 (6) If you want to see what tests are available, run "./listtests".
164 BREAKING OUT OF THE TEST SCRIPT
165 -------------------------------
167 If you abandon the test run by typing ^C, the interrupt may be passed to a
168 program that the script is running, or it may be passed to the script itself.
169 In the former case, the script should detect that the program has ended
170 abnormally. In both cases, the script tries to clean up everything, including
171 killing any Exim daemons that it has started. However, there may be race
172 conditions in which the clean up does not happen. If, after breaking out of a
173 run, you see strange errors in the next run, look for any left-over Exim
174 daemons, and kill them by hand.
180 The individual test scripts are in subdirectories of the "scripts" directory.
181 If you do not supply any arguments to ./listtests, it scans all the scripts in
182 all the directories, and outputs the heading line from each script. The output
183 is piped through "less", and begins like this:
186 Basic/0001 Basic configuration setting
187 Basic/0002 Common string expansions
188 Basic/0003 Caseless address blocking
191 Lines that start === give the name of the subdirectory containing the test
192 scripts that follow. If you supply an argument to ./listtests, it is used as a
193 Perl pattern to match case-independently against the names of the
194 subdirectories. Only those that match are scanned. For example, "./listtests
197 === 1000-Basic-ipv6 ===
198 === Requires: support IPv6
199 Basic-ipv6/1000 -bh and non-canonical IPv6 addresses
200 Basic-ipv6/1001 recognizing IPv6 address in HELO/EHLO
202 === 2250-dnsdb-ipv6 ===
203 === Requires: support IPv6
205 dnsdb-ipv6/2250 dnsdb ipv6 lookup in string expansions
207 If you supply a second argument to ./listtests, it is used as a Perl pattern to
208 match case-independently against the individual script titles. For example,
209 "./listtests . mx" lists all tests whose titles contain "mx", because "."
210 matches all the subdirectory names.
216 If you do not supply any arguments to ./runtest, it searches for an Exim
217 source tree at the same level as the test suite directory. A source tree
218 is a source tree, if it contains a build-* directory.
220 It then looks for an Exim binary in a "build" directory of that source
221 tree. If there are several Exim source trees, it chooses the latest
222 version of Exim. Consider the following example:
225 exim-4.60/ exim-4.62/ exim-testsuite-x.xx/
227 A simple ./runtest from within the test suite will use a 4.62 binary if it
228 finds one, otherwise a 4.60 binary. If a binary cannot be found, the script
229 prompts for one. Alternatively, you can supply the binary on the command line:
231 ./runtest /usr/exim/bin/exim
233 A matching test suite is released with each Exim release; if you use a test
234 suite that does not match the binary, some tests may fail.
236 The test suite uses some of the Exim utilities (such as exim_dbmbuild), and it
237 expects to find them in the same directory as Exim itself. If they are not
238 found, the tests that use them are omitted. A suitable comment is output.
240 On the ./runtest command line, following the name of the binary, if present,
241 there may be a number of options and then one or two numbers. The full syntax
244 ./runtest [binary name] [runtest options] [exim options] \
245 [first test] [last test]
247 There are some options for the ./runtest script itself:
249 -CONTINUE This will allow the script to move past some failing tests. It will
250 write a simple failure line with the test number in a temporary
251 logfile test/failed-summary.log. Unexpected exit codes will still
252 stall the test execution and require interaction.
254 -DEBUG This option is for debugging the test script. It causes some
255 tracing information to be output.
257 -DIFF By default, file comparisons are done using a private compare
258 command called "cf", which is built from source that is provided in
259 the src directory. This is a command I've had for nearly 20 years -
260 look at the source comments for its history - whose output I
261 prefer. However, if you want to use "diff" instead, give -DIFF as a
262 runtest option. In that case, "diff -u" is used for comparisons.
263 (If it turns out that most people prefer to use diff, I'll change
268 This allows "overrides" for the test results. It's intended
269 use is to deal with distro specific differences in the test
270 output. The default flavour is "foo". If during the test
271 run differences between the current and the expected output
272 are found and no flavour file exists already, you may update
273 the "common" expected output or you may create a flavour
274 file. If a flavour file already exists, any updates will go
275 into that flavour file!
277 -KEEP Normally, after a successful run, the test output files are
278 deleted. This option prevents this. It is useful when running a
279 single test, in order to look at the actual output before it is
280 modified for comparison with saved output.
282 -NOIPV4 Pretend that an IPv4 interface was not found. This is useful for
283 testing that the test suite correctly skips tests that require
284 a running IPv4 interface.
286 -NOIPV6 Pretend that an IPv6 interface was not found. This is useful for
287 testing that the test suite correctly skips tests that require
288 a running IPv6 interface.
290 -UPDATE If this option is set, any detected changes in test output are
291 automatically accepted and used to update the stored copies of the
292 output. It is a dangerous option, but it useful for the test suite
293 maintainer after making a change to the code that affects a lot of
294 tests (for example, the wording of a message).
296 The options for ./runtest must be given first (but after the name of the
297 binary, if present). Any further options, that is, items on the command line
298 that start with a hyphen, are passed to the Exim binary when it is run as part
299 of a test. The only sensible use of this is to pass "-d" in order to run a test
300 with debugging enabled. Any other options are likely to conflict with options
301 that are set in the tests. Some tests are already set up to run with debugging.
302 In these cases, -d on the command line overrides their own debug settings.
304 The final two arguments specify the range of tests to be run. Test numbers lie
305 in the range 1 to 9999. If no numbers are given, the defaults are 1 and 8999
306 (sic). Tests with higher numbers (9000 upwards) are not run automatically
307 because they require specific data (such as a particular MySQL table) that is
308 unlikely to be generally available.
310 Tests that require certain optional features of Exim are grouped by number, so
311 in any given range, not all the tests will exist. Non-existent tests are just
312 skipped, but if there are no tests at all in the given range, a message is
315 If you give only one number, just that test is run (if it exists). Instead of a
316 second number, you can give the character "+", which is interpreted as "to the
317 end". Normally this is 8999; if the starting number is 9000 or higher, "+" is
318 interpreted as 9999. Examples:
322 ./runtest /usr/sbin/exim 5000 +
323 ./runtest -DIFF -d 81
325 When the script starts up, the first thing it does is to check that you have
326 sudo access to root. Then it outputs the version number of the Exim binary that
327 it is testing, and also information about the optional facilities that are
328 present (obtained from "exim -bV"). This is followed by some environmental
329 information, including the current login id and the hosts's IP address. The
330 script checks that the current user is in the Exim group, and that the Exim
331 user has access to the test suite directory.
333 The script outputs the list of tests requested, and a list of tests that will
334 be omitted because the relevant optional facilities are not in the binary. You
335 are then invited to press Return to start the tests running.
341 When all goes well, the only permanent output is the identity of the tests as
342 they are run, and "Script completed" for each test script, for example:
344 Basic/0001 Basic configuration setting
346 Basic/0002 Basic string expansions
348 Basic/0003 Caseless address blocking
350 Basic/0004 Caseful address blocking
352 Basic/0005 -bs to simple local delivery
355 While a script is running, it shows "Test n" on the screen, for each of the
356 Exim tests within the script. There may also be comments from some tests when a
357 delay is expected, for example, if there is a "sleep" while testing a timeout.
359 Before each set of optional tests, an extra identifying line is output. For
362 >>> The following tests require: authenticator cram_md5
363 CRAM-MD5/2500 CRAM-MD5 server tests
365 CRAM-MD5/2501 CRAM-MD5 client tests
368 If a test fails, you are shown the output of the text comparison that failed,
369 and prompted as to what to do next. The output is shown using the "less"
370 command, or "more" if "less" is not available. The options for "less" are set
371 to that it automatically exits if there is less that a screenful of output. By
372 default, the output is from the "cf" program, and might look like this:
374 DBM/1300 DBM files and exim_dbmbuild
376 Lines 7-9 of "test-stdout-munged" do not match lines 7-11 of "stdout/1300".
378 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 1
379 Continued set of lines is too long: max permitted length is 99999
380 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 1
383 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 2
384 Continued set of lines is too long: max permitted length is 99999
386 exim_dbmbuild exit code = 2
389 "test-stdout-munged" contains 16 lines; "stdout/1300" contains 18 lines.
391 Continue, Retry, Update & retry, Quit? [Q]
393 This example was generated by running the test with a version of Exim
394 that had a bug in the exim_dbmbuild utility (the bug was fixed at release
395 4.53). See "How the tests work" below for a description of the files that are
396 used. In this case, the standard output differed from what was expected.
398 The reply to the prompt must either be empty, in which case it takes the
399 default that is given in brackets (in this case Q), or a single letter, in
400 upper or lower case (in this case, one of C, R, U, or Q). If you type anything
401 else, the prompt is repeated.
403 "Continue" carries on as if the files had matched; that is, it ignores the
404 mismatch. Any other output files for the same test will be compared before
405 moving on to the next test.
407 "Update & retry" copies the new file to the saved file, and reruns the test
408 after doing any further comparisons that may be necessary.
410 "Retry" does the same apart from the file copy.
412 Other circumstances give rise to other prompts. If a test generates output for
413 which there is no saved data, the prompt (after a message stating which file is
414 unexpectely not empty) is:
416 Continue, Show, or Quit? [Q]
418 "Show" displays the data on the screen, and then you get the "Continue..."
419 prompt. If a test ends with an unexpected return code, the prompt is:
421 show stdErr, show stdOut, Continue (without file comparison), or Quit? [Q]
423 Typically in these cases there will be something interesting in the stderr
424 or stdout output. There is a similar prompt after the "server" auxiliary
428 OPENSSL AND GNUTLS ERROR MESSAGES
429 ---------------------------------
431 Some of the TLS tests deliberately cause errors to check how Exim handles them.
432 It has been observed that different releases of the OpenSSL and GnuTLS
433 libraries generate different error messages. This may cause the comparison with
434 the saved output to fail. Such errors can be ignored.
440 . Some of the tests are time-sensitive (e.g. when testing timeouts, as in test
441 461). These may fail if run on a host that is also running a lot of other
444 . Some versions of "ls" use a different format for times and dates. This can
445 cause test 345 to fail.
447 . Test 0142 tests open file descriptors; on some hosts the output may vary.
449 . Some tests may fail, for example 0022, because it says it uses cached data
450 when the expected output thinks it should not be in cache. Item #5 in the
451 Requirements section has:
452 "Exim must be built with its user and group specified at build time"
453 This means that you cannot use the "ref:username" in your Local/Makefile
454 when building the exim binary, in any of the following fields:
455 EXIM_USER EXIM_GROUP CONFIGURE_OWNER CONFIGURE_GROUP
457 . If the runtest script warns that the hostname is not a Fully Qualified
458 Domain Name (FQDN), expect that some tests will fail, for example 0036,
459 with an extra log line saying the hostname doesn't resolve. You must use a
460 FQDN for the hostname for proper test functionality.
462 . If you change your hostname to a FQDN, you must delete the test/dnszones
463 subdirectory. When you next run the runtest script, it will rebuild the
464 content to use the new hostname.
466 . If your hostname has an uppercase characters in it, expect that some tests
467 will fail, for example, 0036, because some log lines will have the hostname
468 in all lowercase. The regex which extracts the hostname from the log lines
469 will not match the lowercased version.
471 . Some tests may fail, for example 0015, with a cryptic error message:
472 Server return code 99
473 Due to security concerns, some specific files MUST have the group write bit
474 off. For the purposes of the test suite, some test/aux-fixed/* files MUST
475 have the group write bit off, so it's easier to just remove the group write
476 bit for all of them. If your umask is set to 002, the group write bit will
477 be on by default and you'll see this problem, so make sure your umask is
478 022 and re-checkout the test/ subdirectory.
480 . Some tests will fail if the username and group name are different. It does
481 not have to be the primary group, a secondary group is sufficient.
484 OTHER SCRIPTS AND PROGRAMS
485 --------------------------
487 There is a freestanding Perl script called "listtests" that scans the test
488 scripts and outputs a list of all the tests, with a short descriptive comment
489 for each one. Special requirements for groups of tests are also noted.
491 The main runtest script makes use of a second Perl script and some compiled C
494 patchexim A Perl script that makes a patched version of Exim (see the
495 next section for details).
497 bin/cf A text comparison program (see above).
499 bin/checkaccess A program that is run as root; it changes uid/gid to the
500 Exim user and group, and then checks that it can access
501 files in the test suite's directory.
503 bin/client A script-driven SMTP client simulation.
505 bin/client-gnutls A script-driven SMTP client simulation with GnuTLS support.
506 This is built only if GnuTLS support is detected on the host.
508 bin/client-ssl A script-driven SMTP client simulation with OpenSSL support.
509 This is built only if OpenSSL support is detected on the
512 bin/fakens A fake "nameserver" for DNS tests (see below for details).
514 bin/fd A program that outputs details of open file descriptors.
516 bin/iefbr14 A program that does nothing, and returns 0. It's just like
517 the "true" command, but it is in a known place.
519 bin/loaded Some dynamically loaded functions for testing dlfunc support.
521 bin/mtpscript A script-driven SMTP/LMTP server simulation, on std{in,out}.
523 bin/server A script-driven SMTP server simulation, over a socket.
525 bin/showids Output the current uid, gid, euid, egid.
527 The runtest script also makes use of a number of ordinary commands such as
528 "cp", "kill", "more", and "rm", via the system() call. In some cases these are
529 run as root by means of sudo.
532 STANDARD SUBSTITUTIONS
533 ----------------------
535 In the following sections, there are several references to the "standard
536 substitutions". These make changes to some of the stored files when they are
537 used in a test. To save repetition, the substitutions themselves are documented
540 CALLER is replaced by the login name of the user running the tests
541 CALLERGROUP is replaced by the caller's group id
542 CALLER_GID is replaced by the caller's group id
543 CALLER_UID is replaced by the caller's user id
544 DIR is replaced by the name of the test-suite directory
545 EXIMGROUP is replaced by the name of the Exim group
546 EXIMUSER is replaced by the name of the Exim user
547 HOSTIPV4 is replaced by the local host's IPv4 address
548 HOSTIPV6 is replaced by the local host's IPv6 address
549 HOSTNAME is replaced by the local host's name
550 PORT_D is replaced by a port number for normal daemon use
551 PORT_N is replaced by a port number that should never respond
552 PORT_S is replaced by a port number for normal bin/server use
553 TESTNUM is replaced by the current test number
554 V4NET is replaced by an IPv4 network number for testing
555 V6NET is replaced by an IPv6 network number for testing
557 PORT_D is currently hard-wired to 1225, PORT_N to 1223, and PORT_S to 1224.
558 V4NET is hardwired to 224 and V6NET to ff00. These networks are used for DNS
559 testing purposes, and for testing Exim with -bh. The only requirement is that
560 they are networks that can never be used for an IP address of a real host. I've
561 chosen two multicast networks for the moment.
563 If the host has no IPv6 address, "<no IPv6 address found>" is substituted but
564 that does not matter because no IPv6 tests will be run. A similar substitution
565 is made if there is no IPv4 address, and again, tests that actually require a
566 running IPv4 interface should be skipped.
568 If the host has more than one IPv4 or IPv6 address, the first one that
569 "ifconfig" lists is used. If the only available address is 127.0.0.1 (or ::1
570 for IPv6) it is used, but another value is preferred if available.
572 In situations where a specific test is not being run (for example, when setting
573 up dynamic data files), TESTNUM is replaced by an empty string, but should not
574 in fact occur in such files.
580 Each numbered script runs Exim (sometimes several times) with its own Exim
581 configuration file. The configurations are stored in the "confs" directory,
582 and before running each test, a copy of the appropriate configuration, with the
583 standard substitutions, is made in the file test-config. The -C command line
584 option is used to tell Exim to use this configuration.
586 The -D option is used to pass the path of the Exim binary to the configuration.
587 This is not standardly substituted, because there are two possible binaries
588 that might be used in the same test (one setuid to root, the other to the exim
589 user). Some tests also make use of -D to vary the configuration for different
590 calls to the Exim binary.
592 Normally, of course, Exim gives up root privilege when -C and -D are used by
593 unprivileged users. We do not want this to happen when running the tests,
594 because we want to be able to test all aspects of Exim, including receiving
595 mail from unprivileged users. The way this is handled is as follows:
597 At the start of the runtest script, the patchexim script is run as root. This
598 script makes a copy of the Exim binary that is to be tested, patching it as it
599 does so. (This is a binary patch, not a source patch.) The patch causes the
600 binary, when run, to "know" that it is running in the test harness. It does not
601 give up root privilege when -C and -D are used, and in a few places it takes
602 other special actions, such as delaying when starting a subprocess to allow
603 debug output from the parent to be written first. If you want to know more,
604 grep the Exim source files for "running_in_test_harness".
606 The patched binary is placed in the directory eximdir/exim and given the normal
607 setuid root privilege. This is, of course, a dangerous binary to have lying
608 around, especially if there are unprivileged users on the system. To protect
609 it, the eximdir directory is created with the current user as owner, exim as
610 the group owner, and with access drwx--x---. Thus, only the user who is running
611 the tests (who is known to have access to root) and the exim user have access
612 to the modified Exim binary. When runtest terminates, the patched binary is
615 Each set of tests proceeds by interpreting its controlling script. The scripts
616 are in subdirectories of the "scripts" directory. They are split up according
617 to the requirements of the tests they contain, with the 0000-Basic directory
618 containing tests that can always be run. Run the "listtests" script to obtain a
625 Output from script runs is written to the files test-stdout and test-stderr.
626 When an Exim server is involved, test-stdout-server and test-stderr-server are
627 used for its output. Before being compared with the saved output, the
628 non-server and server files are concatenated, so a single saved file contains
631 A directory called spool is used for Exim's spool files, and for Exim logs.
632 These locations are specified in every test's configuration file.
634 When messages are delivered to files, the files are put in the test-mail
635 directory. Output from comparisons is written to test-cf.
637 Before comparisons are done, output texts are modified ("munged") to change or
638 remove parts that are expected to vary from run to run. The modified files all
639 end with the suffix "-munged". Thus, you will see test-stdout-munged,
640 test-mainlog-munged, test-mail-munged, and so on. Other files whose names start
641 with "test-" are created and used by some of the tests.
643 At the end of a successful test run, the spool directory and all the files
644 whose names begin with "test-" are removed. If the run ends unsuccessfully
645 (typically after a "Q" response to a prompt), the spool and test files are left
646 in existence so that the problem can be investigated.
652 Each test script consists of a list of commands, each optionally preceded by
653 comments (lines starting with #) and (also optionally) a line containing an
654 expected return code. Some of the commands are followed by data lines
655 terminated by a line of four asterisks.
657 The first line of each script must be a comment that briefly describes the
660 # -bS Use of HELO/RSET
662 A line consisting just of digits is interpreted as the expected return code
663 for the command that follows. The default expectation when no such line exists
664 is a zero return code. For example, here is a complete test script, containing
667 # -bS Unexpected EOF in headers
670 mail from:<someone@some.where>
671 rcpt to:<blackhole@HOSTNAME>
676 The expected return code in this case is 1, and the data lines are passed to
677 Exim on its standard input. Both the command line and the data lines have the
678 standard substitions applied to them. Thus, HOSTNAME in the example above will
679 be replaced by the local host's name. Long commands can be continued over
680 several lines by using \ as a continuation character. This does *not* apply to
683 Here follows a list of supported commands. They can be divided into two groups:
686 Commands with no input
687 ----------------------
689 These commands are not followed by any input data, or by a line of asterisks.
692 dbmbuild <file1> <file1>
694 This command runs the exim_dbmbuild utility to build a DBM file. It is used
695 only when DBM support is available in Exim, and typically follows the use of a
696 "write" command (see below) that creates the input file.
701 This command runs the exim_dumpdb utility on the testing spool directory, using
702 the database name given, for example: "dumpdb retry".
707 The text is written to the screen; this is used to output comments from
711 exim_lock [options] <file name>
713 This command runs the exim_lock utility with the given options and file name.
714 The file remains locked with the following command (normally exim) is obeyed.
719 This command runs the exinext utility with the given argument data.
724 This command runs the exigrep utility with the given data (the search pattern)
725 on the current mainlog file.
730 This command is present at the start of all but one of the tests that use
731 GnuTLS. It copies a pre-existing parameter file into the spool directory, so
732 that Exim does not have to re-create the file each time. The first GnuTLS test
733 does not do this, in order to test that Exim can create the file.
738 This command must be given in any script that starts an Exim daemon, normally
739 at the end. It searches for the PID file in the spool directory, and sends a
740 SIGINT signal to the Exim daemon process whose PID it finds. See below for
741 comments about starting Exim daemons.
746 This command causes the script to sleep for m milliseconds. Nothing is output
752 This command requests custom munging of the test outputs. The munge names
753 used are coded in the runtest script (look for 'name of munge').
758 This command must be at the head of a script. If no IPv4 interface has been
759 found, the entire script is skipped, and a comment is output.
764 This command must be at the head of a script. If no IPv6 interface has been
765 found, the entire script is skipped, and a comment is output.
770 This command must be at the head of a script. If the Exim binary does not
771 suppport large files (off_t is <= 4), the entire script is skipped, and a
775 need_move_frozen_messages
777 This command must be at the head of a script. If the Exim binary does not have
778 support for moving frozen messages (which is an optional feature), the entire
779 script is skipped, and a comment is output.
784 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, messages that are
785 delivered when the script runs are not compared with saved versions.
790 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, message log files that
791 are still in existence at the end of the run (for messages that were not
792 delivered) are not compared with saved versions.
797 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, the stderr output from
798 the run is not compared with a saved version.
803 If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, the stdout output from
804 the run is not compared with a saved version.
809 This command indicates that the script is for a certain type of filter test, in
810 which there are a lot of repetitive stdout lines that get in the way, because
811 filter tests output data about the sender and recipient. Such lines are removed
812 from the stdout output before comparing, for ease of human perusal.
817 This command causes the script to sleep for n seconds. If n is greater than
818 one, "sleep <n>" is output to the screen, followed by a dot for every second
824 This command causes special sorting to occur on the mainlog file before
825 comparison. Every sequence of contiguous delivery lines (lines containing the
826 => -> or *> flags) is sorted. This is necessary in some tests that use parallel
827 deliveries because on different systems the processes may terminate in a
831 A number of standard file management commands are also recognized. These are
832 cat, chmod, chown, cp, du, ln, ls, du, mkdir, mkfifo, rm, rmdir, and touch.
833 Some are run as root using "sudo".
839 The remaining commands are followed by data lines for their standard input,
840 terminated by four asterisks. Even if no data is required for the particular
841 usage, the asterisks must be given.
846 This command takes one script line and runs it in the background,
847 in parallel with following commands. For external daemons, eg. redis-server.
850 catwrite <file name> [nxm[=start-of-line-text]]*
852 This command operates like the "write" command, which is described below,
853 except that the data it generates is copied to the end of the test-stdout file
854 as well as to the named file.
858 client [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>]
860 This command runs the auxiliary "client" program that simulates an SMTP client.
861 It is controlled by a script read from its standard input, details of which are
862 given below. There are two options. One is -t, which must be followed directly
863 by a number, to specify the command timeout in seconds (e.g. -t5). The default
864 timeout is 5 seconds. The other option is -tls-on-connect, which causes the
865 client to try to start up a TLS session as soon as it has connected, without
866 using the STARTTLS command. The client program connects to the given IP address
867 and port, using the specified interface, if one is given.
870 client-ssl [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>] \
871 [<cert file>] [<key file>]
873 When OpenSSL is available on the host, an alternative version of the client
874 program is compiled, one that supports TLS using OpenSSL. The additional
875 arguments specify a certificate and key file when required for the connection.
876 There are two additional options: -tls-on-connect, that causes the client to
877 initiate TLS negociation immediately on connection; -ocsp that causes the TLS
878 negotiation to include a certificate-status request. The latter takes a
879 filename argument, the CA info for verifying the stapled response.
882 client-gnutls [<options>] <ip address> <port> [<outgoing interface>] \
883 [<cert file>] [<key file>]
885 When GnuTLS is available on the host, an alternative version of the client
886 program is compiled, one that supports TLS using GnuTLS. The additional
887 arguments specify a certificate and key file when required. There is one
888 additional option, -tls-on-connect, that causes the client to initiate TLS
889 negotiation immediately on connection.
892 exim [<options>] [<arguments>]
894 This command runs the testing version of Exim. Any occurrence of "$msg1" in the
895 command line is replaced by the ID of the first (oldest) message in Exim's
896 (testing) spool. "$msg2" refers to the second, and so on. The name "exim" can
897 be preceded by an environment setting as in this example:
899 LDAPTLS_REQCERT=never exim -be
901 It can also be preceded by a number; this specifies a number of seconds to wait
902 before closing the stdout pipe to Exim, and is used for some timeout tests. For
907 Finally, "exim" can be preceded by "sudo", to run Exim as root. If more than
908 one of these prefixes is present, they must be in the above order.
910 If the options include "-DSERVER" but not "-DNOTDAEMON", the script waits for
911 Exim to start but then continues without waiting for it to terminate. Typically
912 this will be for a daemon-mode "-bd" operation. The daemon should be later
913 terminated using "killdaemon".
916 exim_exim [<options>] [<arguments>]
918 This runs an alternative version of Exim that is setuid to exim rather than to
922 server [<options>] <port or socket> [<connection count>]
924 This command runs the auxiliary "server" program that simulates an SMTP (or
925 other) server. It is controlled by a script that is read from its standard
926 input, details of which are given below. A number of options are implemented:
928 -d causes the server to output debugging information
930 -t <sec> sets a timeout (default 5) for when the server is
931 awaiting an incoming connection. If negative, the
932 absolute value is used and a timeout results in a
935 -noipv4 causes the server not to set up an IPv4 socket
937 -noipv6 causes the server not to set up an IPv6 socket
939 -i <sec> sets an initial pause, to delay before creating the listen sockets
941 By default, in an IPv6 environment, both kinds of socket are set up. However,
942 the test script knows which interfaces actually exist on the host, and it adds
943 -noipv4 or -noipv6 to the server command as required. An error occurs if both
944 these options are given.
946 The only required argument is either a port number or the path name of a Unix
947 domain socket. The port is normally PORT_S, which is changed to an actual
948 number by the standard substitutions. The optional final argument specifies the
949 number of different connections to expect (default 1). These must happen
950 serially (one at a time). There is no support for multiple simultaneous
951 connections. Here are some example commands:
954 server -t 10 PORT_S 3
955 server /tmp/somesocket
957 The following lines, up to a line of four asterisks, are the server's
958 controlling standard input (described below). These lines are read and
959 remembered; during the following commands, until an "exim" command is reached,
960 the server is run in parallel.
963 write <file name> [nxm[=start-of-line-text]]*
965 The "write" command is a way of creating files of specific sizes for buffering
966 tests, or containing specific data lines. Being able to do this from within the
967 script saves holding lots of little test files. The optional argument specifies
968 n lines of length m. The lines consist of the letter "a". If start of line text
969 is supplied, it replaces "a"s at the start of each line. Underscores in the
970 start of line text are turned into spaces. The optional argument may be
971 repeated. The data lines that follow a "write" command are split into two by a
972 line of four plus signs. Any above the split are written before the
973 fixed-length lines, and any below the split are written after. For example:
975 write test-data 3x30=AB_ 1x50
983 This command generates a file containing:
987 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
988 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
989 AB aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
990 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
994 If there are no fixed-length line specifiers, there is no need to split the
995 data, and a line of plusses is not needed.
1000 This command runs Perl, with the data as its standard input, to allow arbitrary
1001 one-off things to be done.
1007 Lines in client scripts are of two kinds:
1009 (1) If a line begins with three question marks and a space, the rest of the
1010 line defines the start of expected output from the server. If what is
1011 received does not match, the client bombs out with an error message.
1013 (2) If a line starts with three plus signs followed by a space, the rest of the
1014 line specifies a number of seconds to sleep for before proceeding.
1016 (3) Otherwise, the line is an input line line that is sent to the server. Any
1017 occurrences of \r and \n in the line are turned into carriage return and
1018 linefeed, respectively. This is used for testing PIPELINING.
1020 Here is a simple example:
1022 client 127.0.0.1 PORT_D
1027 AUTH PLAIN AbdXi0AdnD2CVy
1033 In the case of client-gnutls and client-ssl, if a command is "starttls", this
1034 is remembered, and after a subsequent OK response, an attempt to move into TLS
1035 mode occurs. If a command is "starttls_wait", the client sends "starttls" but
1036 does not start up TLS; this is for testing timeouts. If a command is "stoptls",
1037 an existing TLS connection is shut down, but nothing is sent.
1043 The server program sleeps till a connection occurs or its timeout is reached,
1044 in which case it bombs out. The next set of command lines are interpreted. They
1045 are of the following kinds:
1047 (1) A line that starts with '>' or with a digit is an output line that is sent
1048 to the client. In the case of '>':
1050 (a) If the line starts with ">>", no terminating CRLF is sent.
1051 (b) If the line starts with ">CR>", just CR is sent at the end.
1052 (c) If the line starts with ">LF>", just LF is sent at the end.
1053 (d) If the line starts with ">*eof", nothing is sent and the connection
1056 The data that is sent starts after the initial '>' sequence. Within
1057 each line the sequence '\x' followed by two hex digits can be used
1058 to specify an arbitrary byte value. The sequence '\\' specifies a
1061 (2) A line that starts with "*sleep" specifies a number of seconds to wait
1064 (3) A line containing "*eof" specifies that the client is expected to close
1065 the connection at this point.
1067 (4) A line containing just '.' specifies that the client is expected to send
1068 many lines, terminated by one that contains just a dot.
1070 (5) Otherwise, the line defines the start of an input line that the client
1071 is expected to send. To allow for lines that start with digits, the line
1072 may start with '<', which is not taken as part of the input data. If the
1073 lines starts with '<<' then only the characters are expected; no return-
1074 linefeed terminator. If the input does not match, the server bombs out
1075 with an error message. Backslash-escape sequences may be used in the
1076 line content as for output lines.
1078 Here is a simple example of server use in a test script:
1096 After a "server" command in a test script, the server runs in parallel until an
1097 "exim" command is reached. The "exim" command attempts to deliver one or more
1098 messages to port PORT_S on the local host. When it has finished, the test
1099 script waits for the "server" process to finish.
1101 The "mtpscript" program is like "server", except that it uses stdin/stdout for
1102 its input and output instead of a script. However, it is not called from test
1103 scripts; instead it is used as the command for pipe transports in some
1104 configurations, to simulate non-socket LMTP servers.
1107 AUXILIARY DATA FILES
1108 --------------------
1110 Many of the tests make use of auxiliary data files. There are two types; those
1111 whose content is fixed, and those whose content needs to be varied according to
1112 the current environment. The former are kept in the directory aux-fixed. The
1113 latter are distributed in the directory aux-var-src, and copied with the
1114 standard substitutions into the directory aux-var at the start of each test
1117 Most of the auxiliary files have names that start with a test number,
1118 indicating that they are specific to that one test. A few fixed files (for
1119 example, some TLS certificates) are used by more than one test, and so their
1120 names are not of this form.
1122 There are also some auxilary DNS zone files, which are described in the next
1126 DNS LOOKUPS AND GETHOSTBYNAME
1127 -----------------------------
1129 The original test suite required special testing zones to be loaded into a
1130 local nameserver. This is no longer a requirement for the new suite. Instead, a
1131 program called fakens is used to simulate a nameserver. When Exim is running in
1132 the test harness, instead of calling res_search() - the normal call to the DNS
1133 resolver - it calls a testing function. This handles a few special names itself
1134 (for compatibility with the old test suite), but otherwise passes the query to
1137 The fakens program consults "zone files" in the directory called dnszones, and
1138 returns data in the standard resource record format for Exim to process as if
1139 it came from the DNS. However, if the requested domain is not in any of the
1140 zones that fakens knows about, it returns a special code that causes Exim to
1141 pass the query on to res_search(). The zone files are:
1143 db.test.ex A zone for the domain test.ex.
1144 db.ip4.10 A zone for one special case in 10.250.0.0/16 (see below)
1145 db.ip4.V4NET A zone for the domain V4NET.in-addr.arpa.
1146 db.ip4.127 A zone for the domain 127.in-addr.arpa.
1147 db.ip6.V6NET A zone for the domain inverted(V6NET).ip6.arpa.
1148 db.ip6.0 A zone for the domain 0.ip6.arpa.
1150 V4NET and V6NET are substituted with the current testing networks (see above).
1151 In the case of V6NET, the network is four hex digits, and it is split and
1152 inverted appropriately when setting up the zone.
1154 These fake zone files are built dynamically from sources in the dnszones-src
1155 directory by applying the standard substitutions. The test suite also builds
1156 dynamic zone files for the name of the current host and its IP address(es). The
1157 idea is that there should not be any need to rely on an external DNS.
1159 The fakens program handles some names programmatically rather than using the
1160 fake zone files. These are:
1162 manyhome.test.ex This name is used for testing hosts with ridiculously large
1163 numbers of IP addresses; 2048 IP addresses are generated
1164 and returned. Doing it this way saves having to make the
1165 interface to fakens handle more records that can fit in the
1166 data block. The addresses that are generated are in the
1167 10.250.0.0/16 network.
1169 test.again.dns This always provokes a TRY_AGAIN response, for testing the
1170 handling of temporary DNS error. If the full domain name
1171 starts with digits, a delay of that many seconds occurs.
1173 test.fail.dns This always provokes a NO_RECOVERY response, for testing
1174 DNS server failures.
1176 The use of gethostbyname() and its IPv6 friends is also subverted when Exim is
1177 running in the test harness. The test code handles a few special names
1178 directly; for all the others it uses DNS lookups, which are then handled as
1179 just described. Thus, the use of /etc/hosts is completely bypassed. The names
1180 that are specially handled are:
1182 localhost Always returns 127.0.0.1 or ::1, for IPv4 and IPv6 lookups,
1185 <an IP address> If the IP address is of the correct form for the lookup
1186 type (IPv4 or IPv6), it is returned. Otherwise a panic-die
1189 The reverse zone db.ip4.10 is provided just for the manyhome.test.ex case. It
1190 contains a single wildcard resource record. It also contains the line
1194 Whenever fakens finds this line in a zone file, it returns PASS_ON instead of
1195 HOST_NOT_FOUND. This causes Exim to pass the query to res_search().