-$Cambridge: exim/test/README,v 1.2 2006/02/10 16:29:20 ph10 Exp $
+$Cambridge: exim/test/README,v 1.5 2006/10/31 11:37:47 ph10 Exp $
EXPORTABLE EXIM TEST SUITE
--------------------------
This document last updated for:
-Test Suite Version: 4.61
-Date: 06 February 2006
+Test Suite Version: 4.64
+Date: 31 October 2006
BACKGROUND
enabled.
This README describes a new test suite that is intended to be exportable and to
-run in a number of different environments. The current status of this project
-is "experimental and incomplete". I am releasing it in this state in order to
-get feedback on how well it succeeds and of course to iron out any bugs. The
-original test suite contains over 600 tests; it will be some time before they
-are all re-implemented in the new world.
-
-The tests themselves are in no particular order; they accumulated over the
-years as Exim was extended and modified. They vary greatly in size and
-complexity. Some were specifically constructed to test new features; others
-were made to demonstrate that a bug had been fixed.
+run in a number of different environments. The tests themselves are in no
+particular order; they accumulated over the years as Exim was extended and
+modified. They vary greatly in size and complexity. Some were specifically
+constructed to test new features; others were made to demonstrate that a bug
+had been fixed.
A few of the original tests have had to be omitted from this more general
suite because differences in operating system behaviour make it impossible to
of Exim, because it can revert to the caller's uid. In FreeBSD this is not the
case.
-This is early documentation; it too may be buggy... :-) It is certainly
-incomplete, because there are features yet to be added to the test suite.
-
REQUIREMENTS
------------
In order to run this test suite, the following requirements must be met:
-(1) You should run the tests on the latest version of Exim, because the suite
+(1) You should run the tests on a matching version of Exim, because the suite
is continuously updated to test the latest features and bug fixes. The
version you test does not, however, have to be installed as the live
- version. You can of course run the tests on an older Exim, but some may
- fail. In particular, the test suite will fall apart horrible with versions
- of Exim prior to 4.54.
+ version. You can of course try the tests on any version of Exim, but some
+ may fail. In particular, the test suite will fall apart horrible with
+ versions of Exim prior to 4.54.
(2) You can use any non-root login to run the tests, but there must be access
via "sudo" to root from this login. Privilege is required to override
(3) The login under which you run the tests must be in the exim group so that
it has access to logs, spool files, etc. The login should not be one of the
names "userx", "usery", "userz", or a few other simple ones such as "abcd"
- and "xyz" and single letters that are used in the tests. (The original
- tests use my login a lot; I'm weeding this out as I convert, and I'll try
- to get rid of common names as well.) The test suite expects the login to
- have a gecos name; I think it will now run if the gecos field is empty but
- there may be anomalies.
+ and "xyz" and single letters that are used in the tests. The test suite
+ expects the login to have a gecos name; I think it will now run if the
+ gecos field is empty but there may be anomalies.
(4) The directory into which you unpack the test suite must be accessible by
- the Exim user, so that code which is running as exim can access the files
- therein. A world-readable directory is fine. However, there may be problems
- if the path name of the directory is excessively long. This is because it
- sometimes appears in logs lines or debug output, and if it is truncated, it
+ the Exim user, so that code running as exim can access the files therein. A
+ world-readable directory is fine. However, there may be problems if the
+ path name of the directory is excessively long. This is because it
+ sometimes appears in log lines or debug output, and if it is truncated, it
is no longer recognized.
(5) Exim must be built with its user and group specified at build time, and
following example:
$ ls -F /source/exim
- exim-4.50/ exim-4.52/ exim-testsuite-0.00/
+ exim-4.60/ exim-4.62/ exim-testsuite-x.xx/
-A simple ./runtest from within the test suite will use a 4.52 binary if it
-finds one, otherwise a 4.50 binary. If a binary cannot be found, the script
+A simple ./runtest from within the test suite will use a 4.62 binary if it
+finds one, otherwise a 4.60 binary. If a binary cannot be found, the script
prompts for one. Alternatively, you can supply the binary on the command line:
./runtest /usr/exim/bin/exim
-The test suite also uses some of the Exim utilities (such as exim_dbmbuild),
-and it expects to find them in the same directory as Exim itself. If they are
-not found, the tests that use them are omitted. A suitable comment is output.
+A matching test suite is released with each Exim release; if you use a test
+suite that does not match the binary, some tests may fail.
+
+The test suite uses some of the Exim utilities (such as exim_dbmbuild), and it
+expects to find them in the same directory as Exim itself. If they are not
+found, the tests that use them are omitted. A suitable comment is output.
On the ./runtest command line, following the name of the binary, if present,
there may be a number of options and then one or two numbers. The full syntax
If a test fails, you are shown the output of the text comparison that failed,
and prompted as to what to do next. The output is shown using the "less"
-command, or "more" if "less" is not available. By default, the output is from
-the "cf" program, and might look like this:
+command, or "more" if "less" is not available. The options for "less" are set
+to that it automatically exits if there is less that a screenful of output. By
+default, the output is from the "cf" program, and might look like this:
DBM/1300 DBM files and exim_dbmbuild
===============
the saved output to fail. Such errors can be ignored.
+OTHER ISSUES
+------------
+
+. Some of the tests are time-sensitive (e.g. when testing timeouts, as in test
+ 461). These may fail if run on a host that is also running a lot of other
+ processes.
+
+. Some versions of "ls" use a different format for times and dates. This can
+ cause test 345 to fail.
+
+. Test 0142 tests open file descriptors; on some hosts the output may vary.
+
+
OTHER SCRIPTS AND PROGRAMS
--------------------------
here:
CALLER is replaced by the login name of the user running the tests
+ CALLERGROUP is replaced by the caller's group id
CALLER_GID is replaced by the caller's group id
CALLER_UID is replaced by the caller's user id
DIR is replaced by the name of the test-suite directory
If the host has more than one IPv4 or IPv6 address, the first one that
"ifconfig" lists is used. If the only available address is 127.0.0.1 (or ::1
-for IPv6) it is used, but another value is prefered if available.
+for IPv6) it is used, but another value is preferred if available.
In situations where a specific test is not being run (for example, when setting
up dynamic data files), TESTNUM is replaced by an empty string, but should not
several lines by using \ as a continuation character. This does *not* apply to
data lines.
-Here follows a [currently incomplete] list of supported commands. They can be
-divided into two groups:
+Here follows a list of supported commands. They can be divided into two groups:
Commands with no input
These commands are not followed by any input data, or by a line of asterisks.
+
dbmbuild <file1> <file1>
This command runs the exim_dbmbuild utility to build a DBM file. It is used
"write" command (see below) that creates the input file.
+ dumpdb <dbname>
+
+This command runs the exim_dumpdb utility on the testing spool directory, using
+the database name given, for example: "dumpdb retry".
+
+
echo <text>
The text is written to the screen; this is used to output comments from
scripts.
+ exim_lock [options] <file name>
+
+This command runs the exim_lock utility with the given options and file name.
+The file remains locked with the following command (normally exim) is obeyed.
+
+
+ exinext <data>
+
+This command runs the exinext utility with the given argument data.
+
+
gnutls
This command is present at the start of all but one of the tests that use
GnuTLS. It copies a pre-existing parameter file into the spool directory, so
that Exim does not have to re-create the file each time. The first GnuTLS test
-does not do this, in order to test that Exim can create the file (it takes some
-time).
+does not do this, in order to test that Exim can create the file.
killdaemon
are still in existence at the end of the run (for messages that were not
delivered) are not compared with saved versions.
+
no_stderr_check
If this command is encountered anywhere in the script, the stderr output from
different order.
-A number of standard file management commands are recognized. These are chmod,
-chown, ln, ls, du, mkdir, mkfifo, and touch. Some are run as root using "sudo".
+A number of standard file management commands are also recognized. These are
+cat, chmod, chown, cp, du, ln, ls, du, mkdir, mkfifo, rm, rmdir, and touch.
+Some are run as root using "sudo".
Commands with input
catwrite <file name> [nxm[=start-of-line-text]]*
This command operates like the "write" command, which is described below,
-except that the out it generates is copied to the end of the test-stdout file
+except that the data it generates is copied to the end of the test-stdout file
as well as to the named file.