curl test suite file format
The curl test suite's file format is simple and extendable, closely
resembling XML. All data for a single test case resides in a single
ASCII file. Labels mark the beginning and the end of all sections, and
each label must be written in its own line. Comments are either
XML-style (enclosed with <!--
and -->
)
or shell script style (beginning with #
) and must appear on
their own lines and not alongside actual test data. Most test data files
are syntactically valid XML, although a few files are not (lack of
support for character entities and the preservation of CR/LF characters
at the end of lines are the biggest differences).
Each test case source exists as a file matching the format
tests/data/testNUM
, where NUM
is the unique
test number, and must begin with a testcase
tag, which
encompasses the remainder of the file.
Preprocessing
When a test is to be executed, the source file is first preprocessed
and variables are substituted by their respective contents and the
output version of the test file is stored as
%LOGDIR/testNUM
. That version is what is read and used by
the test servers.
Base64 Encoding
In the preprocess stage, a special instruction can be used to have runtests.pl base64 encode a certain section and insert in the generated output file. This is in particular good for test cases where the test tool is expected to pass in base64 encoded content that might use dynamic information that is unique for this particular test invocation, like the server port number.
To insert a base64 encoded string into the output, use this syntax:
%b64[ data to encode ]b64%
The data to encode can then use any of the existing variables mentioned below, or even percent-encoded individual bytes. As an example, insert the HTTP server's port number (in ASCII) followed by a space and the hexadecimal byte 9a:
%b64[%HTTPPORT %9a]b64%
Hexadecimal decoding
In the preprocess stage, a special instruction can be used to have runtests.pl generate a sequence of binary bytes.
To insert a sequence of bytes from a hex encoded string, use this syntax:
%hex[ %XX-encoded data to decode ]hex%
For example, to insert the binary octets 0, 1 and 255 into the test file:
%hex[ %00%01%FF ]hex%
Repeat content
In the preprocess stage, a special instruction can be used to have runtests.pl generate a repetitive sequence of bytes.
To insert a sequence of repeat bytes, use this syntax to make the
<string>
get repeated <number>
of
times. The number has to be 1 or larger and the string may contain
%HH
hexadecimal codes:
%repeat[<number> x <string>]%
For example, to insert the word hello 100 times:
%repeat[100 x hello]%
Include file
This instruction allows a test case to include another file. It is
helpful to remember that the ordinary variables are expanded before the
include happens so %LOGDIR
and the others can be used in
the include line.
The filename cannot contain %
as that letter is used to
end the name for the include instruction:
%include filename%
Conditional lines
Lines in the test file can be made to appear conditionally on a
specific feature (see the "features" section below) being set or not
set. If the specific feature is present, the following lines are output,
otherwise it outputs nothing, until a following else or
endif
clause. Like this:
%if brotli
Accept-Encoding
%endif
It can also check for the inverse condition, so if the feature is not set by the use of an exclamation mark:
%if !brotli
Accept-Encoding: not-brotli
%endif
You can also make an "else" clause to get output for the opposite condition, like:
%if brotli
Accept-Encoding: brotli
%else
Accept-Encoding: nothing
%endif
Nested conditions are supported.
Variables
When the test is preprocessed, a range of "variables" in the test file is replaced by their content at that time.
Available substitute variables include:
%CLIENT6IP
- IPv6 address of the client running curl (including brackets)%CLIENT6IP-NB
- IPv6 address of the client running curl (no brackets)%CLIENTIP
- IPv4 address of the client running curl%CURL
- Path to the curl executable%DATE
- current YYYY-MM-DD date%DEV_NULL
- Null device (e.g. /dev/null)%FILE_PWD
- Current directory, on Windows prefixed with a slash%FTP6PORT
- IPv6 port number of the FTP server%FTPPORT
- Port number of the FTP server%FTPSPORT
- Port number of the FTPS server%FTPTIME2
- Timeout in seconds that should be just sufficient to receive a response from the test FTP server%GOPHER6PORT
- IPv6 port number of the Gopher server%GOPHERPORT
- Port number of the Gopher server%GOPHERSPORT
- Port number of the Gophers server%HOST6IP
- IPv6 address of the host running this test%HOSTIP
- IPv4 address of the host running this test%HTTP2PORT
- Port number of the HTTP/2 server%HTTP6PORT
- IPv6 port number of the HTTP server%HTTPPORT
- Port number of the HTTP server%HTTPSPORT
- Port number of the HTTPS server%HTTPSPROXYPORT
- Port number of the HTTPS-proxy%HTTPTLS6PORT
- IPv6 port number of the HTTP TLS server%HTTPTLSPORT
- Port number of the HTTP TLS server%HTTPUNIXPATH
- Path to the Unix socket of the HTTP server%IMAP6PORT
- IPv6 port number of the IMAP server%IMAPPORT
- Port number of the IMAP server%LOGDIR
- Log directory relative to %PWD%MQTTPORT
- Port number of the MQTT server%NOLISTENPORT
- Port number where no service is listening%POP36PORT
- IPv6 port number of the POP3 server%POP3PORT
- Port number of the POP3 server%POSIX_PWD
- Current directory somewhat MinGW friendly%PROXYPORT
- Port number of the HTTP proxy%PWD
- Current directory%RTSP6PORT
- IPv6 port number of the RTSP server%RTSPPORT
- Port number of the RTSP server%SMBPORT
- Port number of the SMB server%SMBSPORT
- Port number of the SMBS server%SMTP6PORT
- IPv6 port number of the SMTP server%SMTPPORT
- Port number of the SMTP server%SOCKSPORT
- Port number of the SOCKS4/5 server%SOCKSUNIXPATH
- Path to the Unix socket of the SOCKS server%SRCDIR
- Full path to the source dir%SSH_PWD
- Current directory friendly for the SSH server%SSHPORT
- Port number of the SCP/SFTP server%SSHSRVMD5
- MD5 of SSH server's public key%SSHSRVSHA256
- SHA256 of SSH server's public key%TELNETPORT
- Port number of the telnet server%TESTNUMBER
- Number of the test case%TFTP6PORT
- IPv6 port number of the TFTP server%TFTPPORT
- Port number of the TFTP server%USER
- Login ID of the user running the test%VERNUM
- the version number of the tested curl (without -DEV)%VERSION
- the full version number of the tested curl
<testcase>
Each test is always specified entirely within the
testcase
tag. Each test case is split up in four main
sections: info
, reply
, client
and
verify
.
info provides information about the test case
reply is used for the server to know what to send as a reply for the requests curl sends
client defines how the client should behave
verify defines how to verify that the data stored after a command has been run ended up correct
Each main section has a number of available subsections that can be specified, that are checked/used if specified.
<info>
<keywords>
A newline-separated list of keywords describing what this test case
uses and tests. Try to use already used keywords. These keywords are
used for statistical/informational purposes and for choosing or skipping
classes of tests. Keywords must begin with an alphabetic character,
-
, [
or {
and may actually
consist of multiple words separated by spaces which are treated together
as a single identifier. Most keywords are only there to provide a way
for users to skip certain classes of tests, if desired, but a few are
treated specially by the test harness or build system.
When using curl built with Hyper, the keywords must include
HTTP
or HTTPS
for 'hyper mode' to kick in and
make line ending checks work for tests.
When running a unit test and the keywords include
unittest
, the <tool>
section can be left
empty to use the standard unit test tool name unitN
where
N
is the test number.
The text-ci
make target automatically skips test with
the flaky
keyword.
Tests that have strict timing dependencies have the
timing-dependent
keyword. These are intended to eventually
be treated specially on CI builds which are often run on overloaded
machines with unpredictable timing.
<reply>
<data [nocheck="yes"] [sendzero="yes"] [base64="yes"] [hex="yes"] [nonewline="yes"] [crlf="yes"]>
data to be sent to the client on its request and later verified that
it arrived safely. Set nocheck="yes"
to prevent the test
script from verifying the arrival of this data.
If the data contains swsclose
anywhere within the start
and end tag, and this is an HTTP test, then the connection is closed by
the server after this response is sent. If not, the connection is kept
persistent.
If the data contains swsbounce
anywhere within the start
and end tag, the HTTP server detects if this is a second request using
the same test and part number and then increases the part number with
one. This is useful for auth tests and similar.
sendzero=yes
means that the (FTP) server "sends" the
data even if the size is zero bytes. Used to verify curl's behavior on
zero bytes transfers.
base64=yes
means that the data provided in the test-file
is a chunk of data encoded with base64. It is the only way a test case
can contain binary data. (This attribute can in fact be used on any
section, but it does not make much sense for other sections than
"data").
hex=yes
means that the data is a sequence of hex pairs.
It gets decoded and used as "raw" data.
nonewline=yes
means that the last byte (the trailing
newline character) should be cut off from the data before sending or
comparing it.
crlf=yes
forces header newlines to become CRLF
even if not written so in the source file. Note that this makes
runtests.pl parse and "guess" what is a header and what is not in order
to apply the CRLF line endings appropriately.
For FTP file listings, the <data>
section is be
used only if you make sure that there has been a CWD done first
to a directory named test-[NUM]
where NUM
is
the test case number. Otherwise the ftp server cannot know from which
test file to load the list content.
<dataNUM [crlf="yes"]>
Send back this contents instead of the <data>
one.
The NUM
is set by:
- The test number in the request line is >10000 and this is the remainder of [test case number]%10000.
- The request was HTTP and included digest details, which adds 1000 to
NUM
- If an HTTP request is NTLM type-1, it adds 1001 to
NUM
- If an HTTP request is NTLM type-3, it adds 1002 to
NUM
- If an HTTP request is Basic and
NUM
is already >=1000, it adds 1 toNUM
- If an HTTP request is Negotiate,
NUM
gets incremented by one for each request with Negotiate authorization header on the same test case.
Dynamically changing NUM
in this way allows the test
harness to be used to test authentication negotiation where several
different requests must be sent to complete a transfer. The response to
each request is found in its own data section. Validating the entire
negotiation sequence can be done by specifying a datacheck
section.
<connect>
The connect section is used instead of the 'data' for all CONNECT requests. The remainder of the rules for the data section then apply but with a connect prefix.
<socks>
Address type and address details as logged by the SOCKS proxy.
<datacheck [mode="text"] [nonewline="yes"] [crlf="yes"]>
if the data is sent but this is what should be checked afterwards. If
nonewline=yes
is set, runtests cuts off the trailing
newline from the data before comparing with the one actually received by
the client.
Use the mode="text"
attribute if the output is in text
mode on platforms that have a text/binary difference.
<datacheckNUM [nonewline="yes"] [mode="text"] [crlf="yes"]>
The contents of numbered datacheck
sections are appended
to the non-numbered one.
<size>
number to return on an ftp SIZE command (set to -1 to make this command fail)
<mdtm>
what to send back if the client sends a (FTP) MDTM
command, set to -1 to have it return that the file does not exist
<postcmd>
special purpose server-command to control its behavior after the reply is sent For HTTP/HTTPS, these are supported:
wait [secs]
- Pause for the given time
<servercmd>
Special-commands for the server.
The first line of this file is always set to
Testnum [number]
by the test script, to allow servers to
read that to know what test the client is about to issue.
For FTP/SMTP/POP/IMAP
REPLY [command] [return value] [response string]
- Changes how the server responds to the [command]. [response string] is evaluated as a perl string, so it can contain embedded \r\n, for example. There is a special [command] named "welcome" (without quotes) which is the string sent immediately on connect as a welcome.REPLYLF
(like above but sends the response terminated with LF-only and not CRLF)COUNT [command] [num]
- Do theREPLY
change for[command]
only[num]
times and then go back to the built-in approachDELAY [command] [secs]
- Delay responding to this command for the given timeRETRWEIRDO
- Enable the "weirdo" RETR case when multiple response lines appear at once when a file is transferredRETRNOSIZE
- Make sure the RETR response does not contain the size of the fileRETRSIZE [size]
- Force RETR response to contain the specified sizeNOSAVE
- Do not actually save what is receivedSLOWDOWN
- Send FTP responses with 0.01 sec delay between each byteSLOWDOWNDATA
- Send FTP responses with 0.01 sec delay between each data bytePASVBADIP
- makes PASV send back an illegal IP in its 227 responseCAPA [capabilities]
- Enables support for and specifies a list of space separated capabilities to return to the client for the IMAPCAPABILITY
, POP3CAPA
and SMTPEHLO
commandsAUTH [mechanisms]
- Enables support for SASL authentication and specifies a list of space separated mechanisms for IMAP, POP3 and SMTPSTOR [msg]
respond with this instead of default afterSTOR
For HTTP/HTTPS
auth_required
if this is set and a POST/PUT is made without auth, the server does NOT wait for the full request body to get sentdelay: [msecs]
- delay this amount after connectionidle
- do nothing after receiving the request, just "sit idle"stream
- continuously send data to the client, never-endingwritedelay: [msecs]
delay this amount between reply packetsskip: [num]
- instructs the server to ignore reading this many bytes from a PUT or POST requestrtp: part [num] channel [num] size [num]
- stream a fake RTP packet for the given part on a chosen channel with the given payload sizeconnection-monitor
- When used, this logs[DISCONNECT]
to theserver.input
log when the connection is disconnected.upgrade
- when an HTTP upgrade header is found, the server upgrades to http2swsclose
- instruct server to close connection after responseno-expect
- do not read the request body if Expect: is present
For TFTP
writedelay: [secs]
delay this amount between reply
packets (each packet being 512 bytes payload)
<client>
<server>
What server(s) this test case requires/uses. Available servers:
dict
file
ftp
ftp-ipv6
ftps
gopher
gopher-ipv6
gophers
http
http/2
http-ipv6
http-proxy
https
https-proxy
httptls+srp
httptls+srp-ipv6
http-unix
imap
mqtt
none
pop3
rtsp
rtsp-ipv6
scp
sftp
smb
smtp
socks4
socks5
socks5unix
telnet
tftp
Give only one per line. This subsection is mandatory (use
none
if no servers are required). Servers that require a
special server certificate can have the PEM certificate filename (found
in the certs
directory) appended to the server name
separated by a space.
<features>
A list of features that MUST be present in the client/library for this test to be able to run. If a required feature is not present then the test is SKIPPED.
Alternatively a feature can be prefixed with an exclamation mark to indicate a feature is NOT required. If the feature is present then the test is SKIPPED.
Features testable here are:
alt-svc
AppleIDN
bearssl
brotli
c-ares
CharConv
codeset-utf8
. If the running codeset is UTF-8 capable.cookies
crypto
Debug
DoH
getrlimit
GnuTLS
GSS-API
h2c
headers-api
HSTS
HTTP-auth
http/2
http/3
HTTPS-proxy
hyper
IDN
IPv6
Kerberos
Largefile
large-time
(time_t is larger than 32-bit)ld_preload
libssh2
libssh
oldlibssh
(versions before 0.9.4)libz
local-http
. The HTTP server runs on 127.0.0.1manual
mbedtls
Mime
netrc
nghttpx
nghttpx-h3
NTLM
NTLM_WB
OpenSSL
parsedate
proxy
PSL
rustls
Schannel
sectransp
shuffle-dns
socks
SPNEGO
SSL
SSLpinning
SSPI
threaded-resolver
TLS-SRP
TrackMemory
typecheck
threadsafe
Unicode
unittest
UnixSockets
verbose-strings
wakeup
win32
WinIDN
wolfssh
wolfssl
xattr
zstd
as well as each protocol that curl supports. A protocol only needs to
be specified if it is different from the server (useful when the server
is none
).
<killserver>
Using the same syntax as in <server>
but when
mentioned here these servers are explicitly KILLED when this test case
is completed. Only use this if there is no other alternatives. Using
this of course requires subsequent tests to restart servers.
<precheck>
A command line that if set gets run by the test script before the test. If an output is displayed by the command or if the return code is non-zero, the test is skipped and the (single-line) output is displayed as reason for not running the test.
<tool>
Name of tool to invoke instead of "curl". This tool must be built and
exist either in the libtest/
directory (if the tool name
starts with lib
) or in the unit/
directory (if
the tool name starts with unit
).
<name>
Brief test case description, shown when the test runs.
<setenv>
variable1=contents1
variable2=contents2
variable3
Set the given environment variables to the specified value before the actual command is run. They are restored back to their former values again after the command has been run.
If the variable name has no assignment, no =
, then that
variable is just deleted.
<command [option="no-q/no-output/no-include/force-output/binary-trace"] [timeout="secs"][delay="secs"][type="perl/shell"]>
Command line to run.
Note that the URL that gets passed to the server actually controls
what data that is returned. The last slash in the URL must be followed
by a number. That number (N) is used by the test-server to load test
case N and return the data that is defined within the
<reply><data></data></reply>
section.
If there is no test number found above, the HTTP test server uses the number following the last dot in the given hostname (made so that a CONNECT can still pass on test number) so that "foo.bar.123" gets treated as test case 123. Alternatively, if an IPv6 address is provided to CONNECT, the last hexadecimal group in the address is used as the test number. For example the address "[1234::ff]" would be treated as test case 255.
Set type="perl"
to write the test case as a perl script.
It implies that there is no memory debugging and valgrind gets shut off
for this test.
Set type="shell"
to write the test case as a shell
script. It implies that there is no memory debugging and valgrind gets
shut off for this test.
Set option="no-output"
to prevent the test script to
slap on the --output
argument that directs the output to a
file. The --output
is also not added if the verify/stdout
section is used.
Set option="force-output"
to make use of
--output
even when the test is otherwise written to verify
stdout.
Set option="no-include"
to prevent the test script to
slap on the --include
argument.
Set option="no-q"
avoid using -q
as the
first argument in the curl command line.
Set option="binary-trace"
to use --trace
instead of --trace-ascii
for tracing. Suitable for
binary-oriented protocols such as MQTT.
Set timeout="secs"
to override default server logs
advisor read lock timeout. This timeout is used by the test harness,
once that the command has completed execution, to wait for the test
server to write out server side log files and remove the lock that
advised not to read them. The "secs" parameter is the not negative
integer number of seconds for the timeout. This timeout
attribute is documented for completeness sake, but is deep test harness
stuff and only needed for singular and specific test cases. Avoid using
it.
Set delay="secs"
to introduce a time delay once that the
command has completed execution and before the
<postcheck>
section runs. The "secs" parameter is the
not negative integer number of seconds for the delay. This 'delay'
attribute is intended for specific test cases, and normally not
needed.
<filename="%LOGDIR/filename" [nonewline="yes"]>
This creates the named file with this content before the test case is run, which is useful if the test case needs a file to act on.
If nonewline="yes"
is used, the created file gets the
final newline stripped off.
<file1>
1 to 4 can be appended to 'file' to create more files.
<file2>
<file3>
<file4>
<stdin [nonewline="yes"]>
Pass this given data on stdin to the tool.
If nonewline
is set, we cut off the trailing newline of
this given data before comparing with the one actually received by the
client
<verify>
<errorcode>
numerical error code curl is supposed to return. Specify a list of accepted error codes by separating multiple numbers with comma. See test 237 for an example.
<strip>
One regex per line that is removed from the protocol dumps before the comparison is made. This is useful to remove dependencies on dynamically changing protocol data such as port numbers or user-agent strings.
<strippart>
One perl op per line that operates on the protocol dump. This is
pretty advanced. Example: s/^EPRT .*/EPRT stripped/
.
<postcheck>
A command line that if set gets run by the test script after the test. If the command exists with a non-zero status code, the test is considered failed.
<notexists>
A list of directory entries that are checked for after the test has completed and that must not exist. A listed entry existing causes the test to fail.
<protocol [nonewline="yes"][crlf="yes"]>
the protocol dump curl should transmit, if nonewline
is
set, we cut off the trailing newline of this given data before comparing
with the one actually sent by the client The <strip>
and <strippart>
rules are applied before comparisons
are made.
crlf=yes
forces the newlines to become CRLF even if not
written so in the test.
<proxy [nonewline="yes"][crlf="yes"]>
The protocol dump curl should transmit to an HTTP proxy (when the
http-proxy server is used), if nonewline
is set, we cut off
the trailing newline of this given data before comparing with the one
actually sent by the client The <strip>
and
<strippart>
rules are applied before comparisons are
made.
<stderr [mode="text"] [nonewline="yes"] [crlf="yes"]>
This verifies that this data was passed to stderr.
Use the mode="text" attribute if the output is in text mode on platforms that have a text/binary difference.
crlf=yes
forces the newlines to become CRLF even if not
written so in the test.
If nonewline
is set, we cut off the trailing newline of
this given data before comparing with the one actually received by the
client
<stdout [mode="text"] [nonewline="yes"] [crlf="yes"] [loadfile="filename"]>
This verifies that this data was passed to stdout.
Use the mode="text" attribute if the output is in text mode on platforms that have a text/binary difference.
If nonewline
is set, we cut off the trailing newline of
this given data before comparing with the one actually received by the
client
crlf=yes
forces the newlines to become CRLF even if not
written so in the test.
loadfile="filename"
makes loading the data from an
external file.
<filename="%LOGDIR/filename" [mode="text"]>
The file's contents must be identical to this after the test is complete. Use the mode="text" attribute if the output is in text mode on platforms that have a text/binary difference.
<file1>
1 to 4 can be appended to 'file' to compare more files.
<file2>
<file3>
<file4>
<stripfile>
One perl op per line that operates on the output file or stdout before being compared with what is stored in the test file. This is pretty advanced. Example: "s/^EPRT .*/EPRT stripped/"
<stripfile1>
1 to 4 can be appended to stripfile
to strip the
corresponding <fileN>
content
<stripfile2>
<stripfile3>
<stripfile4>
<upload [crlf="yes"] [nonewline="yes"]>
the contents of the upload data curl should have sent
crlf=yes
forces upload newlines to become CRLF
even if not written so in the source file.
nonewline=yes
means that the last byte (the trailing
newline character) should be cut off from the upload data before
comparing it.
<valgrind>
disable - disables the valgrind log check for this test