On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 16:31, Jerrale Gayle jerralegayle@sheltoncomputers.com wrote:
The openssl client will connect you in plain text to your imap server where you can manually do login (AUTH LOGIN) and browse through your imap folders just like you use your SSH shell. This is a sufficient enough test. Refer here, after doing what Mike Abbott told you to do with openssl s_client: http://www.macgeekery.com/tips/troubleshooting/troubleshooting_imap
The test I want to do requires deleting the existing mail after fetching it ... so that subsequent runs won't see that mail, again. There will be timestamp coded info in that email, too (though it would fit on the subject). So it seems something like fetchmail could work. But I do need to do this test in a variety of different ways specified by a script, so the ability to specify those things on the command line or environment is preferred over doing it by means of a config file. Specifying them by means of running an interactive program is out. These things include what server to connect to (by hostname or IP address), what certificate hostname to expect (may be different than the connect host, since these tests may be running through tunnels), what port to connect to, whether to operate in clear vs. use STARTTLS vs. use SSL wrapper, what password authentication scheme to use, the password itself, and the local directory for the mail transfer (where to get mail to send/submit, or where to deposit mail fetched ... maildir format preferred for that).
This is about operational testing, not implementation or deployment testing. It will be run on a regular basis and the scripts will log the results in various places, including notifying operators and/or administrators depending on the issues discovered. Among the tests will include tests that are expected to fail (for example connecting to port 465, or logging in without enabling TLS) and will raise an issue if they succeed. Every test unit will have a unique user@domain. Some tests will even be specifically testing domains (every domain, though not every hostname, will have a test unit). I expect a few hundred test units to be deployed for the mail system (some offsite ... that's to be tested, too).