Looking for a test mail generator (unthreaded)

[Glenn Steen]

2008/9/9 Jay R. Ashworth <jra at baylink.com>:
> On Tue, Sep 09, 2008 at 10:39:56AM -0400, Stephen Swaney wrote:
>> Simply setup another mail hub with test accounts.  A simple sendmail server
>> delivering to local users would work just fine.
>>
>> The use Roundhouse to duplicate the feed. The feed goes first to your real
>> mail hub for delivery as normal.
>>
>> Send the duplicate feed to the test server which should be configured to 1)
>> send test messages to the test mail hub and 2) dev-null the rest.
>>
>> Seems this would be simple to set up and meet your requirements.
>
> But it doesn't, and please allow me to recap why, Juan Moore-Thyme :-)
>
> My problem is that I want a repeatable, predictable test, where *I do not
> have to spend hours figuring out what the EXPECTED results are*.  If I
> use the real mail feed, that's what I'll have to do -- or at least, I'll
> have to analyse whether the two mail servers are reacting the same *way*
> to that mail feed, and if not, whether the new reaction is better or
> worse.
>
> If I can generate 50 messages that are, roughly, all the same every time
> (modulo a "batch number" in the message-ID maybe) *and that I know what
> the expected results are*, then all I have to do is look in the expected
> target places, and check messages off a check list.
>
> "All the messages from 00-09 should be in my mailbox.
> All the message from 10-19 should be in the postmaster mailbox.
> All the messages from 20-29 should be in the spam logs.
> All the messages from 30-39 should be in the AV logs.
> All the message from 40-49 should be in the mailer logs as having tried
> to generate *valid* no-backscatter bounces."
>
> And that way I don't have to analyse because I did that before I
> generated the 50 message bodies.
>
> IMO, this approach is critical to finding out what you actually need to
> know, without tearing your hair out.  I'm just not a good enough coder to
> do it from scratch.
>
> I see I may have to add "yet" to that.  :-)
>
> How are the python email libraries these days?
>
> Cheers,
> -- jra
Handcraft the messags (or some simple scripting) and use a very basic
shell-script around telnet....  Should be simple enough, and save you
time, in the end. You will need handcraft them to be able to have the
"finetuned" control you like anyway....;-)

Cheers
-- 
-- Glenn
email: glenn < dot > steen < at > gmail < dot > com
work: glenn < dot > steen < at > ap1 < dot > se