Configuration testing with WtrTest

The program WtrTest can be used to simply test your WaterGate setup. You can use it to simulate a netmail or e-mail and then simulate the processing and whether everything works as expected.

WtrTest contains most of the code WtrGate uses, but doesn't touch the message bases, inbound, outbound, spool directories and the like. Instead, it sets up a netmail or e-mail as it would be after arriving at your system and then processes it. The log file shows exactly what happens to the message. Notice that WtrTest is a rather technical and powerful program, but you can't damage anything. You just learn and debug your configs.

After starting WtrTest you select from a short menu to either simulate a netmail or simulate an e-mail.

Simulating a netmail

For the netmail you can fill in the following fields:
From User
You type in the user name as it would show on the From line of a netmail message.

From AKA
This is the node number of the system on which the message was created.

To User
The name of the user who is to receive the message. If you want to test the gateway, then you can type an e-mail address here, or else address it to the user "UUCP" (providing you havn't changed the gateway user).

To AKA
The node number of the system where the message must be processed. You usually set this to one of your own node numbers.

To: line
If you send a netmail to a gateway (like WaterGate), then you can put the e-mail address of the recipient on the first line of the message, preceeded by "To: ". You can simulate this by typing the e-mail address here. This is an optional field.
You then press F10 and WtrTest will process the message. If you have enabled debug logging in WtrConf then you will see each step the message takes until it finally is ready to leave your system again. At that point WtrTest tells you where it would go and what the important parameters were.

Simulating an e-mail

For the e-mail you want to simulate you can fill in the following fields:
.X file: rmail
Fill in the e-mail address of the recipient of this message as it would show when a .X file is received with UUCP. You could type in your own e-mail address. This is the most important information for WtrGate when it receives a message. Notice that you can test the full e-mail address lookup function by typing in a user name without the @ and domain address.

.D file: To:
Type the contents of the To: header as you would find it in the .D file you received using UUCP. This information is used by WaterGate when it gates the message to FidoNet format. The full name is extracted from this line (if present). An example of this line would could be "ramon@wsd.wline.se (Ramon van der Winkel)". This e-mail address normally matches the one you typed in in the previous line.

.D file: From:
This is the e-mail address and full name (same format as the previous line) of the one sending this e-mail. This can be any address and the information is used when bouncing a message or gating it to FidoNet format.
After filling in all the fields you press F10 to start the simulation.

Routing tables

There is one more menu option in WtrTest called "Routing tables". If you select this option then WtrTest will show you a list with the three important tables that control the mapping of addresses and routing of e-mails to the correct domains.

The first table it shows is directly related to the MAP-FIDO statements. The second contains the MAP-UUCP statements and the third the ROUTE-UUCP statements.

The reason for showing these tables is because WtrGate automatically adds some of these statements with information it extracts from the user records. A lot of people don't know this and they add unnecessary MAP-UUCP statements.

Also, if you run into trouble with a certain address, then you can track these tables and see what WaterGate exactly uses for the decision making.


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Comments or questions? Send an e-mail to editor@wsd.wline.se.

Last updated 13 October 1996