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Testing Guide

Manual testing guide for awful-nntp development.

Prerequisites

Set up credentials

cd ~/dev/awful-nntp
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your SA username/password

Quick Start

Start the Server

cd ~/dev/awful-nntp
mix run --no-halt

You should see:

[info] NNTP server listening on port 1199

Testing with Telnet

Basic Connection Test

In a separate terminal:

telnet localhost 1199

Expected response:

Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
200 awful-nntp ready (posting ok)

Test CAPABILITIES Command

CAPABILITIES

Expected response:

101 Capability list
VERSION 2
READER
LIST ACTIVE
AUTHINFO USER
.

Test LIST Command

First, authenticate:

AUTHINFO USER your_sa_username

Expected response:

381 Password required

AUTHINFO PASS your_sa_password

Expected response:

281 Authentication accepted

Now list forums:

LIST

Expected response:

215 Newsgroups follow
sa.general-bullshit 0 0 y
sa.games 0 0 y
sa.sports-argument 0 0 y
(... more forums ...)
.

Note: This fetches real SA forum data! It requires valid SA credentials.

Test GROUP Command

GROUP sa.general-bullshit

Expected response:

211 0 0 0 sa.general-bullshit

Invalid newsgroup:

GROUP invalid

Expected response:

411 No such newsgroup

Test AUTHINFO Commands

AUTHINFO USER your_sa_username

Expected response:

381 Password required

AUTHINFO PASS your_sa_password

Expected response (with valid credentials):

281 Authentication accepted

Expected response (with invalid credentials):

481 Authentication failed

Test QUIT Command

QUIT

Expected response:

205 Closing connection
Connection closed by foreign host.

Testing with NNTP Clients

Install tin (Recommended)

sudo pacman -S tin

Connect with tin

tin -r localhost:1199

What to expect:

  • Connection banner
  • Empty newsgroup list (no SA forums yet)
  • Can test navigation and interface

Install slrn (Alternative)

sudo pacman -S slrn

Configure slrn

mkdir -p ~/.slrn
echo "server localhost 1199" > ~/.slrnrc

Connect with slrn

slrn

Expected Current Behavior

What Works:

  • ✅ Server accepts connections
  • ✅ Sends welcome banner
  • ✅ Parses NNTP commands
  • ✅ CAPABILITIES returns server capabilities
  • ✅ AUTHINFO validates against real SA credentials
  • ✅ LIST returns real SA forums (requires authentication)
  • ✅ GROUP validates newsgroup names (stub data for now)
  • ✅ QUIT closes connection cleanly

What's In Progress:

  • ⏳ GROUP fetching thread lists (validates names but returns stub data)
  • ⏳ ARTICLE retrieving posts (returns 430 - not implemented)

What Doesn't Work Yet:

  • ❌ No thread listing in GROUP (returns 0 articles)
  • ❌ No article retrieval (ARTICLE returns 430)
  • ❌ No posting support (POST not implemented)
  • ❌ No caching (every LIST hits SA)

Automated Testing

Run the test suite:

mix test

Expected output:

........................
Finished in 0.1 seconds
1 doctest, 23 tests, 0 failures

All 24 tests passing ✅

Run specific test file:

mix test test/awful_nntp/nntp/protocol_test.exs
mix test test/awful_nntp/sa/parser_test.exs

Fetching Sample Data

Fetch real SA HTML for testing/development:

cd ~/dev/awful-nntp
./scripts/fetch_sa_samples.exs

This creates:

  • samples/forums.html - Main forum list
  • samples/forum_26.html - Example forum (GBS)
  • samples/thread.html - Example thread with posts

Note: Sample files are gitignored and not committed.

Development Workflow

  1. Start server:

    mix run --no-halt

  2. In another terminal, test with telnet:

    telnet localhost 1199

  3. Make code changes

  4. Stop server (Ctrl+C twice)

  5. Restart and retest

Troubleshooting

Port Already in Use

# Check what's using port 1199
ss -tlnp | grep 1199

# Kill the process
kill <PID>

Server Won't Start

Check compilation errors:

mix compile

Connection Refused

Ensure server is running:

ps aux | grep "mix run"

Check port is listening:

ss -tln | grep 1199

Next Development Steps

After testing the current implementation, the next features to add are:

  1. GROUP Command - Fetch thread lists from SA forums
  2. ARTICLE Command - Fetch and format individual posts
  3. Caching Layer - Cache forums/threads/posts to reduce SA load
  4. Posting Support - Create threads and replies
  5. Error Handling - Better handling of SA errors and edge cases