NAME

       rabid - program to test POP server throughput.

SYNOPSIS

       rabid    [-r   max-connections-per-minute]   [-p   processes]   [-l   local-address]   [-c
       messages-per-connection] [-a] [-s ssl-percentage] [-i imap-percentage] [-b qmail-pop]  [-d
       download-percentage[:delete-percentage]]     [-[z|Z]     debug-file]    [-u]    pop-server
       user-list-filename

DESCRIPTION

       This manual page documents briefly the rabid, program.

       It is designed to test the performance of POP email servers by reading all  messages  from
       randomly  selected  accounts  as  fast  as  possible.   A future version will support rate
       limiting to provide a constant load (for testing SMTP servers).

       The pop-server parameter specifies the IP address or name of the mail server that the mail
       is to downloaded from.  If you want to specify a port other than port 110 then enclose the
       host address in square brackets and have the port address immidiately following.   If  you
       want  a  DNS  lookup  for  every connection (for testing round-robin DNS) then immediately
       preceed the host address with a '+' character.

       The user-list-filename is the name of a  file  which  contains  a  list  of  user's  email
       addresses  and  passwords.  It will have one address per line and the password follows the
       address with a space to seperate.

       The processes parameter is the number of processes that should be forked  off  to  attempt
       seperate  connections.   A well configured mail server won't accept an unlimited number of
       connections so make sure you don't specify a number  larger  than  the  number  your  mail
       server  is  configured  to handle.  Also for sensible results make sure that you don't use
       enough to make your server thrash as the results won't  be  representative  of  real-world
       use.

       The  max-connections-per-minute  parameter  is for limiting the number of connections that
       the program makes.  This is designed to be used when you want to test the  performance  of
       other  programs  when  the  system  is  under  load.  The default is 24000 connections per
       minute.

       The messages-per-connection parameter specifies the maximum number of messages to download
       in a single POP session.  The default is -1 (unlimited).

       The  local-address  parameter  specifies  which  local IP address(es) are used to make the
       outbound connections.  Specified in the same way as the remote address.  This is good  for
       testing LocalDirectors or other devices that perform differently depending on which source
       IP address was used.

       The -a command turns on all logging.  All message data received will be logged.  This will
       make it slow and it may not be able to saturate a fast Ethernet link...

       The -s switch specifies the percentage of connections which are to use TLS AKA SSL.  Use 0
       for no SSL, or 100 for always SSL, or any number in between.  Default is 0.

       The -i switch specifies the percentage of IMAP connections (default is POP).

       The -b switch allows you to specify breakage strings.  Currently the only  option  is  for
       Qmail  POP server which adds an extra blank line at the end of each message.  -b qmail-pop
       means to not report this as an error.

       -d download-percentage[:delete-percentage] allows you to specify what  percentage  of  the
       messages  are  downloaded  and  what  percentage  of  the downloaded messages are deleted.
       Default is 100%.

       The -u switch causes the domain of user-names to be ignored.  This allows you  to  have  a
       single file with user-names and passwords which can be used by postal and rabid when using
       a server which doesn't accept a domain.  By default postal will ignore the password field,
       rabid  may  or  may  not need the domain depending on the configuration of the POP server.
       The default is to use the domain (which is  required  if  the  same  user  is  present  in
       multiple  domains),  this  switch causes the domain part to be stripped from the user-name
       field.

       The -z switch allows you to specify a debugging file base.  From this  base  one  file  is
       created  for each thread (with a ':' and the thread number appended), each file is used to
       log all IO performed by that thread for debugging purposes.

       The -Z switch is the same but creates a separate file for each connection as well with  an
       attitional ':' appended followed by the connection number.

BUGS

       Doesn't actually do SSL or IMAP yet.

RETURN CODES

       0      No Error

       1      Bad Parameters

       2      System Error, lack of memory or some other resource

AUTHOR

       This  program,  it's  manual  page,  and  the Debian package were written by Russell Coker
       <russell@coker.com.au>.

AVAILABILITY

       The source is available from http://doc.coker.com.au/projects/postal/ .

       See http://etbe.coker.com.au/category/benchmark for further information.

SEE ALSO

       postal(8),bhm(8)