General (non-server-specific) HTTP server test suite?

Question

I'm looking for a test suite to test an HTTP server for standards compliance. The test suite should therefor not be server-specific, like Apache's HTTP server test suite.

Any pointer would be greatly appreciated.

Regards, Jochen

Gaptoothed

Answer 1

SPECWEB99 sounds like it tests HTTP server compliance; unfortunately, it isn't free. Here's a snippet from their FAQ:

SPECweb99 provides the source code for an HTTP 1.0/1.1 load generator that will make random selections from a predetermined distribution. The benchmark defines a particular set of files to be used as the static files that will be obtained by GETs from the server, thus defining a particular benchmark workload.

The benchmark does not provide any of the web server software. That is left up to the tester. Any web server software that supports HTTP 1.0 and/or HTTP 1.1 can be used. However, it should be noted that variations in implementations may lead to differences in observed performance.

This big list of over 400 web testing tools might be of assistance to you as well. I wasn't able to find anything on there specifically for server compliance testing, but maybe you'll have better luck with a different ctrl-F on the page. On the other hand, if you need a stress-tester, you'll find a ton of them there.

Gen

SPECweb99 is a performance test suite, and according to their web site has been retired. Thanks for the pointer to the web testing tool links, I'll have a look there. – Gaptoothed

Answer 2

Co-Advisor is an HTTP compliance + test suite. Co-Advisor is not free, unless your implementation passes all Co-Advisor tests the very first time (no one did so far).

You'll find a little more background on Co-Advisor in this paper: HTTP Compliance and W3C QA.

Cleavland

Thanks for the pointer. Unfortunatly, according to the manufacturer, CoAdvisor needs the tested server to act as an HTTP proxy "for now". Hopefully they're working on that... – Gaptoothed