Re: Update on gmime in balsa + some TLS comments

[Brian Stafford <brian stafford uklinux net>]

On 2003.09.03 17:03, Carlos Morgado wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 03 Sep 2003 16:22:11, Pawel Salek wrote:
>>
> 
>>> . I guess you stole libesmtp siobufs cause they give you ssl and  
>>> network goodness but I don't enjoy having 2 copies of it linked  
>>> into balsa. this needs some thinking :)
>> 
>> This is probably not worth to optimize at this stage.
>>
> 
> glib has some IO stuff (gmime uses it iirc). I'd say this would be a  
> correcter thing to use but I won't compromise to this statment till I  
> have an harder look at it :)


maybe, maybe not - though since I wrote siobufs I'm biased.  The reason  
libESMTP didn't use glib was primarily portability and few dependencies  
and of slightly lesser importance small footprint.  Anyway I'm quite  
flattered that the code has been "stolen".

I've already used the siobufs code elsewhere and have been able to do  
so quite easily, which suggests the API is about right for generic use.   
Shortly I will need to write a pop3 client (libPOP3?) for another  
project so it seems like it might be an idea to split libESMTP into  
two.  This shouldn't affect programs using just the libESMTP api but  
will be an issue for those adventurous enough to use the lower layers.   
As always any and all comments are welcome.


On SSL/TLS.  After this issue having lain dormant for some time it has  
suddenly become a hot topic again.  I suggest reading the substantive  
comments in smtp-tls.c in the libESMTP source.  These give some idea of  
why I did things the way I did and of uncertainties regarding use of  
OpenSSL.  The current implementation seems to be about right for those  
who have been able to use it and as there has been no comment for some  
time I left things as they were.  Seems like now is the time to revisit  
this.  Critique of the existing code would be most appreciated,  
especially from anyone who knows the OpenSSL API.

Cheers
Brian