Q: Balsa & Large File Support [was: new version of gpgme (0.4.5) breaks signature checking]

[Albrecht Dreß <albrecht dress arcor de>]

The problems with gpgme 0.4.5 have been caused by adding Large File  
Support there, which (on some Linux systems at least) changes off_t from a  
32 bit to a 64 bit value. This breaks the api of some functions, and  
according to the gpgme gurus, it's not safe at all to simply write  
workarounds, i.e. to avoid these functions.

It *is* possible to compile gpgme 0.4.5 without LFS, but the default is to  
enable it. This means that upgrading a new deb/rpm from gpgme 0.4.4 to  
0.4.5 will silently break *all* applications which were compiled without  
LFS. Furthermore, it will break all apps which do not use LSF by default  
even after recompiling. I guess the packagers will not be happy to hear  
that changing a package patchlevel may result in that...

The point now is how we should proceed with balsa:

* add large file support to balsa (i.e. add AC_SYS_LARGEFILE to configure. 
in), and force using gpgme 0.4.5 or later, which is hopefully built with  
large file support. The question is if this breaks something elsewhere in  
Gnome/Gtk/balsa interaction. Grepping through the Gnome 2.4 headers shows  
off_t in audiofile.h and quite often in gmime (yes, I have to investigate  
it for my upcoming gmime/gmpme patch...), and I didn't check the sources.  
Anyone out there with experiences? Again thinking about the packagers, I  
think rebuilding all of Gnome with LFS just to get balsa working with  
gpgme 0.4.5 is no option.

* let the packagers force building gpgme without LFS. I'm almost sure this  
will break things at other places, so those people will not be happy. Not  
a real option, therefore...

* freeze gpgme support in balsa at 0.4.4 and rest in peace. The problem is  
that gpgme is still somewhat buggy, so we should keep the possibility to  
upgrade. In particular, s/mime (gpgsm) support is widely broken even in  
0.4.5, e.g. only the cvs versions allows gpgsm operations when balsa has  
been launched from the gome menu/panel.

So, all options seem to be problematic, and I would be interested in your  
opinion.

Cheers,

	Albrecht.

P.S.: Jean-Luc, can you please forward this clarification to the deb bug  
trackers? I guess there will be more rough edges than just balsa... THX!


-- 
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 Albrecht Dreß  -  Johanna-Kirchner-Straße 13  -  D-53123 Bonn (Germany)
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