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Date:      Thu, 01 Aug 2002 13:24:25 -0700
From:      Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>
To:        "Jacques A. Vidrine" <nectar@FreeBSD.ORG>
Cc:        Mikhail Teterin <mi+mx@aldan.algebra.com>, Alexandr Kovalenko <never@nevermind.kiev.ua>, arch@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: OpenSSL vs. -lmd
Message-ID:  <3D4998F9.A736EA85@mindspring.com>
References:  <200207311641.g6VGfRWj099655@freefall.freebsd.org> <20020801143059.GA536@nevermind.kiev.ua> <200208011151.55478.mi%2Bmx@aldan.algebra.com> <3D498FB4.6987B696@mindspring.com> <20020801195640.GQ26797@madman.nectar.cc>

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"Jacques A. Vidrine" wrote:
> > and is so mixed up
> > in various code that it's hard to keep up with changes for
> > security updates.
> 
> Updating it required only some very minor build-infrastructure changes
> outside of src/crypto/openssl.  I'm not sure what you mean here.

It is hard to update to the latest version of the code on a
FreeBSD 4.6-RELEASE box.


> > whereas the
> > other things that come with the package can change rather
> > frequently, since they speak to policy.
> 
> I don't understand.

Code which implements policy.


> > Consider that it is very hard to use an updated OpenSSL (e.g.
> > 0.9.7-Beta or 0.9.6e) with FreeBSD these days.
> 
> Hmm, all versions of FreeBSD have OpenSSL 0.9.6e.

Even those released before 0.9.6e was available?


> I haven't looked
> at 0.9.7 personally, but I can't imagine what would prevent one from
> using it on FreeBSD.

The same thing that prevents people from using the newer
BIND resolver libraries: the code is maintained seperately
from the FreeBSD project by an outside third party.


> > Also consider that it's hard to build a project whose code is
> > independent of FreeBSD itself, with all these interfaces in
> > the base OS by default.
> 
> If I grasp what you mean:  Only for lazy programmers who don't
> understand the interfaces that they are using. :-)

No.  I mean that I can't build something that will build on
FreeBSD *and* build on some other platform, without having
to inventory all of the implicitly installed packages on FreeBSD
to know which OpenSSL I'm getting.


> > My recommendation is to keep the "md" library.  It satisfies
> > the "mechanism, not policy" philosophy in a way that OpenSSL
> > does not.
> 
> I'm not sure how providing duplicate implementations of the digest
> functions is useful or desirable.  I'm in no hurry to ditch libmd, but
> I do hope to get around to it someday.

Duplicate functions aren't desirable, but someone imported the
OpenSSL implementations anyway.  8-).

-- Terry

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