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Re: Pre-RFC: support https out-of-the-box

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From:
Oodler 577 via perl5-porters
Date:
November 23, 2021 18:30
Subject:
Re: Pre-RFC: support https out-of-the-box
Message ID:
YZ0yxeru6fN90wrD@odin.sdf-eu.org
* Neil Bowers <neilb@neilb.org> [2021-11-23 17:55:28 +0000]:

> When you install Perl, although it comes with HTTP::Tiny, it doesn't support https because HTTP::Tiny requires IO::Socket::SSL (which isn?t bundled with Perl). This means that CPAN.pm and other tools can't make https mandatory, as when bootstrapping a new box you'll typically install perl then run cpan to first install Net::SSLeay and IO::Socket::SSL.
> 
> I think we should make Perl support https "out of the box", so that CPAN.pm could make https mandatory, and other modules could then support https while relying only on core modules.
> 
> One approach is to bundle Net::SSLeay and IO::Socket::SSL, but I don't know if that's the best / right solution?
> 
> One problem with bundling these modules is that we are then committed to ensuring that they work on all supported platforms / configurations. Is it ok to support https out-of-the-box on some supported platforms but not all of them? I think so.

That last point is the rub. I've on several occasions run into issues with
Net::SSLeay not building on upgrade Ubuntu because of a lag in supporting
some breaking ABI change in libssl. In addition to that, there might be some
issues with OSes that distribute perl even including the necessary development
libraries/headers out of the box. Otherwise, I think this is a nice idea -
just might require a large coordinated effort - particularly from "downstream" 
packages, ports, and base OS maintainers. I'm none of those, but I do feel your
pain..

Brett

> 
> Neil

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