lynx-dev https: EXTERNAL/proxy?

[Philip Webb]

980811 Doug Kaufman & Jacob Poon discussed https, proxy & EXTERNAL:

DK> The EXTERNAL mechanism is still awkward,
DK> You still need to use "." rather than Right Arrow.
DK> Bobcat has the possibility of AUTO_EXTERNAL,
DK> but this has not been ported by Wayne to the mainstream Lynx.
DK> The proxy mechanism works smoothly for using an external program.
DK> Unfortunately, DOS doesn't support daemons.

so the current status of the discussion seems to be
that both proxy & EXTERNAL present problems for some people,
with AUTO_EXTERNAL ported to regular Lynx being a solution:
anyone care to try implementing that?

DK> On SunOs I run lynx with the eassl daemon,
DK> which gives https access without having any SSL code in Lynx itself.
DK> eassl is set to use port 5010 in eassl.conf.
DK> My proxy environment setting is:  https_proxy=http://127.0.0.1:5010/
DK> For security, you wouldn't want a https proxy on another machine.

i've never used a proxy & am not sure exactly how they work:
there are frequent references on lynx-dev, but mechanics remain obscure;
if this is to become the preferred method of handling https URLs,
there will need to be a proper explanation somewhere in Users Guide.

is a proxy simply a program to which incoming WWW material is directed
& which then processes it & forwards it to (eg) Lynx?
is the specified port an item of hardware or a software feature?
why is the number  5010  used above (rather than some other number)?

DK> The <eassl> code is available in the US & Netherlands -- snip --
DK> I am not sure of the <legal> situation in Canada.

obviously, US laws don't apply in Canada
nor is there ever reason to suppose Canada's laws imitate the US.
generally, Canadian law-enforcement is much more pragmatic
than the gruesomely self-righteous attitudes
US residents can find themselves facing, from the President downwards;
particularly, Canada has no laws restricting export of encryption PER SE:
it does restrict ALL exports to Libya, Iraq & N Korea
& it has a separate regulation -- NOT a statute --
restricting Canadians from re-exporting US goods in violation of US law,
which regulation's legal, let alone constitutional, validity is untested.
there is nothing in Canada corresponding to the enormous establishment
of law-enforcement & security agencies in the USA,
so you would have to do something which really threatened Canada or allies
before Canada's undermanned police agencies took an interest in you.
as always, try to obey the law in Canada & consult a lawyer if necessary.

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