Re: lynx-dev https: EXTERNAL/proxy?

[Jason F. McBrayer]

>>>>> "PW" == Philip Webb <address@hidden> writes:

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

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

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

How does AUTO_EXTERNAL work on Bobcat?  I can see always wanting to
have externals used for mailto, https, and bogus urltypes like mymail,
and maybe even for ftp, but what about http?  Having wget as an
external for http (for downloads) is really useful, but it wouldn't be
really useful if AUTO_EXTERNAL ran wget every time Lynx wanted to
follow a hypertext link.

Also, what kind of external would you use for https?  Lynx currently
doesn't do anything with the data retrieved by an external.  But the
main use for https is retrieving and submitting secure forms.  It
seems to me that any useful external for https would have to include
the majority of the functionality of Lynx, unless the way Lynx handles
externals is radically changed.

IMHO the use of an ssl proxy is the only reasonable way of doing ssl
from Lynx (barring of course compiling your own Lynx with the SSLeay
libraries).

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

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

Essentially, yes.  Lynx sends requests to the proxy, which fetches the
requested data and sends it back to Lynx.  Port numbers are assigned
in software, by the proxy configuration files.  For example, I have
two http proxies running on my machine, chained together.  Squid at
3128 does caching, and Junkbuster at 8000 does removal of
advertisements and cookies.  Incidentally they have identical
configuration under OS/2 and Linux :)

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

PW> obviously, US laws don't apply in Canada nor is there ever reason
PW> to suppose Canada's laws imitate the US.

I believe Canada has agreements with the US with regard to
cryptographic software originating in the US.  SSLeay originates in
Australia, IIRC.  I don't know about the eassl proxy code (which
incorporates the SSLeay libraries).

-- 
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Jason F. McBrayer              address@hidden |
| The scalloped tatters of the King in Yellow must hide Yhtill   |   
| forever.                    R.W. Chambers _The King in Yellow_ |