GnuTLS (libgrypt really) and Postfix

[Werner Koch]

On Mon, 13 Feb 2006 11:29:00 +0100, Simon Josefsson said:

> That /dev/random doesn't exist seem like a quite possible state to me.

Running Linux this is not possible because /dev/random is guarenteed
to be available.

> Further, a library is not in a good position to report errors.  A
> users will sit there wondering why Postfix, or some other complex

I don't know where Postfix dumps the error messages from Libcrypt:

  fd = open( name, O_RDONLY );
  if( fd == -1 )
    log_fatal ("can't open %s: %s\n", name, strerror(errno) );

I guess you need to blame postfix for this.

> recommendation to avoid GnuTLS because libgcrypt calls exit suggest
> that the Postfix developers didn't care to investigate how to use
> GnuTLS and libgcrypt properly.  So I don't think there is any real

So may I conclude that it is actually Good Thing that in this case
libgcrypt refrained from continuing to preserve the caller from false
security.

> I'd say that the most flexible approach for a library is to write
> thread-safe code that doesn't need access to mutexes to work properly.

Yes.  We discussed this already at length at more appropriate places.

> That seem like a poor argument to me.  It may be valid for embedded
> devices, but for most desktop PCs, Linux should provide a useful
> /dev/urandom.

I can only tell what Ted told me years ago.


Shalom-Salam,

   Werner


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