Re: gnutls for win32

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:10:57 +0100 Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos <address@hidden> 
wrote: 

NM> On 01/30/2012 02:12 PM, Ted Zlatanov wrote:
>> On Sun, 1 Jan 2012 13:10:22 +0200 Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos <address@hidden> 
>> wrote: 
>> 
NM> The build script is on the repository (cross.mk). I'll see what's the
NM> optimal release method of windows binaries.
>> 
>> I'd like to set up a BuildBot to produce the GnuTLS W32 binaries, which
>> you can host yourself or I can host.
>> Either way, it would produce official binaries for W32, since setting up
>> a build environment is very hard on that platform for most users.  Then
>> you can publish these binaries and other projects (notably Emacs) can
>> point to them.

NM>  I'd prefer if you host it and we can refer to it from the download
NM> page. I'd like to avoid hosting because although I can make the
NM> binaries, I have no easy way of testing them.

Hi Nikos,

(background since it's been a while: I am an Emacs developer and
implemented the initial GnuTLS integration with lots of help.  See
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/emacs-gnutls.html for
details.)

I discussed our W32 situation (after a long time away) with the Emacs
developers.  Eli Zaretskii advised me to keep the build process manual
on W32; he currently has stable GnuTLS 3.x W32 binaries and will
continue to produce them (and I will try to do it if there's a critical
need and he can't do it).  They currently live at
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ezwinports/files/ (3.0.9 is the latest).

I see that you now have ftp://ftp.gnutls.org/gcrypt/gnutls/w32/ with
automated builds. Is that going to be sustained long-term?  Should we
consider linking to your page and save the effort of producing our own
GnuTLS binaries?

I'm also planning to allow Emacs to update its own GnuTLS libraries on
W32 and Mac OS X by using an ELPA package.  This does not involve GnuTLS
developers' time, but I wanted to mention it in case you have any
opinions or comments, especially on any potential security issues with
doing it from inside Emacs itself.

Thanks!
Ted