Re: SASL related files in gnus/

[Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@ieee.org>]

On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 00:10:37 -0500, Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> said: 

> What is SASL?  What does it do?  What job do these files do?  Is it a
> job specifically related to news or mail?

        SASL stands for Simple Authentication and Security Layer. It s a
 framework for authentication and data security in Internet
 protocols. It decouples authentication mechanisms from application
 protocols, in theory allowing any authentication mechanism supported by
 SASL to be used in any application protocol that uses SASL.

        The SASL specification is in RFC 4422 (which supercedes RFC
 2222). SASL is an IETF Standard Track protocol, presently a Proposed
 Standard. 

	GNU SASL is a free and portable SASL command line utility and
 library, distributed under the GNU GPLv3 and LGPLv2.1, respectively.
 http://josefsson.org/gsasl/

> Could this feature work with Rmail or Mail mode?  Could these files
> work with Rmail mode or Mail mode?

        I see no fundamental obstacles to use there either. SASL is used
 to communicate to the SMTP and IMAP servers to authenticate the user,
 so one should be able to graft it on to any news/mail user agent in
 emacs.

        manoj
-- 
No spitting on the Bus! Thank you, The Mgt.
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@acm.org> <http://www.golden-gryphon.com/>  
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