Re: [PATCH] gnu: lynx: Support HTTPS (SSL) connections

[Tobias Geerinckx-Rice]

Leo,

On 04/03/2016, Leo Famulari <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 04, 2016 at 03:37:46AM +0100, address@hidden
> wrote:
>> From: Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <address@hidden>
>>
>> * gnu/packages/lynx.scm (lynx)[inputs]: Add 'openssl'.
>> [arguments]: Convert to list; add configure flag for SSL support.

Scratch that.

I assumed that since ‘--with-gnutls’ was already present (and detected
by ./configure, and listed by ldd...), GnuTLS just wasn't enough to
provide the full HTTPS experience and OpenSSL was required. I was
wrong.

> Also, what is role of gnutls once this patch is applied? Does lynx need
> to refer to both gnutls and openssl?

The actual solution is a bit silly. All that is actually needed to get
`lynx https://google.com’ working again is:

---
diff --git a/gnu/packages/lynx.scm b/gnu/packages/lynx.scm
index 3182b3e..080fbb3 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/lynx.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/lynx.scm
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@
                            "--with-screen=ncurses"
                            "--with-zlib"
                            "--with-bzlib"
-                           "--with-gnutls"
+                           "--with-gnutls="
                            ;; "--with-socks5"    ; XXX TODO
                            "--enable-widec"
                            "--enable-ascii-ctypes"
---

Yep.

Is this unusual? Can't say I feel much enthusiasm to read/debug
autoconf macros...

> Can you say if you learned anything else... "interesting" about lynx and
> https support?
>
> For example, a couple months ago I was reading our bug reports and saw
> an old one about https support in w3m (another console browser). I dug a
> little deeper and realized that https support was completely broken by
> default. You can see the result in commit 62339e2d493bf87.
>
> So, do you know if lynx is still supporting broken ciphers and
> protocols, or if there are other problems of that nature?

My main motivation was to have access to HTTPS sites while working on
my X-less GuixSD box, which works with the patch above. However:

    ~$ lynx https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/viewMyClient.html
    Looking up www.ssllabs.com
    Making HTTPS connection to www.ssllabs.com
    Retrying connection without TLS.
    Looking up www.ssllabs.com
    Making HTTPS connection to www.ssllabs.com
    Alert!: Unable to make secure connection to remote host.

Not sure I want to dive into this mess.

Kind regards,

T G-R