Re: SASL related files in gnus/

[Simon Josefsson <simon@josefsson.org>]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

>     I think we should add these files, SASL is a standard and this
>     implementation of it is good.
>
> The question is, do they belong in Gnus or outside Gnus?
>
> What is SASL?  What does it do?  What job do these files do?  Is it a
> job specifically related to news or mail?
>
> Could this feature work with Rmail or Mail mode?
> Could these files work with Rmail mode or Mail mode?

Manoj answered most of those questions, but let me add: SASL is mostly
used by mail (both SMTP and IMAP), but is supported by many other
protocols such as LDAP, ManageSieve and (I believe) even NNTP.  In
Emacs, as far as I remember, it is only used by imap.el (which is not
Gnus-specific), and sieve-manage.el (also not Gnus-specific).

smtpmail.el contains a simplistic SASL implementation, that only
supports CRAM-MD5, LOGIN and PLAIN.  Ideally, smtpmail.el should be
modified to use sasl.el, to avoid duplicating code, but it is not a high
priority.

I don't think SASL is related to what Rmail or Mail does, SASL is only
used by packages that speak network protocols and need authentication
services.

/Simon