README

Net-SSLeay - Perl bindings for OpenSSL and LibreSSL

By popular demand...
--------------------

   perl -MNet::SSLeay -e '($p)=Net::SSLeay::get_https("www.openssl.org", 443, "/"); print $p'


for the released versions:
   https://metacpan.org/release/Net-SSLeay

for the latest and possibly unstable version from git:
   https://github.com/radiator-software/p5-net-ssleay


Prerequisites
-------------

Perl 5.8.1 or higher.

One of the following libssl implementations:

* Any stable release of OpenSSL (https://www.openssl.org) in the
  0.9.8 - 3.2 branches, except for OpenSSL 0.9.8 - 0.9.8b.
* Any stable release of LibreSSL (https://www.libressl.org) in the
  2.0 - 3.8 series, except for LibreSSL 3.2.2 and 3.2.3.

Net-SSLeay may not compile or pass its tests against releases other
than the ones listed above due to libssl API incompatibilities, or, in
the case of LibreSSL, because of deviations from the libssl API.

If you are using a version of OpenSSL or LibreSSL distributed by your
operating system vendor, you may also need to install a "development"
package containing the header files that correspond to the OpenSSL or
LibreSSL library package. Examples include:

* libssl-dev for OpenSSL on Debian and Ubuntu;
* openssl-devel for OpenSSL on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora.

On Linux, zlib is also required, even when libssl is built without
support for TLS compression. zlib is probably also available via your
Linux distribution's package manager, e.g.:

* zlib1g-dev on Debian and Ubuntu;
* zlib-devel on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora.

A future version of Net-SSLeay will remove this requirement when
building against a libssl without support for TLS compression.

If there are build errors, test failures or run-time malfunctions, try
to use the same compiler and options to compile your OpenSSL, Perl,
and Net::SSLeay. Mixing compilers and options may lead to build
errors, test failures or run-time malfunctions, that are difficult to
debug. The situation in 2024 is that, for example, compiling Perl with
gcc and Net::SSLeay with clang works on Linux and macOS. With Windows
it may be easier to use the same compiler and compiler options.


Installing
----------

General:
	Makefile.PL tries to find OpenSSL installation location from a
	number of pre-defined paths. It will print the version and
	location of OpenSSL or LibreSSL it finds, or warn if it doesn't
	find anything usable.

	If your OpenSSL is installed in an unusual place, you can tell
	Makefile.PL from where to find it with by setting the
	OPENSSL_PREFIX environment variable.

	On Linux, macOS and other Unix type systems:
	OPENSSL_PREFIX=/home/mikem/playpen/openssl-1.0.2c perl Makefile.PL

	On Windows:
	set OPENSSL_PREFIX=C:\playpen\openssl-1.0.2.c
	perl Makefile.PL

	The logic in Makefile.PL tries to resolve the required
	libraries and include directories based on the environment
	variable OPENSSL_PREFIX.

Unix:
	Build or install OpenSSL as per instructions in that
	package. Review section 'General:' above before continuing.

	gunzip <Net-SSLeay.pm-1.35.tar.gz | tar xvf -
	cd Net-SSLeay.pm-1.35
	perl Makefile.PL     # Build it. Use OPENSSL_PREFIX, if needed.
	make test            # Run the test suite
	make install         # You probably have to su to root to do this

HPUX:
	In principle the Unix build should work (Makefile.PL contains
	special code to detect aCC), but historically there have been
	some problems. Marko Asplund (aspa@@kronodoc._fi) reports
	that he has successfully compiled on HP-UX. He used following
	incantations

	Configuring OpenSSL:

	./Configure no-asm --prefix=/openssl/path hpux-parisc2-cc

	Configuring Net::SSLeay:

	OPENSSL_PREFIX=/openssl/path perl Makefile.PL CCFLAGS='-D_HPUX_SOURCE \
	 -Aa -I/usr/local/include +e'

	The magic bit seemed to be the `+e' flag. Since version 1.14
	Makefile.PL tries to figure this out.

	He was using: gcc v2.95.2, OpenSSL v0.9.6c, Net::SSLeay-1.13

Windows:
	Supported on 32 and 64 bit platforms
	See README.Win32 for details

macOS, also known as OS X:
	See README.OSX
---------------------------------
You should also be able to use CPAN.pm to install this module if you like.

Problems (read this before filing a bug)
----------------------------------------

Please, do not send bug report before you have

  - compiled your OpenSSL yourself - don't copy binaries, please
  - compiled your perl yourself and with substantially same CFLAGS
    and same C compiler (say `which cc' or `which gcc') as your OpenSSL.
    This is especially applicable to link errors and shared
    library loading problems. Please do not even dream of
    copying a perl binary or installing perl binary from a package.
    Perl's idea of calling conventions has to match OpenSSL's and
    unfortunately both are quite advanced pieces of code
    (guru duel: Larry Wall vs. Eric Young :-) with dynamic loading
    and who knows what
  - compiled my module from source against correct perl (say `which perl'
    and check your path). Generally my module's build process will
    discover correct compiler and flags from `perl -V'
  - tried gcc, if your vendor cc fails

If you post a question or make a bug report, please remember to mention

  - Your platform and OS version (i386 Linux, Sparc Solaris, etc) (uname -a)
  - On Linux, please report glibc version as well (ls -l /lib/libc*)
  - Net::SSLeay version (see tar ball)
  - OpenSSL version (`/usr/local/ssl/bin/openssl version')
  - ANSI C compiler brand and version (e.g. gcc -v)

If build fails,
  - Dop you have OpenSSL headers installed? Perhaps you need the OpenSSL Devel
    package for your Linux distribution.
  - three compiler warnings are known to be emitted (due to lack of const
    in some places), one of them indicates a fatal bug in callback handling,
    but as I have not yet sorted it out, you'll simply have to ignore it
  - if you installed OpenSSL from some distribution, try getting a fresh
    copy from www.openssl.org and recompiling and installing it yourself
  - if using newer than supported OpenSSL, please downgrade to supported
    version to see if it makes difference
  - you must compile the module, perl, and openssl with the same C compiler
    and the same options. Use perl -V to check what options were used and
    recompile openssl and Net::SSLeay accordingly
  - never report bugs related to binary installs. First compile _yourself_
    perl, openssl and my module, always using the same compiler and
    compiler flags. Many distros are known to "know better" and thus
    cause problems for their users. I'm not very sympathetic to having
    to answer end user questions thus created.
  - send full output of `make clean; perl Makefile.PL -t'

If make test fails, please
  - one warning is known to be emitted between tests 4 and 5 (callback)
  - edit test.pl and set $trace=2
  - send full output of `make clean; perl Makefile.PL -t'
  - send contents of sslecho.log

If you have problems with a site, please
  - what site, what server software (including version and platform)
  - does it reproduce with s_client, try with something like

   echo 'GET /' | /usr/local/ssl/bin/openssl s_client -connect www.bacus.pt:443

  - does it reproduce with popular web browsers
  - play with Net::SSLeay::ssl_version (see top of SSLeay.pm)
  - does the site run exotic configuration, e.g. insisting on specific
    protocol version, limiting available ciphers, using nonstandard
    ciphers, weird authentication arrangements, etc.)
  - contact the owner of the server to see what the problem looks like
    in his end. He should be able to tell you the exact versions used
    and the error messages he is seeing in his log
  - if you ask me to check a site out, you are granting me permission
    to access that site and will pay all legal expenses to defend me
    in court as well as any remedies that may be granted to the site
    in case the site decides to sue me. You warrant that you are
    authorized to give me permission to access the site.
  - if you ask me to check a site, please send me a working URL and
    include any authentication credentials if needed. If your site
    is so confidential that you can not give me an URL, then do
    not ask me to debug your problems.

HP-UX is known to give some problems, please mail me or the mailing
list so we can get these problems straightened. Hint: it has to do
with dynamic loading. One user reports that adding `-lgcc' to EXTRALIBS
and LD_LOAD_LIBS in Makefile fixes the problem. I have not received any
confirmation whether this fix really works, but its worth a try. Another
bag of problems is people installing against binary distributed
perl and compiling the package with different cc or different options.
Genereally this will never work. Please compile _yourself_ your perl,
openssl, and the module, always with the same compiler and compiler flags.

Solaris 8 does not come standard with /dev/random or /dev/urandom, and the
'make test' assumes that some source of randomness is available. 'make test'
will fail on Solaris 8 if /dev/urandom is not available. The error message
seen with trace enabled will be "SSL_GET_NEW_SESSION:ssl session id callback
failed". In order to fix this, you must install Sun patch 112438-03 from
http://sunsolve.sun.com

#: unzip 112438-03.zip
#: patchadd ./112438-03
You will probably need to reboot your system:
#: reboot

I have a report (schinder@@pobox._com) of make test segfaulting on
Linux-PPC. This still needs to be investigated. No recent information
has been received.

"Random number generator not seeded!!!" This warning indicates that
    randomize() was not able to read /dev/random or /dev/urandom, possibly
    because your system does not have them or they are differently
    named. You can still use SSL, but the encryption will not be as
    strong.

Did you read the POD documentation (if you don't know what that
is, just say `perldoc Net::SSLeay' or `more SSLeay.pm')?

Are you sure you didn't confuse `Net::SSLeay' with `SSLeay' that
comes with OpenSSL?

Check that perl is finding your OpenSSL.

If `make test' bombs, add following line to the test script that fails:

	$Net::SSLeay::trace = 2;

and see what happens. You may also have to edit test.pl to make sure
the debugging output gets printed.

If `make test' prints lots of `connect: Connection refused...' errors,
then sslecho.pl test server has died. It is supposed to be launched in
the beginning of test.pl, but can fail if, e.g. port 1212 is taken or
in TIMEWAIT state. Look also in ssleacho.log file for diagnostics.

If you are really low on memory and the 1 MB tests fail, edit value of
$mb variable in test.pl.

If you get core dump, build your perl for debugging (add -g to
ccflags, see INSTALL in perl distribution), build your SSLeay for
debugging as well, add -g flag to Makefile.PL:

	make clean
	perl Makefile.PL -g
	make static
	make test_static
	gdb perl core       # post mortem
	  > bt              # show stack trace
	gdb perl            # run live with debugging
	  # set break point in SSLeay.xs or in suspect function of OpenSSL
	  > br XS_Net__SSLeay_connect
	  > run yourscript.pl arg arg

For gdb'ing make sure gdb finds all the relevant source code. This
may mean that you must run perl and OpenSSL from the directories where
the respective makefiles build them.

You can also enable PR and PRN macros in SSLeay.xs and sprinkle
even some more around the code to figure out what's happening.

Some exotic configurations of perl may cause unstability: make sure
OpenSSL uses the same malloc as perl. Recompile perl without
threads. Try not using the PerlIO abstraction.

If you need to tweak build for some platform, please let me know
so I can fix it. Patches and gdb session dumps are also welcome.

Copyright
---------

Copyright (c) 1996-2003 Sampo Kellomäki <sampo@iki.fi>
Copyright (c) 2005-2010 Florian Ragwitz <rafl@debian.org>
Copyright (c) 2005-2018 Mike McCauley <mikem@airspayce.com>
Copyright (c) 2018 Tuure Vartiainen <vartiait@radiatorsoftware.com>
Copyright (c) 2018- Chris Novakovic <chris@chrisn.me.uk>
Copyright (c) 2018- Heikki Vatiainen <hvn@radiatorsoftware.com>

All rights reserved.

License
-------

Net-SSLeay is released under the terms of the Artistic License 2.0. For
details, see the LICENSE file.

Recommended reading
-------------------

===> HTTP protocol specification. It applies 100% to HTTPS too and doing
password authentication is explained there. <===

If you are newbie interested in grabbing web pages from https servers,
please read HTTP documentation from http://www.w3c.org/ before asking trivial
questions. That document also covers the basic-auth FAQ (URLs like
http://user:pass@host). Do not ask questions about authentication before
consulting the HTTP specification. HTTPS is just HTTP in SSL transport.

If you are doing advanced stuff, and don't find documentation you need,
please try to extrapolate from OpenSSL documentation (which unfortunately
is quite sparse) and the source code.

If you run into build problems, especially regarding shared libraries,
check your perl documentation, especially the perlxtut(1) man page,
which gives excellent tutorial of the build process of XSUBs.

  perlxtut(1)
  perlxs(1)
  perlguts(1)
  perlcall(1)

Say `perldoc Net::SSLeay' _NOW_!

To download OpenSSL, see https://www.openssl.org/

Bug reports, patch submission, feature requests and git access to the
latest source code etc., can be obtained at
https://github.com/radiator-software/p5-net-ssleay