include php-imap in FC2 (bug #115535)

[Mike A. Harris]

On Mon, 16 Feb 2004, Joe Orton wrote:

>> I'm advocating that php-imap, which was removed from Rawhide in php-4.3.4-4,
>> should be reintroduced before the release of FC2. I noticed it was missing
>> while preparing to evaluate FogBUGZ (shameless plug, google will tell you more)
>> and migrating a IMP installation from FreeBSD to Fedora.
>> 
>> Since it looks like it got disabled because the "imap" package providing the
>> c-client API vanished it would be rather easy to recreate a c-client package
>> for the libraries/header files only and ignore the rest. PHP would then be
>> rebuilt with the corresponding new buildrequire statement.
>
>Right: the issue is really about whether or not to include the
>c-client library in FC2: the feeling internally seems to be that
>getting rid of c-client was a good thing.  Hopefully others can
>follow up on that.

Someone has privately asked me to comment on this mail thread so 
I'll do so, but be brief and to the point.

I haven't maintained the UW imap package for over a year in the 
distribution, and have no personal interest in the software, nor 
of maintaining it.  The code is insecure, and is in my own 
personal opinion poorly written, with many bad assumptions.  It 
is a burden to whoever gets stuck maintaining it or the c-client 
portion of it, as it is a recipe for disaster just waiting to 
happen.

I won't give any more specific details than that other than to
have people examine the source code for themselves, as I'm not
interested in debating the merits or lack thereof of UW's
MTA/MDA/MUA products.  BUGTRAQ archives, and CVE advisories 
should provide some useful details though.  ;o)

I'm not interested personally in the development of UW
pine/imap/c-client software, however I am a pine user, and still
make unofficial pine rpms.

Since we no longer ship imap or pine, and have no plans on
re-including either of them, and since php-imap seems to require
c-client in order to function (at least that is my understanding 
currently anyway), there seem to be 2 solutions:

1) Review the license that the UW c-client library is licensed 
   under to ensure it is OSS friendly under the Fedora Project
   licensing guidelines.  If so, include just the c-client 
   library directly in the php-imap package, and have it self 
   contained there, patched with whatever security fixes are 
   needed, similarly to current UW imap releases.

or

2) Drop php-imap from the distribution

or

3) Drop php-imap and replace it with a similar piece of software 
   which does not use c-client.


These are just off the top of my head suggestions I'm offering
because I was asked directly however.  I personally have no
developmental interest in MTA/MDA/MUA software packages,
including imap/pine/c-client, and so my opinion is just advisory.  

;o)

Hope this helps.


-- 
Mike A. Harris     ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris
OS Systems Engineer - XFree86 maintainer - Red Hat