openssl vs. libressl

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Nov 10, 2015, at 4:12 AM, René J.V. Bertin wrote:

> On Tuesday November 10 2015 02:17:06 Ryan Schmidt wrote:
> 
>>> This is the same solution we've used elsewhere in MacPorts (eg: ffmpeg-devel).
>> 
>> That's not the same situation. If a user had been using glib2 and then later needed to switch to glib2-devel for some reason, everything should still
> 
> Indeed. Still, the mod Jeremy introduced is the best/only way I know to allow choice that doesn't involve introducing an SSL PortGroup that provides +openssl and +libressl variants.
> 
>> I don't know how carefully the ffmpeg developers version their software.
> 
> Neither do I, but they do seem to care little (less) about maintaining backwards ABI compatibility like Qt does ... ;)
> 
>>> You'd need to revupgrade rebuild after switching.
>> 
>> That's not especially desired.
> 
> No, but if the ABIs are indeed not compatible there is no other solution, is there?

What has currently be done with libressl in MacPorts is a bug, not a solution.

The alternative is variants, but it's not a good solution because of the extra effort it imposes on port maintainers and users.

It might be better to take the choice away from the user and just make a decision that we want libressl to be our default ssl library in MacPorts. Change the libressl and openssl ports so that they do not conflict, but rather install in different locations. Then ports that are currently using openssl can be switched to use libressl instead, if they are compatible, while those that are not compatible can continue to use openssl.