mapbox / mapbox/mason

Revisit curl+boringssl

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#321 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Dominant language
Python
Stars
258
Forks
68
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

Ticket to track that I plan to revisit building latest curl against:

- static boringssl (https://boringssl.googlesource.com/boringssl/)
- all the normal CA certs bundled in

The goal would be to have a curl binary that could be:

- extremely solid on all platforms (ubuntu/debian, centos/rhel, osx)
- support https without depending on openssl
- be very very small and fast to install

If we could provide such a thing it could unblock:

- mason itself depending on this curl by default instead of assuming system curl (drops an apt/yum dep)
- building the mason cmake against a static curl (to allow `mason.cmake` to use built-in cmake HTTPS to download mason packages instead of assuming system curl - refs #74)

Cons are:

- We'd need to maintain security updates of this curl binary if boringssl reported any
- Security updates would need to trickle down to cmake package updates

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reviewing the BoringSSL build reference and issue #74, then compare the requested curl packaging goals across Ubuntu/Debian, CentOS/RHEL, and macOS. Done would mean a maintained, small curl binary with static BoringSSL and bundled CA certificates that can support Mason and mason.cmake without relying on system curl or OpenSSL.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cmake
Domain
build-system, devops
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
20/100

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