Re: Use of 'inetlib' by Classpath mail providers

[Nic Ferrier]

Stephen Crawley <address@hidden> writes:

> Chris Burdess <address@hidden>:
>> The underlying library used by the GNU providers is called inetlib. It  
>> provides a much lower-level API to IMAP and other network protocols. If  
>> you want performance, and you can live without a MIME framework, it may  
>> be of interest to you.
>
> This worries me a bit.
>
> While I can see that using a native library here reduces the amount of
> work to get the protocols supported there are clear disadvantages:
>
>   1)  If a Java application's use of the javax.mail.* etc APIs tickled
>       a bug in the provider layer, there is a good chance that the VM
>       will crash or behave unpredictably.
>
>   2)  By using a "well-known" native library in the network stack, you 
>       are potentially laying VMs open to security exploits by buffer
>       overruns, etc.
>
>   3)  It increases the Java platform's dependencies on external libraries.
>       This may be problematic.  For example, suppose someone wanted to
>       port (say) SableVM to an OS platform that did not support inetlib.
>       [I'd guess that Windows was an example ...]
>
> IMO, it would be a GOOD THING if you could reimplement the mail protocol
> stack(s) in Java.

He said "lower level" not "native".


Nic