From: Simon Josefsson Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 13:58:35 +0000 (+0000) Subject: * smtpmail.texi (Authentication): Explain TLS and SSL better, based on X-Git-Tag: emacs-pretest-22.0.90~617 X-Git-Url: http://git.eshelyaron.com/gitweb/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=19a39660c7509e2b2b9dae7c069380b3aba93184;p=emacs.git * smtpmail.texi (Authentication): Explain TLS and SSL better, based on suggested by Phillip Lord . --- diff --git a/man/ChangeLog b/man/ChangeLog index 84ad529f60e..122a63ee80c 100644 --- a/man/ChangeLog +++ b/man/ChangeLog @@ -1,3 +1,8 @@ +2006-09-11 Simon Josefsson + + * smtpmail.texi (Authentication): Explain TLS and SSL better, based on + suggested by Phillip Lord . + 2006-09-08 Richard Stallman * search.texi (Search): Ref multi-file search commands here. diff --git a/man/smtpmail.texi b/man/smtpmail.texi index b32185e5305..9e0a4232969 100644 --- a/man/smtpmail.texi +++ b/man/smtpmail.texi @@ -214,6 +214,7 @@ The following example illustrates what you could put in Many environments require SMTP clients to authenticate themselves before they are allowed to route mail via a server. The two following variables contains the authentication information needed for this. + The first variable, @code{smtpmail-auth-credentials}, instructs the SMTP library to use a SASL authentication step, currently only the CRAM-MD5 and LOGIN mechanisms are supported and will be selected in @@ -222,10 +223,17 @@ that order if the server support both. The second variable, @code{smtpmail-starttls-credentials}, instructs the SMTP library to connect to the server using STARTTLS. This means the protocol exchange may be integrity protected and confidential by -using TLS, also known as SSL, and optionally also authentication of -the client. This feature uses the elisp package @file{starttls.el} -(see it for more information on customization), which in turn require -that at least one of the following external tools are installed: +using the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, and optionally also +authentication of the client and server. + +TLS is a security protocol that is also known as SSL, although +strictly speaking, SSL is an older variant of TLS. TLS is backwards +compatible with SSL. In most mundane situations, the two terms are +equivalent. + +The TLS feature uses the elisp package @file{starttls.el} (see it for +more information on customization), which in turn require that at +least one of the following external tools are installed: @enumerate @item