Tool Command Language (TCL) Transport Layer Security (TLS) Extension
Intro
=====
This package provides an extension which implements Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
and Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption over Transmission Control
Protocol (TCP) network communication channels utilizing the OpenSSL library.
Description
===========
This extension works by creating a layered TCL Channel on top of an existing
bi-directional channel created by the TLS socket command. All existing socket
functionality is supported in addition to several new options. Both client and
server modes are supported.
Documentation
=============
See the doc directory for the full usage documentation.
Compatibility
=============
TCL
---
This package requires TCL 8.5 or later. It will also work with TCL 9, but it is
not binary compatible between major TCL versions. This means if this extension
is built with TCL 8.x it will not load into TCL 9 or vice versa. It is best
to compile both separately then install them with the compatible TCL versions.
OpenSSL
-------
This package is compatible with OpenSSL v1.1.1 or later, though 3.2 or later is
preferred. See http://www.openssl.org/. Please note that there are a few API
incompatibilities between OpenSSL 1.1.1 and 3.x, so if this extension is built
against OpenSSL 1.1.1 it is not binary compatible with OpenSSL 3.x or vice
versa.
TCLTLS
------
There were several changes made in the callback command arguments between
versions 1.7 and 2.0. See doc/tls.html for what changed and library/tls.tcl
for example handler functions that are backwards compatible.
Installation
============
This package uses the TCL Extension Architecture (TEA) to build and install on
any supported Unix, Mac, or MS Windows system. It depends on the OpenSSL
libraries being available prior to building the TCLTLS extension.
UNIX and Linux
--------------
The standard TEA config, make, and install process is supported.
$ cd tcltls
$ ./configure --enable-64bit
$ make
$ make test
$ make install
The supported configure options include all of the standard TEA configure
script options, plus:
--disable-tls1 disable TLS1 protocol
--disable-tls1_1 disable TLS1.1 protocol
--disable-tls1_2 disable TLS1.2 protocol
--disable-tls1_3 disable TLS1.3 protocol
--enable-debug enable debugging mode and output more status
--enable-ssl-fastpath enable using the underlying file descriptor for talking directly to the SSL library
--enable-hardening enable hardening attempts
--enable-static-ssl enable static linking to the SSL library
If either TCL or OpenSSL are installed in non-standard locations, the following
configure options are available. For all options, see ./configure --help.
--with-tcl=<dir> path to where tclCondig.sh file resides
--with-tclinclude=<dir> directory containing the public Tcl header files
--with-openssl-dir=<dir> path to root directory of OpenSSL installation
--with-openssl-includedir=<dir> path to include directory of OpenSSL installation
--with-openssl-libdir=<dir> path to lib directory of OpenSSL installation
--with-openssl-pkgconfig=<dir> path to root directory of OpenSSL pkg-config directory
MacOS
-----
The standard TEA installation process is supported. Use the --with-tcl option
to set the TCL path if the ActiveState or other non-Apple version of TCL is to
be used.
$ cd tcltls
$ ./configure --with-tcl=/Library/Frameworks/Tcl.framework/
$ make
$ make test
$ make install
Windows
-------
If installing with MinGW, use the TEA build process. If using MS Visual C
(MSVC), see win/README.txt for the build and installation instructions.
Certificate Validation
----------------------
If OpenSSL is not installed on the system, the Certificate Authority (CA)
provided certificates must be downloaded and installed with the software.
These are used for certificate validation. The CURL team makes them available
at https://curl.se/docs/caextract.html. Look for the cacert.pem file.
Copyrights
==========
Original TLS Copyright (C) 1997-2000 Matt Newman <matt@novadigm.com>
TLS 1.4.1 Copyright (C) 2000 Ajuba Solutions
TLS 1.6 Copyright (C) 2008 ActiveState Software Inc.
TLS 1.7 Copyright (C) 2016 Matt Newman, Ajuba Solutions, ActiveState
Software Inc, Roy Keene <tcltls@rkeene.org>
TLS 1.8-2.0 Copyright (C) 2023-2024 Brian O'Hagan
Acknowledgments
===============
Non-exclusive credits for TLS are:
Original work: Matt Newman @ Novadigm
Updates: Jeff Hobbs @ ActiveState
Tcl Channel mechanism: Andreas Kupries
Impetus/Related work: tclSSL (Colin McCormack, Shared Technology)
SSLtcl (Peter Antman)
License
=======
This code is licensed under the same terms as the Tcl Core.
Documentation