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List:       silc-users
Subject:    SILC Toolkit 0.9.5
From:       Pekka Riikonen <priikone () iki ! fi>
Date:       2002-11-08 8:35:04
Message-ID: Pine.NEB.4.44.0211080911410.24357-100000 () otaku ! Xtrmntr ! org
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The SILC Toolkit version 0.9.5 is now available!  The software is
available from the following sources:

        http://silcnet.org/
        ftp://ftp.silcnet.org/

This version is a bugfix and a feature update release to the previous
0.9.4.  Use this email as a reference of changes when you are starting to
use this Toolkit version with your software.

A week ago I decided to do a little example program that would show how
easy it is to program with SILC Toolkit.  While doing that I stumbled into
several issues that did not really make the programming too easy.  This
version fixes those issues, and slight changes has been made to the Client
Library API.

Here's the summary of changes:

o silc_client_alloc does not require version string anymore.  I didn't
  like that I had to provide a version string for the library, so now
  if you pass NULL as version string the library will figure out the
  version number on itself.

o Application does not need to (is not required) initialize the crypto
  library anymore.  It used to be so that application had to register all
  default ciphers and hmacs, etc before the application could work.  Now
  as long as you do not use any cryptographic routines before calling
  silc_client_init you don't have to init the crypto library.  The
  silc_client_init will do that.  After that call, you can freely use
  any cryptographic routines.  Naturally, if your application wishes to
  init the crypto library before that call, there's no problem with that.

o Command calling made simple.  The worst thing I noticed while doing the
  example program was how awful the command calling was.  You had to use
  4 to 5 different functions to make a simple command call.  Now, there
  is only one function, silc_client_command_call which can take the
  command and its arguments as either command line string, or as variable
  argument lists, and call the correct command automatically.

  Ref:
  http://silcnet.org/docs/toolkit/silcclient.html
  http://silcnet.org/docs/toolkit/silcclient-silc_client_command_call.html

o Key pair loading/creating made easy.  Last thing I found hard to do was
  to load the key pair and/or create key pair with simple functions.
  There was not one simple function that could do all that but now there
  is.  silc_load_key_pair can be used to load both public key and private
  key.  And, silc_create_key_pair can be used to create key pair.  Both
  returns the pointers to the public key, private key and the SilcPKCS
  object so they are ideal to use with Client Library, which requires
  all those objects from application before it even works.

  Ref:
  http://silcnet.org/docs/toolkit/silcapputil.html
  http://silcnet.org/docs/toolkit/silcapputil-silc_create_key_pair.html
  http://silcnet.org/docs/toolkit/silcapputil-silc_load_key_pair.html

o Support for encrypted private keys.  When key pair is created the
  private key file is now encrypted and encryption key is a passphrase.
  If it is not provided for the silc_create_key_pair and for
  silc_load_key_pair, when loading keys, the library will prompt for the
  the passphrase on command line.  It is also possible to change the
  passphrase with silc_change_private_key_passphrase function.

  Ref:
  http://silcnet.org/docs/toolkit/silcapputil.html
  http://silcnet.org/docs/toolkit/silcapputil-silc_change_private_key_passphrase.html

o silc_show_public_key was added to dump the contents of the SILC public
  key.  It's the familiar silc -S option, and now it is a utility function
  for application's usage.

  Ref:
  http://silcnet.org/docs/toolkit/silcapputil.html
  http://silcnet.org/docs/toolkit/silcapputil-silc_show_public_key.html

o Packet sending function silc_client_send_packet for application.  It is
  now possible to send SILC packets directly to server by the application,
  if needed.

  Ref:
  http://silcnet.org/docs/toolkit/silcclient.html
  http://silcnet.org/docs/toolkit/silcclient-silc_client_send_packet.html

o Shared libraries.  SILC Toolkit now compiles by default both shared
  libraries and static libraries.  Both libraries are also installed when
  make install is given.  If you do not want shared libraries give
  --disable-shared to ./configure.

o Plenty of updates to the SILC Toolkit Reference Manual.  It now
  documents SilcClient, SilcClientConnection, SilcClientEntry,
  SilcChannelEntry and SilcServerEntry structures that are used
  everywhere but where never documented.

  Ref:
  http://silcnet.org/docs/toolkit/silcclient.html
  http://silcnet.org/docs/toolkit/silcclient-SilcClient.html
  http://silcnet.org/docs/toolkit/silcclient-SilcClientConnection.html
  http://silcnet.org/docs/toolkit/silcclient-SilcClientEntry.html
  http://silcnet.org/docs/toolkit/silcclient-SilcChannelEntry.html
  http://silcnet.org/docs/toolkit/silcclient-SilcServerEntry.html

o Tutorial(s) added.  The example program I did ended up resulting into
  tutorial/ directory in the Toolkit.  When you give make install the
  tutorials are now also installed, and you can compile them later.
  Check out tutorial/mybot/mybot.c.

o Bugfixes all around the libraries.

Please refer to the ChangeLog on the website or the CHANGES file in the
package for complete list of changes.

	Pekka
________________________________________________________________________
 Pekka Riikonen                                 priikone at silcnet.org
 Secure Internet Live Conferencing (SILC)       http://silcnet.org/



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