Re: [h-e-w] installing GnuTLS

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:42:31 +0000
> From: Daniel Brooks <address@hidden>
> 
> A recent message on this list gave me the hint about looking in 
> README.W32, so off I go to download the installer. I downloaded the 
> installer from the url given in the readme and installed it. Now 
> (gnutls-available-p) returns t, so I figure I'm good. Unfortunately, 
> attempting to open my IMAP server gives me an error saying "Unknown 
> service: 993", which is actually pretty laughable.
> 
> Anyway, some googling tells me that the version I just installed is 
> ancient, so I found http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/download.html and 
> that led me to some more recent windows builds, but no installer.
> 
> First, a suggestion: change the link in the readme to 
> http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls so that as volunteer builders come 
> and go the links don't go stale.

Which README in what version of Emacs did you have in mind?  The
latest development sources already point to a different location:

  * Optional GnuTLS support

    If configure.bat finds the gnutls/gnutls.h file in the include path,
    Emacs is built with GnuTLS support by default; to avoid that you can
    pass the argument --without-gnutls.

    In order to support GnuTLS at runtime, a GnuTLS-enabled Emacs must
    be able to find the relevant DLLs during startup; failure to do so
    is not an error, but GnuTLS won't be available to the running
    session.

    You can get pre-built binaries (including any required DLL and the
    header files) at http://sourceforge.net/projects/ezwinports/files/.

If you aren't using the latest version 24.x of Emacs, then why do you
think your Emacs supports GnuTLS?  That support was a very recent
addition.

> So now all I need to know is how to install GnuTLS 3.0.11 from the 
> zipfile. Emacs apparently isn't finding it just from where it's sitting. 
> I tried copying the dlls into the bin directory on the off chance that 
> it would work, but no dice. Does anyone know what to change in the 
> registry? Should I just regserver them and let them work it out? Also, 
> why are they .dll.a files? What is the meaning of life? I suppose if it 
> comes down to it, I can trace the older installer and see what it does 
> to the registry.

There shouldn't be any need to do anything in the Registry, just have
the DLLs where Emacs can find them, e.g. on PATH or in the same
directory where emacs.exe lives.

I don't know about the zip file you downloaded, but the URL above
mentioned in the README does not need anything to set it up, just
unzip the file and make sure the bin/ subdirectory it creates is on
PATH.

Of course, there could be a need to set up IMAP itself, but that's not
a problem with the Windows port or its use in Emacs; I don't know
anything about IMAP (or Gnus, for that matter).  I can assure you that
the port from the above URL passed all the tests in the GnuTLS test
suite.