LDAP + nnrpd

[Paul R. Coen]

>near the top, and adding a few lines of PerLDAP code to connect/bind to
>LDAP server as the user, with the given password. If it works, we've at least
>verified user exists with right password.

One problem with doing this with Perl is the crummy situation right
now with getting SSL-enabled LDAP to work. The SSL support modules
for Perl rely on old versions of OpenSSL and there are version problems
with OpenLDAP and there are issues with getting the IPlanet (formally 
Mozilla) versions of the LDAP libraries to work correctly. I've been
meaning to go back to look at it, but I haven't been in the mood to
really aggrivate myself recently. It also looks like IPlanet is
really only maintaining the Solaris version of the Perl modules for
their LDAP libraries. Fine, they're part of Sun, but it still 
sucks.

Since SSL-enabled news is now supported, it would be nice to SSL-enable
the LDAP connection as well, cleanly, without having to do any weird
stuff with stunnel, etc.

As a semi-editorial side note, the Perl module "situation" (weird
mutual or mutually exclusive dependencies on other modules or specific 
versions of modules, none of which is all that well documented) is
reminding me of the red-haze-inducing frustration of getting the
GNU packages configured, compiled and running on a lot of platforms
in the 1989-1991 timeframe. That situation has improved so much
that I'd nearly managed to repress the memory entirely until the
SSL/LDAP module attempt brought it all back.