# Looking for good Ruby OpenSSL TLS docs **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [August 7, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/looking-for-good-ruby-openssl-tls-docs/192889 "2010-08-07T18:38:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Aaron\_DSGifford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Aaron\_DSGifford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Aaron_DSGifford)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/looking-for-good-ruby-openssl-tls-docs/192889/1 "2010-08-07T18:38:52Z")
Hi, I’ve got a custom TCP protocol that currently runs plaintext/cleartext to which I want to add something akin to SMTP’s STARTTLS. The scripts use Ruby’s TCPSockets. The protocol will for the most part remain unencrypted, but when client or server requests that TLS begin, I need to take the existing TCPSocket and initiate TLS over it. So… any pointers to good Ruby OpenSSL docs? The Rdocs my searches have found thus far are SEVERELY lacking in anything useful. And searches for Ruby TLS or SSL stuff turns up only preexisting protocols, no details about how to interact at a TCPSocket level. My next step will be to install a few of the libraries I have found and delve into their source. (But of course I’d MUCH prefer to read written documentation online if possible, or in combination with my source code perusal.) And I do need to preserve the non-blocking nature of my existing code (which uses IO.select). Thanks! Aaron out. ---
**Author:** ![Aaron\_DSGifford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Aaron\_DSGifford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Aaron_DSGifford)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 2:30am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/looking-for-good-ruby-openssl-tls-docs/192889/2 "2010-08-08T02:30:39Z")
On Aug 7, 11:28 am, “Aaron D. Gifford” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Hi, > > I’ve got a custom TCP protocol that currently runs plaintext/cleartext > to which I want to add something akin to SMTP’s STARTTLS. The scripts > use Ruby’s TCPSockets. The protocol will for the most part remain > unencrypted, but when client or server requests that TLS begin, I need > to take the existing TCPSocket and initiate TLS over it. > > So… any pointers to good Ruby OpenSSL docs? Ruby’s openssl is a very basic wrapper around the OpenSSL library and I haven’t found much good documentation for either. I’d first look in the samples that come with the Ruby source code. In the source distribution, check out sample/openssl/echo\_cli.rb and echo\_svr.rb. The server uses a TCPSocket, but between the example and the TCPSocket code, it shouldn’t be hard to work out what to do. Jeremy ---
**Author:** ![Aaron\_DSGifford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Aaron\_DSGifford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Aaron_DSGifford)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 2:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/looking-for-good-ruby-openssl-tls-docs/192889/3 "2010-08-08T02:38:16Z")
On Sat, Aug 7, 2010 at 6:30 PM, yermej [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote > Ruby’s openssl is a very basic wrapper around the OpenSSL library and > I haven’t found much good documentation for either. > > I’d first look in the samples that come with the Ruby source code. In > the source distribution, check out sample/openssl/echo\_cli.rb and > echo\_svr.rb. The server uses a TCPSocket, but between the example and > the TCPSocket code, it shouldn’t be hard to work out what to do. > > Jeremy Thanks for the tip, Jeremy! I was going to go source-code digging anyway, and now you’ve given me a good starting place. Aaron out. ---
**Author:** ![Aaron\_DSGifford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Aaron\_DSGifford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Aaron_DSGifford)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 11:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/looking-for-good-ruby-openssl-tls-docs/192889/4 "2010-08-09T11:01:21Z")
Aaron D. Gifford wrote: > I’ve got a custom TCP protocol that currently runs plaintext/cleartext > to which I want to add something akin to SMTP’s STARTTLS. The scripts > use Ruby’s TCPSockets. The protocol will for the most part remain > unencrypted, but when client or server requests that TLS begin, I need > to take the existing TCPSocket and initiate TLS over it. I wrote ruby-ldapserver some years ago, and I wrote code which does exactly that. Shouldn’t be too hard to extract it. IIRC, an OpenSSL socket duck-types a normal socket in most ways, so you can just wrap the socket in an OpenSSL object. I would imagine you couldn’t #select on it though, but would have to #select on the underlying socket instead. (I was using threads, so #select compatibility wasn’t a requirement) HTH, Brian.