# STARTTLS in Net::SMTP: news on the patch?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/starttls-in-net-news-on-the-patch/89479>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [March 20, 2007, 8:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/starttls-in-net-news-on-the-patch/89479 "2007-03-20T20:16:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 8:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/starttls-in-net-news-on-the-patch/89479/1 "2007-03-20T20:16:31Z")

</div>

Searching back through the archives I found this message from 2004 by  
Daniel Hobe where he writes:

“This patch adds STARTTLS support to net/smtp. The new methods are  
modeled on my previous patch to add SSL support to pop.”

[http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-core/2789](http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-core/2789)

And soon after, the reply from Minero A., the author of Net::SMTP:

“Thank you very much. I commited your patch with slite modifications  
(mostly method names and variable names).”

[http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-core/2798](http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-core/2798)

But looking at my current Ruby 1.8.6 install the patch is nowhere to  
be seen. Anyone know what happened between 2004 and now? I do note  
that the current Ruby trunk does include STARTTLS support:

[http://svn.ruby-lang.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/trunk/lib/net/smtp.rb?revision=11994&view=markup](http://svn.ruby-lang.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/trunk/lib/net/smtp.rb?revision=11994&view=markup)

I’d prefer not to have to send login info in plaintext when using  
Net::STMP… any workarounds while we wait for 1.9/2.0?

Cheers,  
Greg

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 7:23am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/starttls-in-net-news-on-the-patch/89479/2 "2007-03-31T07:23:41Z")

</div>

Hi,

On 2007/03/21, at 4:15, Greg H. wrote:

> But looking at my current Ruby 1.8.6 install the patch is nowhere to  
> be seen. Anyone know what happened between 2004 and now? I do note  
> that the current Ruby trunk does include STARTTLS support:

SMTPS/STARTTLS patch was included in trunk but not in 1.8  
because interface is unstable. I’ll change API once again and  
will commit it to 1.8 branch after all.

Regards,  
Minero A.