chasd wrote:
I believe it is for IMAP over an encrypted connection ( IMAPS ) so if
you don't use IMAPS, technically it isn't required. Since a large
majority of end users will need IMAPS support, it is better to
require Sockets support than to continually answer the question "Why
won't IMAPS work ?"
Hi Charles, I have to disagree here - as I already outlined before IMAPS is a bad idea if the IMAP host is running on the same machine as it does not increase security and just slows the system down. So I would recommend using a warning instead of an error and explaining why Sockets might be needed. The same applies to the config file - if IMAPS is required the comment should indicate that sockets are needed and the installer can complain about that fact in the next step when actually SSL is entered.
I use Fedora, and the PHP package for that distro includes Sockets
support. I am not sure if the PHP package for other distros is
configured similarly. I think Sockets support is not on by default if
you compile PHP yourself, however if someone is capable of compiling
PHP, they can easily add --enable-sockets when they invoke
"configure." If someone is compiling PHP and _doesn't_ know how to do
that, it might be best for the entire universe if I traveled to their
locale and slapped them. Well, maybe not, that's a lot of bad karma
for me ;)
Some users might have the knowledge to compile PHP by themselves but they are in a restricted environment and can't install it on their server...
Best regards,
Michael