HPCC-34165 HTTPLIB add timeout to SSL_connect/accept

[mckellyln]

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[github-actions[bot]]

Jira Issue: https://hpccsystems.atlassian.net//browse/HPCC-34165

Jirabot Action Result: Workflow Transition To: Merge Pending Additional PR: https://github.com/hpcc-systems/HPCC-Platform/pull/19895

[mckellyln]

@jakesmith does this look correct ? We could probably also add the same non-blocking timeout support to SSL_read() and SSL_write().

[mckellyln]

Should we add this ? Or look at alternatives ? @asselitx thoughts ?

[asselitx]

The change looks good, but if httplib is built expecting blocking sockets we may see other cases (like SSL_read and SSL_write that you pointed out) not handling timeouts. Also, I'm not sure- is there a danger of problems if the library doesn't support nonblocking anywhere else?

From what I see there have been few changes to lib over the last 5 years and its used only as a client for secrets and the elastic metrics sink. This is a good point where we either 'own it' and commit to customizing it or switch to another implementation.

Given that HTTP requires standards and security compliance would we want to keep our hands off the code and manage regular updates with perhaps vcpkg? If keeping current is important, then using microsoft/ccprestsdk might not be best.

boostorg/beast seems powerful, active and well supported but not terse - probably the best option if we really wanted to lean on the library and take upstream updates.

https://github.com/libcpr/cpr Could be a possibility if we only need clients and if we verify it does handle timeouts on accept/read/write

https://gitlab.com/eidheim/Simple-Web-Server Also has client support and seems pretty streamlined.

[ghalliday]

@mckellyln @asselitx should we be using libcurl instead of http lib? Does it provide the same functionality? We already include it in the platform.

[mckellyln]

We should look into libcurl. But this (updated and re-checked) should be considered for the platform, as well as the same functionality in jlib (in PR 19156) so that a slow TLS handshake for example does not take longer than the timeout provided. I will re-visit these PRs again so that they are current and correct.