Compression over the net

[Thiago Macieira]

On Sunday, 28 de August de 2011 21:45:12 Tobias Nissen wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am considering the use of dbus for an application that transmits data
> over the internet. The payload sizes range from strings of the size of
> some bytes and binary data of some megabytes of data.
> 
> I would like for the payload to be compressed. Is dbus able to compress
> its traffic?

No, D-Bus has no compression mechanism.

> If not, I'd consider compressing the payload myself and sending a byte
> array (in reference to the dbus type system) of the compressed data.
> 
> I would appreciate any comments on this matter. Is dbus the right tool
> for this kind of task?

I expect you to write your own transport mechanism, instead of allowing pure 
connections over TCP to your application. D-Bus connections are unencrypted 
and unauthenticated, so extremely vulnerable to remote attacks. You need to 
apply the encryption and authentication yourself on your transport.

With that transport done, compressing shouldn't be hard.

-- 
Thiago Macieira - thiago (AT) macieira.info - thiago (AT) kde.org
   Software Architect - Intel Open Source Technology Center
      PGP/GPG: 0x6EF45358; fingerprint:
      E067 918B B660 DBD1 105C  966C 33F5 F005 6EF4 5358
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