There are a bunch of non-default options available in the squid source's autoconf-based configure file. Please consider adding these options in the RPM's build instructions: --enable-icmp Enable ICMP pinging --enable-carp Enable CARP support --enable-snmp Enable SNMP monitoring --enable-htpc Enable HTCP protocol --enable-cache-digests Use Cache Digests --enable-delay-pools Enable delay pools to limit bandwith usage
ICMP requires a setuid binary installed, which is why we've never installed it in the past. SNMP & delay pools have been enabled for a while. Some of the others will be enabled in 2.4.STABLE1-1.
Testing the new squid-2.4.STABLE1-1 RPM, I see that the --enable-cache-digest option is still off. Can at least that be turned on? I appreciate the hypothetical security concerns with --enable-icmp, but FWIW, I'm using it anyway. Maybe the setuid pinger program could be built, but packaged into a separate RPM.
Can we have a ruling about the security non-risk options such as --enable-cache-digests?
Basically, it can cause sudden large bandwidth uses (when transferring the digests) on slow links, so it's not a great config option for the one-package-fits-all approach.
On slow links, digests can be turned off at run time, or update frequencies turned down. Even there, they should be an advantage as it drastically reduces the amount of upstream cache polling, reducing traffic and latency. Keeping the option out of the build means that people who do want it have to recompile, not merely reconfigure. As a compromise, please consider enabling cache-digests in the build, but turning them off in the default configuration file.