README
1python-nss is a Python binding for NSS (Network Security Services) and
2NSPR (Netscape Portable Runtime). NSS provides cryptography services
3supporting SSL, TLS, PKI, PKIX, X509, PKCS*, etc. NSS is an
4alternative to OpenSSL and used extensively by major software
5projects. NSS is FIPS-140 certified.
6
7NSS is built upon NSPR because NSPR provides an abstraction of common
8operating system services, particularly in the areas of networking and
9process management. Python also provides an abstraction of common
10operating system services but because NSS and NSPR are tightly bound
11python-nss exposes elements of NSPR.
12
13More information on python-nss can be found on the
14`python-nss project page <http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/pki/python-nss>`_
15
16For information on NSS and NSPR, see the following:
17
18 * Network Security Services. `NSS project page <http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/pki/nss/>`_.
19 * Netscape Portable Runtime. `NSPR project page <http://www.mozilla.org/projects/nspr/>`_.
20
21To build python-nss you the C language header files and libraries for
22both NSPR and NSS will need to be installed. This is system and
23distribution specific, as such we cannot give you explicit
24instructions. On Linux typically these packages are called:
25
26 * nss-devel
27 * nspr-devel
28
29Use your system package manger to install them, for example on Fedora:
30
31 % sudo yum install nss-devel nspr-devel
32
33After all packages are installed, then:
34
35 % python setup.py build
36 % sudo python setup.py install
37
38To generate the API documentation:
39
40 % python setup.py build_doc
41