Implement HTTP connection reuse in freshclam

[joernheissler]

Hello,

I'm running a private database mirror. The client use freshclam to fetch updates over a slow link.

Currently, freshclam initiates a new TLS connection for each file downloaded. Could/should this changed to use a single connection? This would save several roundtrips and lots of bandwidth.

It could be of even more benefit for the official mirrors, given that they serve so many more clients.

freshclam uses CURL for downloading files, and CURL already supports connection reuse. A new CURL handle is created for each file though, so this feature isn't used.

Perhaps a single CURL handle could be created in perform_database_update and passed down to the functions that actually use it, or a statically allocated handle could be added to libfreshclam_internal.c?