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 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
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 * accompanied this code).
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package sun.security.timestamp;

import java.io.IOException;

A timestamping service which conforms to the Time-Stamp Protocol (TSP)
defined in:
RFC 3161.
Individual timestampers may communicate with a Timestamping Authority (TSA)
over different transport machanisms. TSP permits at least the following
transports: HTTP, Internet mail, file-based and socket-based.
Author:
Vincent Ryan
See Also:
HttpTimestamper/**
 * A timestamping service which conforms to the Time-Stamp Protocol (TSP)
 * defined in:
 * <a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3161.txt">RFC 3161</a>.
 * Individual timestampers may communicate with a Timestamping Authority (TSA)
 * over different transport machanisms. TSP permits at least the following
 * transports: HTTP, Internet mail, file-based and socket-based.
 *
 * @author Vincent Ryan
 * @see HttpTimestamper
 */
public interface Timestamper {

    /*
     * Connects to the TSA and requests a timestamp.
     *
     * @param tsQuery The timestamp query.
     * @return The result of the timestamp query.
     * @throws IOException The exception is thrown if a problem occurs while
     *         communicating with the TSA.
     */
    public TSResponse generateTimestamp(TSRequest tsQuery) throws IOException;
}