Re: no forced authinfo in 5.6.2?

["Edward J. Sabol" <sabol@alderaan.gsfc.nasa.gov>]

Excerpts from mail: (14-Mar-98) Re: no forced authinfo in 5.6.2? by Hallvard B Furuseth
> If nntp-authinfo-file is .netrc-compatible just because you wanted to
> reuse existing code to parse .netrc:
>
> I don't see any reason *not* to send authinfo to a machine mentioned
> in .authinforc.  If I have an authinfo password there, why would I
> want not to use it?

I thought the same thing, but Lars convinced me otherwise:

------- Start of exceprted message -------
To: ding@gnus.org
Subject: Re: feedback on AUTHINFO in qgnus-0.27
References: <199802191555.KAA18753@alderaan.gsfc.nasa.gov>
From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org>
Date: 20 Feb 1998 03:31:45 +0100

"Edward J. Sabol" <sabol@alderaan.gsfc.nasa.gov> writes:
> It sounds more complicated than it really is. Basically, if there's an entry
> for the server in ~/.authinforc, then send authinfo for that server whether
> challenged or not.

Hm.  Some servers only challenge when entering certain groups.  The
user may wish to stick the machine name and the user name into the
file, but not the password, and it would be annoying if that would
lead Gnus to send the authinfo (and promt the user for that
unnecessary password) even if the user doesn't want to read the
password-protected groups.
------- End of excerpted message -------

> If nntp-authinfo-file is .netrc-compatible so we can point it to .netrc:
>
> Bummer.
>
> * I can't have different FTP user/password and NNTP user/password
> on the same machine.
>
> * If I insert `machine some.server login hbf password newspassword',
> then the `ftp some.server' command will try to log in with my NNTP
> username and password.

I think you miss the point. You *can* point gnus-authinfo-file to your
~/.netrc, but you don't *have* to. The default has them being different
files. If your NNTP password is different from your FTP password, then use
separate files for NNTP and FTP.

> Maybe this format will fix it:
>
> machine some.server      login hbf password ftppassword
> machine nntp/some.server login hbf password newspassword

Yuck.

Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:
> Well, I didn't feel it was resolved.  Should I add a "force" tag?

Lars, as long as the "force" tag is an optional part of the syntax (i.e.,
Gnus defaults to "force no" if there is no "force" tag present) in order to
keep some semblance of compatibility with ~/.netrc, I see no problem with it.

Besides, I also see many advantages to this syntax. When people post to the
mailing list asking how to make Gnus automatically send authinfo for certain
servers, I will get a great thrill out of replying to them and writing "Use
the FORCE tag, Luke!" :-)

Please go ahead and implement it, Lars.

Later,
Ed