Re: bug#8050: Gnus does not connect to my IMAP server any more

[Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com>]

The following message is a courtesy copy of an article
that has been posted to gnu.emacs.bug as well.

On Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:54:32 -0500 Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote: 

SM> When I start Gnus, it seems to try and connect to my IMAP server but
SM> never asks for my password (which I don't save in authinfo.gpg).
SM> In just ends up saying "done", but the *Server* buffer says "offline".
SM> If I try to use O in the *Server* buffer, it switches instantly to
SM> "opened" but if I try to do anything that involves the IMAP server,
SM> I get (wrong-type-argument arrayp nil) errors because nnimap-object
SM> is nil.

I think this is fixed in the Gnus trunk as far as the auth-source
credentials go (Lars will have to fix the nnimap code failure on empty
credentials).

Now auth-source-search with :create t and :type 'netrc will ask for all
the missing data.  If the user doesn't want to add the netrc entry, it
will still work (until the password-cache times out).

I have two usability questions (cross-posting to the Gnus mailing list):

1) should we have a global override to say "never add netrc entries", or
should the prompt be Y/N/y/n instead of just y-or-n-p, or should the
save question be asked only once per file, or something else?

2) should auth-source let-bind the password-cache timeout to something
larger?  The default is pretty short and for auth-source I think at
least 30 minutes are reasonable.  It could be a customizable integer.

Thanks
Ted