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

[Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com>]

On Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:43:13 -0500 Stefan Monnier <monnier@IRO.UMontreal.CA> wrote: 

SM> The previous prompt included the ~/.authinfo.gpg file name which
SM> I thought was good.  On the contrary, the hostname info seems redundant
SM> since it's already been displayed by the previous 2 prompts.

>> where `s' shows the line we will add with the password replaced by ****?

SM> Here are some ways to handle the "showing the line":
SM> 1- show it in the prompt: loud, noisy, and worst of all, shows the
SM>    password in the clear, right after you entered it via `read-passwd'
SM>    which was careful to keep it hidden.
SM> 2- Add an `s' option to the prompt.
SM> 3- Add a second prompt (when if the user selected `y') to confirm the
SM>    actual text that will be saved.  Can be kind of a pain for the user,
SM>    but presumably, password aren't saved all the time.
SM> 4- not show it at all, let the user visit the file afterwards to see
SM>    what happened if he wants to.

SM> 1 is out.  2 seems like a lot of trouble compared to using y-or-n-p
SM> (tho, if you add an `N' option anyway to remember not to prompt next
SM> time, the extra work is already done).  3 might be a bit annoying to
SM> some of the users (especially those who want to save the password but
SM> don't want to have it displayed).  4 seemed sufficient to me, but
SM> apparently YMMV.
SM> So yes, I'd vote for 2 or 4 (as the coder, I'd choose 4 ;-)

I did 2+3, asking as follows:

Add to file ~/.authinfo.gpg? (y)es/(n)o but use it/(e)dit line/(s)kip file: s

where ?e uses read-string.  I distinguish between ?n to say "don't save
but keep this info" and ?s to say "skip this file, I want to add to the
next one".  So it's one prompt, plus ?e for those who want to ensure
the data is saved correctly.

Ted