.authinfo and mail sources

.authinfo and mail sources

[John Prevost]

Is there any reason mail sources don't seem to use .authinfo, or is
this just an oversight?

John.

Re: .authinfo and mail sources

[Simon Josefsson]

John Prevost <prevost@maya.com> writes:

> Is there any reason mail sources don't seem to use .authinfo, or is
> this just an oversight?

The .netrc format only support one protocol, the original being ftp
and it's nntp in .authinfo. So if the same machine ran nntp/pop/imap
services, there is no obvious way of specifying different passwords.

Perhaps we could further enhance the syntax of netrc files in
.authinfo, perhaps add a keyword `port' to specify which port we're
talking about?  As one couldn't run multiple services on a single
port, that might work.

Are there any other standardized password credential file formats
around?

Re: .authinfo and mail sources

[John Prevost]

Simon Josefsson <jas@pdc.kth.se> writes:

> John Prevost <prevost@maya.com> writes:
> 
> > Is there any reason mail sources don't seem to use .authinfo, or is
> > this just an oversight?
> 
> The .netrc format only support one protocol, the original being ftp
> and it's nntp in .authinfo. So if the same machine ran nntp/pop/imap
> services, there is no obvious way of specifying different passwords.
> 
> Perhaps we could further enhance the syntax of netrc files in
> .authinfo, perhaps add a keyword `port' to specify which port we're
> talking about?  As one couldn't run multiple services on a single
> port, that might work.
> 
> Are there any other standardized password credential file formats
> around?

Hmm.  Well, nnimap already uses the authinfo file just fine.  (In
fact, the password is the same all around on that machine.)  The thing
that confuses me is that the mail-source code for imap doesn't even
try to use the password in this file.

I think we should probably extend .authinfo.  Maybe not port, but
protocol (which could allow for "imap" working for either normal or
SSL imap, or imap on a weird port, or ...  Or something like that.
That might not be quite right either.  Hmm.

John.

Re: .authinfo and mail sources

[Simon Josefsson]

John Prevost <prevost@maya.com> writes:

> Hmm.  Well, nnimap already uses the authinfo file just fine.

Yes, but that's not a very nice thing of nnimap. .authinfo is nntp.

> The thing that confuses me is that the mail-source code for imap
> doesn't even try to use the password in this file.

Lars?

> I think we should probably extend .authinfo.  Maybe not port, but
> protocol (which could allow for "imap" working for either normal or
> SSL imap, or imap on a weird port, or ...  Or something like that.
> That might not be quite right either.  Hmm.

I don't think so, no, then you couldn't have multiple IMAP services on
one single IP (which I know some people have, hence the extra cludge
for supporting that in nnimap). What's wrong with 'port'?

If mail-sources had a name, the cludge nnimap uses (put the virtual
server name as the `machine' field in .authinfo) would work, but they
don't so `port' or something similar is probably necessery. Or
preferably, using another standardized file format altogheter.

Re: .authinfo and mail sources

[David S. Goldberg]

> I don't think so, no, then you couldn't have multiple IMAP services on
> one single IP (which I know some people have, hence the extra cludge
> for supporting that in nnimap). What's wrong with 'port'?

Wouldn't a good enough solution be to make nn{tp,imap}-authinfo-file
be a server parameter?  That way the machine name in the file doesn't
need to be relevant (since you have a different file for each one) and
no information other than username and login need be used.  In fact I
thought it already worked that way, at least for nntp.  I seem to
recall doing something like that when I was setting up a couple
servers that used port forwards over ssh to my 2 nntp servers (and
thus both were connected to "localhost").  I'll have to check my home
machine tonight to verify my memory :-)
-- 
Dave Goldberg
Post: The Mitre Corporation\MS B325\202 Burlington Rd.\Bedford, MA 01730
Phone: 781-271-3887
Email: dsg@mitre.org

Re: .authinfo and mail sources

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

Simon Josefsson <jas@pdc.kth.se> writes:

> > The thing that confuses me is that the mail-source code for imap
> > doesn't even try to use the password in this file.
> 
> Lars?

Hm.  Well, the reason was what you said -- .authinfo is for nntp.  But 
I think we should extend it to allow naming port numbers.

I've now done this -- it's backwards-compatible, but
`gnus-netrc-machine' now takes a port parameter, and nnimap should
supply an "imap" parameter for it to work.  (It defaults to "nntp" as
the port number.)

Could someone extend the mail-source imap thingie to use it?

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen

Re: .authinfo and mail sources

[Katsumi Yamaoka]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 576 bytes --]

>>>>> In <m3bt3434hy.fsf@quimbies.gnus.org> 
>>>>>	Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> wrote:

Lars> `gnus-netrc-machine' now takes a port parameter, and nnimap
Lars> should supply an "imap" parameter for it to work.  (It defaults
Lars> to "nntp" as the port number.)

Still, it doesn't work.

(gnus-netrc-machine (gnus-parse-netrc "~/.netrc") "quimby.gnus.org")
 => Signaling: (wrong-number-of-arguments #'gnus-netrc-get 1)

It may be fixed as follows.

2000-04-21 05:22:18  Katsumi Yamaoka  <yamaoka@jpl.org>

        * gnus-util.el (gnus-netrc-machine): Didn't work.


[-- Warning: decoded text below may be mangled, UTF-8 assumed --]
[-- Attachment #2: gnus-util.el.diff --]
[-- Type: text/x-patch, Size: 604 bytes --]

--- gnus-util.el~	Thu Apr 20 23:47:32 2000
+++ gnus-util.el	Fri Apr 21 05:22:18 2000
@@ -868,13 +868,12 @@
 	(when (assoc "default" (car rest))
 	  (push (car rest) result))
 	(pop rest)))
-    (setq result (nreverse result))
-    (if (null result)
-	nil
+    (when result
+      (setq result (nreverse result))
       (while (and result
-		  (not (equalp port (or (gnus-netrc-get result) "nntp"))))
+		  (not (equal port (gnus-netrc-get (car result) "port"))))
 	(pop result))
-      result)))
+      (car result))))
 
 (defun gnus-netrc-get (alist type)
   "Return the value of token TYPE from ALIST."

[-- Attachment #3: Type: text/plain, Size: 38 bytes --]

-- 
Katsumi Yamaoka <yamaoka@jpl.org>

Re: .authinfo and mail sources

[Alan Shutko]

Simon Josefsson <jas@pdc.kth.se> writes:

> Perhaps we could further enhance the syntax of netrc files in
> .authinfo, perhaps add a keyword `port' to specify which port we're
> talking about?  As one couldn't run multiple services on a single
> port, that might work.

This would be convenient.  There are two newsservers running on
cnews.corel.com, with two different sets of groups.  I have to set it
up with cnews.corel.com and cnews.corel.ca to get access to both.

-- 
Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - In a variety of flavors!
252 days, 21 hours, 3 minutes, 25 seconds till we run away.
APL hackers do it in the quad.

Re: .authinfo and mail sources

[Kai Großjohann]

Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> writes:

> This would be convenient.  There are two newsservers running on
> cnews.corel.com, with two different sets of groups.  I have to set it
> up with cnews.corel.com and cnews.corel.ca to get access to both.

There's already a mechanism for this: you can give different names to
the servers and specify the `nntp-address' server parameter to specify
the host.

I already do this for two logins on the same IMAP server, one with
admin privileges and a normal login.  Works just fine.  (Well, some
Gnus functionality is missing to do useful stuff from the server
browsing buffer, but that's a different story.)

kai
-- 
~/.signature: No such file or directory

Re: .authinfo and mail sources

[Toby Speight]

Simon> Simon Josefsson <URL:mailto:jas@pdc.kth.se>

0> In article <ilud7pcji9a.fsf@badis.pdc.kth.se>, Simon wrote:

Simon> John Prevost <prevost@maya.com> writes:
Simon>
Simon> Perhaps we could further enhance the syntax of netrc files in
Simon> .authinfo, perhaps add a keyword `port' to specify which port
Simon> we're talking about?  As one couldn't run multiple services on
Simon> a single port, that might work.

That's not useful if you have several sets of credentials on a
particular server.  For example, two or more IMAP accounts on one
server, or multiple POP drops.  I use a POP proxy, which makes this
scenario more likely (though ATM I only access one account through
it).

Adding server names to mail-sources sounds a better bet to me.