semi-undocumented "feature" of nnimap-authinfo-file

semi-undocumented "feature" of nnimap-authinfo-file

[Ted Stern]

I use nnimap via gnus-secondary-select-methods.  For one particular server, I
specify nnimap-stream to be ssl, but otherwise I use the nnimap defaults.

I find that the only way my entries in the ~/.authinfo file containing the
login and password are seen during imap login is if I enter the machine name
this way:

  machine some.place.net login mylogin password mypassword port imap
                                                           ^^^^^^^^^
                                                           non-obvious!!!!

This took a lot of delving around and experimenting with the low-level
functions that read the authinfo file.  And I don't know what would have
happened if I had specified a non-standard ssl port.

Knowing after the fact what I was supposed to look for, I find that the NNTP
info entry for `nntp-authinfo-function' does mention the extra "port" token
(with zero examples):

         `port' is used to indicate what port on the server the credentials
          apply to and `force' is explained below.

But the IMAP node documentation for `nnimap-authinfo-file' that refers to the
NNTP page doesn't mention what the port token should be set to.  Seems pretty
vague to me, especially when ~/.authinfo could be used by more than one
protocol.

Maybe somebody could amend the docs a little bit to help other clueless imap
users such as myself? ;-)

Ted
-- 
 Ted Stern                                 Applications Group
 Cray Inc.                               office: 206-701-2182
 411 First Avenue South, Suite 600         cell: 206-383-1049
 Seattle, WA 98104-2860                     FAX: 206-701-2500

 Frango ut patefaciam -- I break that I may reveal
 (The Paleontological Society motto, equally apropos for debugging)

Re: semi-undocumented "feature" of nnimap-authinfo-file

[Ted Stern]

On 25 Aug 2003, Ted Stern wrote:
> I use nnimap via gnus-secondary-select-methods.  For one particular server,
> I specify nnimap-stream to be ssl, but otherwise I use the nnimap defaults.
>
> I find that the only way my entries in the ~/.authinfo file containing the
> login and password are seen during imap login is if I enter the machine name
> this way:
>
>   machine some.place.net login mylogin password mypassword port imap
>                                                            ^^^^^^^^^
>                                                            non-obvious!!!!
>

I received help offline from Reiner Steib and also from this page on
my.gnus.org:

     http://my.gnus.org/Members/blacky_tn/HowTo,2002-05-28,1022622697760563859/view
     (or http://tinyurl.com/ldmo if that gets garbled in the transmission)

Apparently my problem started when I specified nnimap-server-port explicitly.
If the default ssl port is used, then .authinfo is read correctly if no port
token is specified.  But adding `port imap' also works.

Ted
-- 
 Ted Stern                                 Applications Group
 Cray Inc.                               office: 206-701-2182
 411 First Avenue South, Suite 600         cell: 206-383-1049
 Seattle, WA 98104-2860                     FAX: 206-701-2500

 Frango ut patefaciam -- I break that I may reveal
 (The Paleontological Society motto, equally apropos for debugging)