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bug#8069: 23.2.94; auth-source should support ~/.netrc by default
From: |
Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen |
Subject: |
bug#8069: 23.2.94; auth-source should support ~/.netrc by default |
Date: |
Thu, 17 Feb 2011 16:37:24 -0800 |
User-agent: |
Gnus/5.110011 (No Gnus v0.11) Emacs/24.0.50 (gnu/linux) |
Reuben Thomas <rrt@sc3d.org> writes:
> auth-source is trying to encourage users to use ~/.authinfo rather than
> ~/.netrc. This is fine. But many programs and libraries still use
> ~/.netrc (personally, until reading the auth-source manual I had not
> heard of ~/.authinfo).
I don't quite remember why we started using ~/.authinfo instead of
~/.netrc? I think that change was done a long, long time ago. (At
least for nntp.el.) Anybody remember? Was there a technical reason?
This was done in:
66292b12 lisp/nntp.el (Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen 1998-03-07 16:19:30 +0000
243) (defcustom nntp-authinfo-file "~/.authinfo"
and the ChangeLog entry helpfully says
+ * nntp.el (nntp-authinforc-file): Changed default.
Yay me.
But, yes, I think ~/.netrc should be added to the list of auth sources
to consult.
> Carrot: Default to searching ~/.netrc (unencrypted), ~/.authinfo
> (unencrypted), and ~/.authinfo.gpg (encrypted). This means that users
> with an unencrypted file or old-name file are not annoyed.
Agreed.
> By all means create a symlink from ~/.authinfo to ~/.netrc if the
> former doesn’t already exist, and don’t actually search ~/.netrc. (But
> maybe that would create potential security problems of its own.)
Nah. Symlinks shouldn't be necessary.
> Stick: Display a minibuffer warning message when an unencrypted file is
> found. Thus, the user is not actually interrupted (which breeds
> annoyance), but does receive a gentle reminder that encrypted is better.
No, I don't think any reminders are necessary. It's perfectly
reasonable to keep your passwords (for services you don't consider to be
super-secret for you) unencrypted.
--
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen