Re: Something smelly here. [.emacs-custom file]

[Kevin Rodgers]

reader@newsguy.com wrote:
> In this case I've gotten something to do with mail tangled up with
> .emacs-custom file.  It keeps trying to write part of a mail message
> to the custom file.  Whenever I close gnus or send a news post
> something like this gets written to .emacs-custom:
>        (custom-set-variables
>         ;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom -- don't edit or 
cut/paste it!
>         ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
>         '(canlock-password "3931d41841769fd6053e719084096803d2381412"))
>        (custom-set-faces
>         ;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom -- don't edit or cut/paste it!
>         ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
>      )
>      From: reader@newsguy.com
>      X-Draft-From: ("rec.woodworking" "")
>
> The first part looks sort of normal although I have no idea what a
> `canlock-password' is all about, but the partial mail header is just
> wrong.
>
> Once this happens and I close emacs.... on next start of emacs, the
> init process finds that cruft and errors out.
>
> My init files are setup as  close as I could get them to my old unix
> setup.  But I haven't used the customize stuff at all yet.  So
> technically it seems nothing should be in  ~/.emacs-custom.

Googling for "canlock gnus emacs" yields
http://list-archive.xemacs.org/xemacs-users-ru/200305/msg00000.html

        ** Gnus supports Cancel Locks in News.
        
        This means a header "Cancel-Lock" is inserted in news posting.  It is
        used to determine if you wrote a article or not (for cancelling and
        superseding).  Gnus generates a random password string the first time
        you post a message, and saves it in your ~/.emacs using the Custom
        system.  While the variable is called `canlock-password', it is not
        security sensitive data.  Publishing your canlock string on the web
        will not allow anyone to be able to anything she could not already do.
        The behaviour can be changed by customizing `message-insert-canlock'.

Apropos is your friend,
--
Kevin Rodgers