Re: How to disable org-persist in a given file?

[Gustavo Barros]

On Tue, 25 Apr 2023 at 07:21, Ihor Radchenko <yantar92@posteo.net> wrote:

> > I don't understand that. Isn't persistence about keeping data across
> > Emacs sessions?
>
> Not only. We also use org-persist to cache downloaded images from
> internet and, in future, to cache image previews (currently, they just
> sit in `org-preview-latex-image-directory'). These scenarios make use of
> org-persist during a single Emacs session, not just across several
> sessions.

I see. But, for uses where the data is only required during a session,
does the cache have to be written to an external file? But I think I
get why write it for the previews, and obviously, for downloads too.
I'm not sure this should be called "persistence" though.

> Even if we allow completely disabling persistence for certain files,
> previews, and internet downloads should happen _somewhere_ in file system
> and might inevitably cause leakage. But what is the way around?

My view is that there really should be a way of doing it. Because this
has relevant security implications. And because users should be able
to have control of their data in the first place. And then if one such
a feature, necessarily requiring persistence (as opposed to the
convenience of "just" speeding things up), a user-error could be
signaled saying "sorry, can't do that because you disabled
persistence". And the two cases you mentioned seem quite the exception
to me. Of course, I'm speaking here about writing information about /
of the org file itself to an external file, naturally internet
downloads must go somewhere and that should be easy. The thing is Org
is used for a lot of things. You can rest assured I have no intention
of exporting my encrypted files alongside some remote content. But I
do wish to be able to make sure my passwords are safe.