PASSFILE question for Beartooth (and others!)
NM Public
One thing that will make your pine life much more pleasant is if
you use a PASSFILE to store your passwords. If you feel
comfortable doing this, you need to do 2 things.
1] Run 'pine -h' and see if one of the listed options is this:
-passfile
2] If the answer to #1 is yes, you need to determine what the
default passfile name is.
I do not know of an easy way to do #2. Does anyone on the list
know? Beartooth, maybe you could ask on a Redhat list (assuming
that you are using a Redhat pine that people on the list would be
knowledgable about).
Please let me know if you want to use a passfile and if you know
what is the default name for it.
Thanks,
Nancy
Eduardo Chappa
:) 2] If the answer to #1 is yes, you need to determine what the default
:) passfile name is.
:)
:) I do not know of an easy way to do #2. Does anyone on the list know?
run "pine -d 9", and quit Pine. If the file "~/.pine-debug1" contains a
line that contains the string "Looking for passfile", then there is one,
and it appears in that line.
--
Eduardo
Patches/Help: http://www.math.washington.edu/~chappa/pine/
XML/RSS feed: http://www.math.washington.edu/~chappa/pine/pine.xml
Please send spam to webmaster@localhost
Beartooth
> Beartooth,
>
> One thing that will make your pine life much more pleasant is if
> you use a PASSFILE to store your passwords. If you feel
> comfortable doing this, you need to do 2 things.
>
> 1] Run 'pine -h' and see if one of the listed options is this:
>
> -passfile
That gives, among much else,
-passfile <fully_qualified_filename> Set the password file to something other
than the default
-nowrite_passfile Read from a passfile if there is one, but never
offer to write a password to the passfile
> 2] If the answer to #1 is yes, you need to determine what the
> default passfile name is.
>
> I do not know of an easy way to do #2. Does anyone on the list
> know? Beartooth, maybe you could ask on a Redhat list (assuming
> that you are using a Redhat pine that people on the list would be
> knowledgable about).
I'll get to Eduardo Chappa's response in a minute.
> Please let me know if you want to use a passfile and if you know
> what is the default name for it.
Despite man pages, googling, and other tries, I find nothing to explain
what a passfile is. So I can't tell whether I want one. I presume from
your wording that there are advantages and trade-offs, but I can't tell
what they are. I can guess that they have to do with security, but not
whose security : mine, or Lserv's, or ....
Fwiw, I'm unable properly to evaluate my own security, and haven't a clue
how to recover from being cracked.
So I try to be paranoid and can't keep up. I run more or less stock
firewalls, inside a router; I have deny-hosts, and can turn it on and off;
I run sshd, but need to figure out how to tell it to restrict connections
to my own local 192.168.x.y addresses inside the router; I haven't made
any attempt yet to get my mind around SELinux -- some machines tell it to
warn, some have it disabled, and I don't know without looking which is
which. (I also try to remember never to put anything into email that I
wouldn't put onto a postcard.)
--
Beartooth Staffwright, Wordcrafty Squirreler
FC5; Pine 4.64, Pan 0.14.2.91; Privoxy 3.0.3; CXO 5.0.1
Dillo 0.8.5, Opera 8.54, Firefox 1.5, Galeon 2.0.1
Remember I have little idea what I am talking about.
Beartooth
> *** NM Public (baag...@nm.deflexion.com.comm) wrote in comp.mail.pine today:
>
> :) 2] If the answer to #1 is yes, you need to determine what the default
> :) passfile name is.
> :)
> :) I do not know of an easy way to do #2. Does anyone on the list know?
>
> run "pine -d 9",
I tried it after having quit pine. That gave me
[btth@localhost ~]$ pine -d 9
Argument Error: unknown flag "d", debugging not compiled in
Possible Starting Arguments for Pine program:
[...]
So I started up pine on my own machine (i.e., with the alias "delpine"),
and got the same. Then I tried with the alias "pine" that puts me into
titan. Still the same result.
> and quit Pine. If the file "~/.pine-debug1" contains a
> line that contains the string "Looking for passfile", then there is one,
> and it appears in that line.
I tried it with pine under the alias running, and got no such line. I quit
the alias and tried again. I even tried pine on titan under ssh. In all
cases, I get
[btth@localhost ~]$ cat .pine-debug1 | more
cat: .pine-debug1: No such file or directory
[btth@localhost ~]$
The only difference I see is in the prompt, for btth on my own machine, or
for karhunhammas on titan.
Meanwhile, an unrelated discovery : when I opened titan pine under the
alias, it asked me (as it has been doing) whether to create a folder that
one of my filters puts things into -- an incoming one named bblx. I told
it yes -- and it failed with an error message that I didn't realize
wouldn't last long enough to copy -- something about no permission to
write to (I think) /home/karhunhammas/mail.
But when I ssh into titan and then command pine, that folder is still
already there, and has new messages.
NM Public
>
> Despite man pages, googling, and other tries, I find nothing to
> explain what a passfile is. So I can't tell whether I want one.
> I presume from your wording that there are advantages and
> trade-offs, but I can't tell what they are. I can guess that
> they have to do with security, but not whose security : mine,
> or Lserv's, or ....
The PASSFILE is a file that stores your pine
server/username/password triplets. It is encrypted, but, if it
exists, anyone who gains access to your system will be able to
access your email. Also, if they are a little clever, they can
figure out your passwords. I use it, but I also do not have
anything private in my email. It's up to you whether you use it.
You might want to use it on your local systems, but not on the
titan system. Maybe others will have some words of wisdom about
this...
Good night from London. I'm off to look at the news, which seems
a little interesting tonight...
-nancy
Beartooth
> Beartooth,
>
> One thing that will make your pine life much more pleasant is if
> you use a PASSFILE to store your passwords. If you feel
> comfortable doing this, you need to do 2 things.
[...]
> Please let me know if you want to use a passfile and if you know
> what is the default name for it.
I posted the question to novalug (where people know me), and got a couple
responses under the list from one of my most prized linux gurux. It boils
down to "yes, go for it."
But I haven't found any default name.
NM Public
>> Please let me know if you want to use a passfile and if you
>> know what is the default name for it.
>
> I posted the question to novalug (where people know me), and
> got a couple responses under the list from one of my most
> prized linux gurux. It boils down to "yes, go for it."
>
> But I haven't found any default name.
OK, let's go for it! I can walk you through setting it up using
the '-passfile' command-line argument, but it would be useful for
you (and others!) to find out the default value that this RedHat
Pine uses. Could you please ask the maintainer of that RH Pine
package what is the default Pine PASSFILE that he/she built this
RH Pine with? That way I can write about it in the Pine docs I'm
writing.
Thank you,
Nancy
--
Nancy McGough
Infinite Ink: <http://www.ii.com/>
Bookmarks & Blog: <http://deflexion.com/>
Beartooth
> Sur 2006-05-26, Beartooth skribis:
>> I posted the question to novalug (where people know me), and
>> got a couple responses under the list from one of my most
>> prized linux gurux. It boils down to "yes, go for it."
>> But I haven't found any default name.
> OK, let's go for it! I can walk you through setting it up using
> the '-passfile' command-line argument, but it would be useful for
> you (and others!) to find out the default value that this RedHat
> Pine uses. Could you please ask the maintainer of that RH Pine
> package what is the default Pine PASSFILE that he/she built this
> RH Pine with? That way I can write about it in the Pine docs I'm
> writing.
Alas! RedHat and Fedora are (among others iirc) distros that refuse to
include Pine (though RH did years ago) because of concerns with licensing;
and as the PineMasters have explained here, their hands are tied by state
law. So I get my pine, with every new install a/o upgrade of my OS, either
from UW directly, or from some repository (most recently livna) with rpms
that include the dependencies for FC, or at least leave only ones that yum
can find in FC repositories.
Usually I can either simply do an rpm -ivh or -Uvh command and be done; or
I can do one, get a dependency, and command "yum install <dependency>",
and repeat the rpm. But it happens on occasion that the yum install fails,
and I get left to scramble.
This is a chronic downside to RH/FC, and would take an Act of the
Washington Legislature, or something the powers that create RH/FC would
regard as an apostasy to Open Source (or an invitation to predatory tort
lawyers, I'm not sure which)to remedy; so it's pretty well carved in stone.
Some work-around usually appears within days, however -- on Dag Wieers's
site, or at livna.org, or somewhere; one can get by leaving one machine
un-upgraded, just to run pine, till it happens.
And to repeat, I'm pretty sure my current version is from livna; I
probably still have the rpms and can check.
But whom that determines to be the maintainer, I have no idea. What I can
do is ask on gmane.linux.redhat.fedora.general; someone there will
probably know, and the actual maintainer may be there. Stay tuned -- with
my apologies for the length of this post already!
Beartooth
> On Mon, 29 May 2006 15:35:38 +0100, NM Public wrote:
[...]
>> OK, let's go for it! I can walk you through setting it up using the
>> '-passfile' command-line argument, but it would be useful for you (and
>> others!) to find out the default value that this RedHat Pine uses...
> But ... what I can do is ask on gmane.linux.redhat.fedora.general;
> someone there will probably know, and the actual maintainer may be
> there. Stay tuned -- with my apologies for the length of this post
> already!
In case anyone wants to help watch, I've just posted a new thread called
FC Pine passfile default? Maintainer(s)?
to gmane.linux.redhat.fedora.general ; I'll give odds on a useful answer
before a day is out.
Beartooth
> In case anyone wants to help watch, I've just posted a new thread called
>
> FC Pine passfile default? Maintainer(s)?
>
> to gmane.linux.redhat.fedora.general ; I'll give odds on a useful answer
> before a day is out.
No bet -- it's moot already, or I hope so. Paul Howarth on
gmane.linux.redhat.fedora.general pointed me to the changelog for my rpm
of Pine, from which I extracted three names, and sent an email asking.
With any luck at all, I should know, and have posted the answer, here by
this time tomorrow, and maybe even before it's morning in London. Stay
tuned.
--
Beartooth Staffwright, Neo-Redneck, Double Retiree,
Not Quite Clueless Linux Power User : Fedora Core 5 [etc]
I have precious (very precious) little idea where up is.
Eduardo Chappa
:) > :) I do not know of an easy way to do #2. Does anyone on the list
:) > :) know?
:) >
:) > run "pine -d 9",
:)
:) I tried it after having quit pine. That gave me
:)
:) [btth@localhost ~]$ pine -d 9
:) Argument Error: unknown flag "d", debugging not compiled in
:) Possible Starting Arguments for Pine program:
:) [...]
Start Pine and from the main menu press "J". Do you get an error? If not,
press "D 9" and do a search for "looking for". Does that tell you
anything?
Beartooth
> *** Beartooth (babea...@adelphia.net.comm) wrote in comp.mail.pine on...:
> :) [btth@localhost ~]$ pine -d 9
> :) Argument Error: unknown flag "d", debugging not compiled in
> :) Possible Starting Arguments for Pine program:
> :) [...]
> Start Pine and from the main menu press "J". Do you get an error? If not,
> press "D 9" and do a search for "looking for". Does that tell you
> anything?
J from the m ain menu gave me this, which doesn't look to me like an error :
Opening "INBOX"
Opening "INBOX" DONE [not actually shown]
Processing filter "Bblx"
Processing filter "ARTEMIS"
ARTEMIS: Moving 7 filtered messages to "/home/karhunhammas/ARTEMIS"
ARTEMIS: Moving 7 filtered messages to "/home/karhunhammas/ARTEMIS" DONE [not
actually shown]
Processing filter "VCDL"
VCDL: Moving 4 filtered messages to "/home/karhunhammas/VCDL"
VCDL: Moving 4 filtered messages to "/home/karhunhammas/VCDL" DONE [not
actually shown]
Processing filter "ACFG"
Processing filter "P9"
filtering done
Folder "INBOX" opened with 1,278 messages
Searched to Last Message.
ALL of message
END of message
I had to exit from it to get to commands, which I therefore did from the
Main Menu also. At that point, d, D, and 9 each gave "not defined" errors.
Then I did J again, and this time got :
ARTEMIS: Moving 7 filtered messages to "/home/karhunhammas/ARTEMIS" DONE [not
actually shown]
Processing filter "VCDL"
VCDL: Moving 4 filtered messages to "/home/karhunhammas/VCDL"
VCDL: Moving 4 filtered messages to "/home/karhunhammas/VCDL" DONE [not
actually shown]
Processing filter "ACFG"
Processing filter "P9"
filtering done
Folder "INBOX" opened with 1,278 messages
Searched to Last Message.
ALL of message
END of message
Command "D" not defined for this screen. Use ? for help
Command " " not defined for this screen. Use ? for help
Command "9" not defined for this screen. Use ? for help
Command "d" not defined for this screen. Use ? for help
Command "9" not defined for this screen. Use ? for help
Command "D" not defined for this screen. Use ? for help
Command "9" not defined for this screen. Use ? for help
P9 really is one of my filters, btw, deleting a long-winded diatribe which
appears at intervals as "Page Nine," mixed in with a list I maintain a
subscription to.
--
Beartooth Staffwright, PhD, Neo-Redneck, Double Retiree,
Beartooth
> With any luck at all, I should know, and have posted the answer, here
> by this time tomorrow, and maybe even before it's morning in London.
> Stay tuned.
I have an email from the maintainer of pine at livna, saying :
default passfile is ~/.pine.pwd
--
Beartooth Staffwright, PhD, Neo-Redneck, Double Retiree,
NM Public
>
> I have an email from the maintainer of pine at livna, saying :
>
> default passfile is ~/.pine.pwd
Excellent. Can you tell me what 'livna' is? Is that the same
system where 'titan' is or somewhere else?
Thanks,
ne...
> Sur 2006-05-30, Beartooth skribis:
>>
>> I have an email from the maintainer of pine at livna, saying :
>>
>> default passfile is ~/.pine.pwd
>
>
> Excellent. Can you tell me what 'livna' is?
provider software that Fedora Core & Fedora Extras do not
carry.
HTH
N.Emile...
--
Registered Linux User # 125653 (http://counter.li.org) | Please remove
Certified: 75% bastard, 42% of which is tard. | '.invalid'
http://www.thespark.com/bastardtest | to reply.
Switch to: http://www.speakeasy.net/refer/190653
NM Public
> On Mon, 05 Jun 2006 at 18:35 GMT, NM Public eloquently wrote:
>> Sur 2006-05-30, Beartooth skribis:
>>>
>>> I have an email from the maintainer of pine at livna, saying :
>>>
>>> default passfile is ~/.pine.pwd
>>
>> Excellent. Can you tell me what 'livna' is?
>
> Livna is a software repository for Fedora Core users. They
> provider software that Fedora Core & Fedora Extras do not
> carry.
Thank you N.Emile (and Beartooth and livna!). I just updated this
section of my Power Pine page:
<http://www.ii.com/internet/messaging/pine/pc/#passfile>
so it now says this:
For example, if you use the pine from rpm.livna.org, use these
commands:
touch ~/.pine.pwd
chmod 600 ~/.pine.pwd
Beartooth, could you run those two commands on all your Linux
systems. After you do that, you might be able to save your
passwords on all your Linux systems. Let us know what happens.
Note that having this ~/.pine.pwd file does not require you to
save your passwords -- you can always answer 'No' when Pine asks
about saving your password.
Please post if you have any questions or suggestions for
improving what I wrote on my Power Pine page.
Beartooth
[....]
> Thank you N.Emile (and Beartooth and livna!). I just updated this
> section of my Power Pine page:
>
> <http://www.ii.com/internet/messaging/pine/pc/#passfile>
>
> so it now says this:
>
> For example, if you use the pine from rpm.livna.org, use these
> commands:
>
> touch ~/.pine.pwd
> chmod 600 ~/.pine.pwd
>
> Beartooth, could you run those two commands on all your Linux
> systems. After you do that, you might be able to save your
> passwords on all your Linux systems. Let us know what happens.
OK, starting now. I'll have more questions, but first, I take it that "all
your" means including my wife's that I sometimes use (She gets all her
email at Lserv, and handles it under ssh; no use of adelphia at all.), but
not Lserv (which was running RH9 last time I looked.)
> Note that having this ~/.pine.pwd file does not require you to
> save your passwords -- you can always answer 'No' when Pine asks
> about saving your password.
Are you recommending that?
> Please post if you have any questions or suggestions for
> improving what I wrote on my Power Pine page.
It seems to be one of the things I lost when I inadvertently lost the
browser tabs I hadn't read; from first glance, I'l have at least a couple.
But I'll go do the setting up commands first.
Beartooth
[...]
> commands:
>
> touch ~/.pine.pwd
> chmod 600 ~/.pine.pwd
>
> Beartooth, could you run those two commands on all your Linux
> systems. After you do that, you might be able to save your
> passwords on all your Linux systems. Let us know what happens.
I just did it on all the ones in the house, including my wife's downstairs
via ssh, and in all cases got
[btth@localhost ~]$ touch ~/.pine.pwd
[btth@localhost ~]$ chmod 600 ~/.pine.pwd
[btth@localhost ~]$
> Note that having this ~/.pine.pwd file does not require you to
> save your passwords -- you can always answer 'No' when Pine asks
> about saving your password.
So how do I test it? Put the aliases (or the rest of the aliases) wherever
they aren't all yet? Then command aliassed pine on each, plus the new
alias for pine on my own machines, using the Adelphia instead of the Lserv
password?
Or edit both at once into .pinerc (of which there are several on titan)
somehow? Or what?
Beartooth
> Thank you N.Emile (and Beartooth and livna!). I just updated this
> section of my Power Pine page:
>
> <http://www.ii.com/internet/messaging/pine/pc/#passfile>
> Please post if you have any questions or suggestions for
> improving what I wrote on my Power Pine page.
<sigh> I had reconstructed several -- and then unthinkingly closed and
reopened the newsreader when it failed to connect to the feed that carries
pine -- and lost them.
I still have the tabs on the browser; I'll try to reconstruct them a third
time -- in a word-processor ...
NM Public
> On Thu, 08 Jun 2006 13:25:36 +0100, NM Public wrote:
> I just did it on all the ones in the house, including my wife's downstairs
> via ssh, and in all cases got
>
> [btth@localhost ~]$ touch ~/.pine.pwd
> [btth@localhost ~]$ chmod 600 ~/.pine.pwd
> [btth@localhost ~]$
Good!
>> Note that having this ~/.pine.pwd file does not require you to
>> save your passwords -- you can always answer 'No' when Pine asks
>> about saving your password.
>
> So how do I test it?
I asked you to do this on *all* your machines because eventually
they will all be used. For now, please test it only on your local
machine that has the 'pine -p ...' alias, by typing:
pine
You should be prompted for your titan password and then Pine
should ask you if you want to save it. Answer yes and then you
will never need to type that password again on that machine. Let
us know if it works, i.e., if it actually saves your password.
> Put the aliases (or the rest of the aliases) wherever
> they aren't all yet? Then command aliassed pine on each, plus the new
> alias for pine on my own machines, using the Adelphia instead of the Lserv
> password?
Eventually we will put the pine aliases on all your local
machines. But, first I want to get everything working correctly
on two machines:
1] titan
2] the local machine that currently has the 'pine -p' alias in
place
In the long run, I think it will be less confusing if we focus on
these 2 machines for now.
Once we hear back from Ddave about those IMAP questions, we will
continue setting up the IMAP aspect of all this.
More soon,
Beartooth
> Beartooth wrote:
>> So how do I test it?
>
> I asked you to do this on *all* your machines because eventually
> they will all be used. For now, please test it only on your local
> machine that has the 'pine -p ...' alias, by typing:
Hope I haven't goofed then! I've been doing something like the test below
on at least one other machine, without all the aliases ...
> pine
>
> You should be prompted for your titan password and then Pine
> should ask you if you want to save it. Answer yes and then you
> will never need to type that password again on that machine. Let
> us know if it works, i.e., if it actually saves your password.
It's been asking it under ssh (I think) a/o without the aliases on at
least one other machine. (Irrelevancy by way of explanation : I've been
fighting an absence of my accustomed Gnome desktop on the one with,
sometimes by using Gnome apps under KDE and sometimes by using other
machines.)
I know I've seen that question a couple times -- once, I think,
even when opening Adel-inbox from titan, but it might've been just getting
directly into adelphia -- and told it yes :
+HST:h-68-164-247-62.snvacaid.co... USER: karhunhammas PASSWORD:
Preserve password on DISK for next login? [y]:y
Dunno what snvacaid is, but I've been seeing it.
I then looked at my incoming folders. The ones whose existence it was
denying before are still denied, or at least a couple -- but to my
surprise, when I opened Adel-inbox and gave that password, it asked me
about preserving on DISK as above. (I told it yes.)
Then I quit the aliassed pine (which took me clear off titan) and
commanded the aliassed pine again. Sure enough, it took me straight into
titan pine!
>> Put the aliases (or the rest of the aliases) wherever
>> they aren't all yet? Then command aliassed pine on each, plus the new
>> alias for pine on my own machines, using the Adelphia instead of the Lserv
>> password?
>
> Eventually we will put the pine aliases on all your local
> machines. But, first I want to get everything working correctly
> on two machines:
>
> 1] titan
> 2] the local machine that currently has the 'pine -p' alias in
> place
>
> In the long run, I think it will be less confusing if we focus on
> these 2 machines for now.
Yes. Fwiw, I had tried putting delpine and Adelpine aliases on at least
one other machine, but not the pine -p alias except on the one machine.
> Once we hear back from Ddave about those IMAP questions, we will
> continue setting up the IMAP aspect of all this.
Nothing yet; I'll report when I get it.
NM Public
>
> I just did it on all the ones in the house, including my wife's downstairs
> via ssh, and in all cases got
>
> [btth@localhost ~]$ touch ~/.pine.pwd
> [btth@localhost ~]$ chmod 600 ~/.pine.pwd
> [btth@localhost ~]$
Hey Beartooth,
How about if you do an experiment and also do this on your titan
account? It might work, which would be very cool! (If it does not
work to let you store your passwords, there's no harm done.)
Let us know if it works, i.e., if you get prompted to store your
password when you are running pine in ssh session to titan.
Beartooth
>> [btth@localhost ~]$ touch ~/.pine.pwd
>> [btth@localhost ~]$ chmod 600 ~/.pine.pwd
>> [btth@localhost ~]$
>
>
> Hey Beartooth,
>
> How about if you do an experiment and also do this on your titan
> account? It might work, which would be very cool! (If it does not
> work to let you store your passwords, there's no harm done.)
Just found this post. Here's the result :
Welcome to Titan.LServ.Com!
[karhunhammas@titan ~]$ touch ~/.pine.pwd
[karhunhammas@titan ~]$ chmod 600 ~/.pine.pwd
[karhunhammas@titan ~]$
> Let us know if it works, i.e., if you get prompted to store your
> password when you are running pine in ssh session to titan.
I quit pine, and then got :
[karhunhammas@titan ~]$ pine
+ HOST: titan.lserv.com USER: karhunhammas ENTER PASSWORD:
Pine finished -- Closed "INBOX". Kept 1,295 messages and removed 4.
[karhunhammas@titan ~]$ pine
+ HOST: titan.lserv.com USER: karhunhammas ENTER PASSWORD:
Preserve password on DISK for next login? [y]:
I told it yes, quit again, started again -- and got in without being asked
my password.
Beartooth
> On Mon, 12 Jun 2006 15:15:40 +0100, NM Public wrote:
>
>
>>> [btth@localhost ~]$ touch ~/.pine.pwd
>>> [btth@localhost ~]$ chmod 600 ~/.pine.pwd
>>> [btth@localhost ~]$
>>
>>
>> Hey Beartooth,
>>
>> How about if you do an experiment and also do this on your titan
>> account? It might work, which would be very cool! (If it does not
>> work to let you store your passwords, there's no harm done.)
[...]
>> Let us know if it works, i.e., if you get prompted to store your
>> password when you are running pine in ssh session to titan.
>
> I quit pine, and then got :
>
> [karhunhammas@titan ~]$ pine
> + HOST: titan.lserv.com USER: karhunhammas ENTER PASSWORD:
> Pine finished -- Closed "INBOX". Kept 1,295 messages and removed 4.
> [karhunhammas@titan ~]$ pine
> + HOST: titan.lserv.com USER: karhunhammas ENTER PASSWORD:
> Preserve password on DISK for next login? [y]:
>
> I told it yes, quit again, started again -- and got in without being asked
> my password.
What's more, when (only now) I thought to look (with the tab key) into my
Adel-inbox, it asked again whether to keep the password on disk.