bug in url.el

[ken <gebser@mousecar.com>]

Some code developed a few years ago which worked fine up to my latest 
upgrade of emacs now errors out with:

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (void-variable url-passwd-entry-func)
   (cond (url-passwd-entry-func nil) ((fboundp ...) (setq 
url-passwd-entry-func ...)) ((or ... ...) (if ... ...) (setq 
url-passwd-entry-func ...)) ((or ... ...) (setq url-passwd-entry-func 
...)) (t (url-warn ... "(url-setup): Can't determine how to read 
passwords, winging it.")))
   (if url-setup-done nil (mailcap-parse-mailcaps) 
(mailcap-parse-mimetypes) (url-register-auth-scheme "basic" nil 4) 
(url-register-auth-scheme "digest" nil 7) (setq url-cookie-file (or 
url-cookie-file ...)) (setq url-history-file (or url-history-file ...)) 
(url-history-parse-history) (url-history-setup-save-timer) 
(url-cookie-setup-save-timer) (url-cookie-parse-file url-cookie-file) 
(let (...) (if noproxy ...)) (cond (url-passwd-entry-func nil) (... ...) 
(... ... ...) (... ...) (t ...)) (url-setup-privacy-info) (run-hooks 
(quote url-load-hook)) (setq url-setup-done t))
   (unless url-setup-done (mailcap-parse-mailcaps) 
(mailcap-parse-mimetypes) (url-register-auth-scheme "basic" nil 4) 
(url-register-auth-scheme "digest" nil 7) (setq url-cookie-file (or 
url-cookie-file ...)) (setq url-history-file (or url-history-file ...)) 
(url-history-parse-history) (url-history-setup-save-timer) 
(url-cookie-setup-save-timer) (url-cookie-parse-file url-cookie-file) 
(let (...) (if noproxy ...)) (cond (url-passwd-entry-func nil) (... ...) 
(... ... ...) (... ...) (t ...)) (url-setup-privacy-info) (run-hooks 
(quote url-load-hook)) (setq url-setup-done t))
   url-do-setup()
   url-retrieve("....

The URL my code is trying to fetch requires no password, so that's the 
first odd thing.  Why should the function fail for lack of something 
which isn't needed?  Whatever password configuration the function is 
requiring should be required only when the situation requires it, yes? 
So I'd think that portion of the code should be moved out from 
url-do-setup and called only when needed, i.e., only when the URL 
requires a userid and password.

The same function makes mention of 'user defaults' but gives not a hint 
as to how the user is to set such defaults.  It would seem to be a good 
idea for this information to be provided somewhere so that regular users 
can set their defaults without having to reverse engineer the code to 
see what's being asked for.

Finally, what could I easily and expediently do to work around this bug? 
  My first thought would be to put some statements and/or assign some 
variables in the user defaults file, whatever and wherever that is and 
in whatever format this function would accept.  But other workarounds 
might be  better... who knows?

tia.