bug#67589: Bug with rmail (Emacs 29.1) and movemail 3.16 when password starts with dash symbol

bug#67589: Bug with rmail (Emacs 29.1) and movemail 3.16 when password starts with dash symbol

[rameiko87]

My remote mailbox password starts with a dash. I cannot use rmail 
regardless to whether I store the password in my imaps:// URL or I 
insert the password when prompted, and escaping the dash does not help 
in either case.

As for movemail, when I'm prompted to insert the password I don't 
remember in which cases I was successful (but I'm confident to say that 
the command failed either when the dash was escaped or when it was not). 
I can also report that when the password is included in the URL which I 
pass to movemail, then everything works as expected both when the dash 
is not escaped and when it is.

bug#67589: Bug with rmail (Emacs 29.1) and movemail 3.16 when password starts with dash symbol

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Sat, 02 Dec 2023 18:50:53 +0000
> From: rameiko87@posteo.net
> 
> My remote mailbox password starts with a dash. I cannot use rmail 
> regardless to whether I store the password in my imaps:// URL or I 
> insert the password when prompted, and escaping the dash does not help 
> in either case.

Did you try to customize email-movemail-flags to give it the string
"--" (i.e. two dashes)?

bug#67589: Bug with rmail (Emacs 29.1) and movemail 3.16 when password starts with dash symbol

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Cc: 67589@debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Sat, 02 Dec 2023 21:50:26 +0200
> From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
> 
> > Date: Sat, 02 Dec 2023 18:50:53 +0000
> > From: rameiko87@posteo.net
> > 
> > My remote mailbox password starts with a dash. I cannot use rmail 
> > regardless to whether I store the password in my imaps:// URL or I 
> > insert the password when prompted, and escaping the dash does not help 
> > in either case.
> 
> Did you try to customize email-movemail-flags to give it the string
                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sorry, I meant rmail-movemail-flags.

bug#67589: Bug with rmail (Emacs 29.1) and movemail 3.16 when password starts with dash symbol

[Eli Zaretskii]

[Please use Reply All to reply, so that the bug tracker is CC'ed.]

> Date: Sun, 03 Dec 2023 16:48:49 +0000
> From: rameiko87@posteo.net
> 
> Dear Eli,
> Thanks for your reply. I would attempt customizing rmail-movemail-flags 
> , however I'd like to first find a description for the -- flag for 
> movemail, which I couldn't find on the movemail doc. Any idea?

I assumed that "--" means "all that follows cannot be an option".
Since movemail is part of GNU Mailutils, I assumed that it behaves
like all the other GNU programs with respect to options.

bug#67589: Bug with rmail (Emacs 29.1) and movemail 3.16 when password starts with dash symbol

[Jakub Ječmínek via Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

> Did you try to customize email-movemail-flags to give it the string
> "--" (i.e. two dashes)?

I confirm that this works.

bug#67589: Bug with rmail (Emacs 29.1) and movemail 3.16 when password starts with dash symbol

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Fri, 17 May 2024 21:20:08 +0000
> From: Jakub Ječmínek <kuba@kubajecminek.cz>
> Cc: rameiko87@posteo.net, 67589@debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
> 
> > Did you try to customize email-movemail-flags to give it the string
> > "--" (i.e. two dashes)?
> 
> I confirm that this works.

Thanks, I'm therefore closing this bug.