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

[Harry Putnam]

Kevin Rodgers <ihs_4664@yahoo.com> writes:

> 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,

Not really.  Finding out what it is and that it can be turned off is
good of course, but why is it getting written to .emacs-custom in a
way that breaks init?