bug#45711: 27.1; Ambiguous account match in .authinfo still used by smtpmail

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Sun, 10 Jan 2021 10:30:13 +1100 Duncan Bayne <duncan@bayne.id.au> wrote: 

DB> Ted Zlatanov writes:

DB> I think it's the right thing for auth-source-search to return a list of
DB> matches, but I think it's a bug for smtpmail-try-auth-methods to just
DB> quietly use the first match in that case.

OK.

...
DB> What it seems to be doing with (car (... :max 1) is to simply take the
DB> first match and use that.

DB> What I *think* it should do is either a) error out in the case of an
DB> ambiguous match, or b) prompt the use to ask which of the various
DB> matches it should use.

I see. Your approach makes sense, I agree, but it will be surprising to
people who intentionally have multiple matches. Maybe we need to search
with :max 2.

There, if the :max 2 search returns two equally specific entries, that's
probably an error, or at least a strong warning (sit-for 3 seconds or
something). But if the :max 2 search returns a less specific (more
general) entry in the second slot, then that's probably what the user
intended.

What do you think?

DB> Meta: this is my first Emacs bug report, and I'm planning to write a
DB> patch to address it.  Not sure whether the discussion of whether it's a
DB> bug, and if so, what the appropriate fix is, belongs here or on the
DB> emacs-devel list.  Happy to take the conversation there if that's
DB> protocol.

No, here is perfect. If you provide a patch I can apply it (unless it's
non-trivial, in which case you'll need to sign the contributor papers).

Ted