keyring has broken user environment and scripts

[sudipm-mukherjee]

General informations

• system/distribution (with version): Debian
• offlineimap version (offlineimap -V): packaged from SHA d29a4dc459401f8a78e347cb0f8ae7670add0975
• Python version: 3.11.7
• server name or domain: any domain, I have used gmail in the conf file.
• CLI options: any, do not add ignore-keyring

Configuration file offlineimaprc

[general]
accounts = Gmail
utime_from_header = yes
filename_use_mail_timestamp = yes
maxconnections = 8

[Account Gmail]
localrepository = Gmail-Local
remoterepository = Gmail-Remote

[Repository Gmail-Local]
type = GmailMaildir
localfolders = ~/Mail/Gmail

[Repository Gmail-Remote]
type = Gmail
remoteuser = <userid>
realdelete = no
maxconnections = 8
maxsyncaccounts = 8
sslcacertfile = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

Steps to reproduce the error

• Use a Debian system with xfce4
• Use the command offlineimap -o.
• With old offlineimap3 it would have asked for password and then fetched the mail, But now offlineimap3 just hangs and does not ask for password.

ignore-keyring is False by default, and so offlineimap3 will check for password from keyring. So, all users will now need to modify their scripts or workflow to use offlineimap3. Since the new feature forces the users to modify their script/usage it should be considered as a regression.
Instead of ignore-keyring, there should have been an option enable-keyring and users who want to use keyring should have added it to their command or conf file. Since this is a new features, it is expected that users will need to modify their scripts to use it, instead of breaking all the other user's scripts.

@thekix I am marking enable-keyring as True in Debian for now, so that it does not break user's scripts and enviroment. One of the user mailed me today about it and I can reproduce the problem.

[sudipm-mukherjee]

On a System using gnome, it now asks to set password for keyring.

[sudipm-mukherjee]

@thekix I am adding this patch:

--- offlineimap3-0.0~git20231218.d29a4dc+dfsg.orig/offlineimap/init.py
+++ offlineimap3-0.0~git20231218.d29a4dc+dfsg/offlineimap/init.py
@@ -284,7 +284,7 @@ class OfflineImap:
         # ignore_keyring? Set [general]ignore_keyring=True.
         if options.ignore_keyring:
             config.set('general', 'ignore-keyring', 'True')
-        config.set_if_not_exists('general', 'ignore-keyring', 'False')
+        config.set_if_not_exists('general', 'ignore-keyring', 'True')

         # update_keyring? Set [general]update_keyring=True.
         if options.update_keyring:

So, now any Debian user who wants to use keyring needs to menttion ignore-keyring = False in [general] of offlineimaprc.

[thekix]

Hi @sudipm-mukherjee

I added the patch to make keyring optional (Merge pull request #191 from WhyNotHugo/optional-keyring). Now it is working fine for you?

Best Regards,
kix

[etbuira]

@sudipm-mukherjee, it is fixed in a better maintained fork (and drop-in replacement) https://github.com/IMAPMirror/imapmirror

[thekix]

@sudipm-mukherjee Please, try now with the latest changes. I think now this issue could be closed.