Re: the great Gmail ERR [AUTH] therad

Charles Cazabon wrote:
> Neil R. Ormos <[email protected]> wrote:

>>> [Gmail OAUTH] When I looked last week, I saw
>>> mention of some patches
>>> The most recent thread was this one:

>>> https://marc.info/?l=getmail&m=165171175431842&w=2 [...]

>> I had read that thread offering a patch to
>> getmail-gmail-xoauth-tokens, but it does not
>> explain how to set up the configuration file.

> If you look in getmail's configuration
> documentation for `use_xoauth2` you'll find some
> info.

> There is other documentation/commentary around
> the net from people who have configured OAUTH
> for Gmail/getmail.

> However...

>> From the thread, it looks like the script is
>> unusable until that additional change is made,
>> but I'm not sure if my interpretation is
>> correct or a pessimistic overshoot.

> I believe that is the case.  No one has
> submitted this work, and I can't really do it
> since I do not have access to Gmail (well, and I
> lack time, too).

> If you want to write that code, I would happily
> accept it.

> Overall, it would be much simpler -- it's really
> easy, just a few clicks -- for you to enable 2FA
> on your Google account and set an app password
> to use with getmail.

> It literally is a 10-second task.

My earlier post and yours crossed in the mail. 

The problem is not that I can't figure out how to set an app password or can't spend the few minutes to do it.  

The problem is that I do not want the effects of turning on Google's Two-Step Verification. 

In particular, I don't want my access to Gmail or anything else to be dependent on Google's capricious verification challenges that require me to have a phone that is charged, active on a WLAN or mobile network, and within physical reach, with absolutely no recourse if the phone is not available.

Another problem with reliance on app passwords is that if the user changes their Google account password, all the app passwords are invalidated.