Re: lynx-dev Where are the Cookies?

[Doug Kaufman]

On Wed, 17 May 2000, Martin McCormick wrote:

>       I am still confused about what happens with cookies.  I
> do not have a file in my home directory of .lynx_cookies, at
> least I didn't create one and I don't see one when I am not
> running lynx.  I have been asked upon visiting some sites to
> afterward.  Where did they go?  I have done nothing unusual in
> lynx.cfg.  The lines dealing with the cookie file are:
> 
> #COOKIE_FILE:~/.lynx_cookies
> #COOKIE_SAVE_FILE:~/.lynx_cookies
> 
>       In other words, no cookie file is defined.  When I accept
> the cookie, what actually happens?

With the current version of lynx, unless you specifically enable
PERSISTENT_COOKIES, no cookies are saved between sessions. They are
used only during the current session. If you want to save cookies
between sessions, edit lynx.cfg to set PERSISTENT_COOKIES:TRUE.

When you say that you don't see a .lynx_cookies file, how did you
look? This may seem basic, but the usual "ls" invocation doesn't show
files that start with a ".". Did you do "ls -a" to look? The "#" at
the beginning of the definition does not mean that no COOKIE_FILE is
defined. It means that the default (usually defined in userdefs.h) is
not overridden. It isn't defined in lynx.cfg, but it still
may be defined elsewhere.

You may check the cookies that you have by going into the
"COOKIE JAR". The default binding is "CTRL-K". If you don't have
PERSISTENT_COOKIES set, this should be empty when you start lynx.
After you go to a site from which you accept a cookie, it should show
in the COOKIE JAR.
  
>       I am a little concerned that there are cookies somewhere
> that I don't know about.  Me thinks when it comes to web browsers

Lynx gives lots of control over cookie handling. You should be able
to set it to the degree of convenience and privacy that you want.
The current default is to compile in the ability to save persistent
cookies, but to not use them unless specifically enabled.
                          Doug

__ 
Doug Kaufman
Internet: address@hidden


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