Cookies anyone?

While rummaging around in my cookie jar, I found this message--along with some cookies.

:Netscape HTTP Cookie File
:# http://www.netscape.com/newsref/std/cookie_spec.html
:# This is a generated file!  Do not edit.

Rather than bring down my system by experimenting, I thought I'd ask the list, "What happens if I delete this file?" and "What happens if I delete (edit) the cookies?"

This may have been discussed before, but until now I never checked for cookies.

Thanks for your consideration of this matter.

Vanished

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On Sat, 29 Jun 1996 vanished@alpha.c2.org wrote:

> While rummaging around in my cookie jar, I found this message--along with
> some cookies.
> 
> :Netscape HTTP Cookie File
> :# http://www.netscape.com/newsref/std/cookie_spec.html
> :# This is a generated file!  Do not edit.
> 
> Rather than bring down my system by experimenting, I thought I'd ask the list,
> "What happens if I delete this file?" and "What happens if I delete
> (edit) the cookies?"

I know that there were already several replies so I'll just add a little more
information.

If you are in DOS, you can prevent the cookies file from being written to by
making it read-only (attrib +r cookies.txt).  Ditto for UNIX.  Also, if you
have Netscape 3.04b, you can enable a security option that notifies you
whenever a server attempts to send you a cookie.

- -- Mark

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
markm@voicenet.com              | finger -l for PGP key 0xe3bf2169
http://www.voicenet.com/~markm/ | d61734f2800486ae6f79bfeb70f95348
"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four.  If that
is granted, all else follows."  --George Orwell, _1984_


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A Nym Writes:

> While rummaging around in my cookie jar, I found this message--
> along with some cookies.
> 
> :Netscape HTTP Cookie File
> :# http://www.netscape.com/newsref/std/cookie_spec.html
> :# This is a generated file!  Do not edit.
> 
> Rather than bring down my system by experimenting, I thought I'd ask the list, "What happens if I delete this file?" and "What happens if I 
> delete (edit) the cookies?"
> 
> This may have been discussed before, but until now I never checked for 
> cookies.
> 
> Thanks for your consideration of this matter.

HTTP servers are permitted to store up to 4k bytes of information of their
choice on your machine, which is returned to them upon request the next
time you access their system.

This allows the servers to maintain a client state which persists 
across separate accesses.  

Nothing will happen if you delete the file, other than that servers
will not remember information they stored on the client side during
your previous visits.  If you edit the file, which is binary, you may
possibly mess it up and choke the software that uses it. 

There are some minor privacy implications for "Cookies", but they 
have been discussed on the list before.  

--
     Mike Duvos         $    PGP 2.6 Public Key available     $
     mpd@netcom.com     $    via Finger.                      $

On Sat, 29 Jun 1996 vanished@alpha.c2.org wrote:

> While rummaging around in my cookie jar, I found this message--along with 
> some cookies.
> 
> :Netscape HTTP Cookie File
> :# http://www.netscape.com/newsref/std/cookie_spec.html
> :# This is a generated file!  Do not edit.
> 
> "What happens if I delete this file?" 

Nothing (other than the file getting deleted).

> "What happens if I delete (edit) the cookies?"

They get deleted/edited.

When I was testing some cookie stuff, I regularly deleted several cookies
manually while Netscape was running, with no ugliness resulting. Since
there is no way to delete them from Netscape itself, vi is about the
best option.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Jeremey Barrett
Senior Software Engineer			jeremey@forequest.com 
The ForeQuest Company       			http://www.forequest.com/

   "less is more."
		-- Mies van de Rohe.

   Ken Thompson has an automobile which he helped design.  Unlike most
   automobiles, it has neither speedometer, nor gas gage, nor any of the
   numerous idiot lights which plague the modern driver.  Rather, if the
   driver makes any mistake, a giant "?" lights up in the center of the
   dashboard.  "The experienced driver", he says, "will usually know
   what's wrong."

		-- 'fortune` output