Question

I've followed the instructions here on making a .netrc file to store my FTP logins. I don't know where to put this file though. I've tried it in various places, but Emacs doesn't seem to recognise it.

I'm using EmacsW32.

Answer 1

Emacs does have password caching built in in password-cache.el but for some reason the default time it remembers passwords is 16 seconds.

To change this either use M-x customize-group and select the password group or add the something like following to your .emacs:

;Cache passwords for one hour
(setq password-cache-expiry 3600)

or:

;Don't expire cached passwords
(setq password-cache-expiry nil)

Answer 2

I think password caching only lasts the length of the session. YHVH was correct though - I was just trying to save my .netrc in the wrong place. I'll mark this as the accepted answer, but if YHVH answers I'll delete mine and set theirs as the accepted answer.