372696 - Thunderbird cannot handle uuencoded text attachments properly - can't save or perhaps see

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[Jon Ribbens]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.2) Gecko/20070219 Firefox/2.0.0.2
Build Identifier: version 1.5.0.10 (20070221)

With the option "mail.inline_attachments" set to 'true', there is no way to save text attachments (they are displayed in-line only).

With the option "mail.inline_attachments" set to 'false', there is no way to save or even see text attachments (they are not displayed at all, not even in the attachments list).

Note, I am using uuencoded attachments. I don't know if the problem also applies to MIME-encoded attachments.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. uuencode foo.txt <foo.txt | sendmail [e-mail]

Actual Results:  
View the message in Thunderbird. Notice you cannot save the attachment, no matter what the setting of "mail.inline_attachments".

Expected Results:  
If "mail.inline_attachments" is 'false', the attachment should appear in the attachments list.

Comment 1

[David :Bienvenu]

Mime-encoded attachments work fine - sounds like you're sending your uuencoded file as the body of the message...

Comment 2

[Jon Ribbens]

That's what I said in the 'steps to reproduce' ;-)

Comment 3

[David :Bienvenu]

yup, just trying to make it explicit - there's a remote chance this is fixed in 2.0 - I remember coming across some issue like this

Comment 4

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Since I don't have ready access to a 'sendmail' implementation, I can't generate the test data.  How about saving the message as a .EML file and attaching it to thie bug?

Meanwhile -- could this be related to bug 182627?

Comment 5

[David :Bienvenu]

yes, I think they're related, if not the same...

Comment 6

[Jon Ribbens]

Attachment: Test case message

Comment 7

[Jon Ribbens]

"Don't have ready access to a 'sendmail' implementation" scares me. Nevertheless I have created a test case. It looks like this:

From: jon (Jon Ribbens)

begin 644 hello.txt
&:&5L;&\*
`
end

I don't know if bug 182627 is the same, that bug does not involve uuencode. And it's been open for over 4 years. But it may have the same cause behind the scenes.

Comment 8

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #7)
> "Don't have ready access to a 'sendmail' implementation" scares me.

I'm not scared, but I'm deeply irritated by someone who feels free to dis my technical competence because I'm not running *nix -- and I feel free to mock said loser who can't follow simple directions for providing a test case.

Save message that exhibits problem as .EML
Attach EML file to bug

Do not paste into bug.  Because, as it happens, I can't reproduce the problem with your "test case."

Comment 9

[Jon Ribbens]

Excellent. Can I mock you back for foolishly flaming me before you've checked the attachments to the bug?

Comment 10

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

I didn't say you didn't save an attachment; I said, you didn't follow directions.  That test is not a .EML file saved from Thunderbird.

That attachment does not reproduce the problem, at least not under Windows -- which is what this bug was filed against.

Comment 11

[Jon Ribbens]

You are mistaken. The attachment is a valid .EML file and does indeed reproduce the problem under Windows. Just save it to disk, rename it to something.eml, and double-click on it. Observe that Thunderbird does not show the attachment. (Make sure you have mail.inline_attachments set to false before opening the message.)

Let me know if there's anything else you need assistance with.

Comment 13

[[:Aureliano Buendía]]

Attachment: testcase for bug in comment #42

I think that this bug could be close also as dupe of bug #61810 that is related to images, but the underlying  problem is the same.

Comment 14

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

I'm feeling (perhaps irrationally) conservative, so marking depends (which doesn't cost us much)

Comment 15

[alfadog]

I wouldn't mind chiming in on this - I see the undecoded text in my messages when someone sends me e-mail with uuencoded attachments. The attachment in this bug report also shows as undecoded with both true and false set for mail.inline... 

The work-around for me was to open the account using outlook express and forward the message to myself using base64 encoding.

This is a bit of an embarrassing bug, don't you think?

Thunderbird 5.0