477998 - Cannot install add-ons where the filenames in the xpi use '\' as the directory separator

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, defect)

Description

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

It seems that there are some zip tools (izarc is the first real one I have come across) that will use '\' as the directory separator in the zip file headers. In this case the extension manager will fail to extract the files since it always splits on '/'.

The zip spec forbids this: "All slashes should be forward slashes '/' as opposed to backwards slashes '\' for compatibility with Amiga and UNIX file systems etc." so arguably it is the zip tool at fault, but if there are enough of them doing it and the fix is simple enough we may want to take it.

Comment 1

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

How about reporting this to the izarc developers ?

Comment 2

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

(In reply to comment #1)
> How about reporting this to the izarc developers ?

pennywise has apparently done so.

Comment 3

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

Should we modify nsIZipWriter so it won't even write zips with backslashes?

Comment 4

[pennywise]

yes, I informed izarc ([e-mail]):

-----------<snip>---------------
Dear support team,

as you can see in

 J.  Explanation of fields:
      file name: (Variable)

inside the zip specifications [1], there is this sentence:

" ... All slashes should be forward slashes '/' as opposed to backwards slashes '\' ..."

So, IZarc is not behaving like it should. This is a serious malfunction. This was detected when creating an Firefox Extension .xpi-File which is basically a zip file. There is also a bug report on the mozilla website [2].


Kindly Regards
    Matthias Coy

[1] http://www.pkware.com/documents/casestudies/APPNOTE.TXT
[2] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=477998
-----------<snap>---------------

Comment 5

[pennywise]

still no response from izarc, I resent the mail today.

Comment 6

[Andy McKay]

Due to a long period of inactivity on this bug (7.11 years), I am intending to close this bug within a month or so in accordance with: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Add-ons/OldBugs Please remove [intent-to-close] from the whiteboard and comment on this bug if you would like to keep it open.