147434 - a file named ~file.txt will expand to /home/userfile.txt when being attached

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: UI Design, defect, P2)

Description

[Dan Parent]

This is happening on an rc3 build, with an id of 2002052309

When trying to attach a file named ~file.txt I get the following error dialog
(where user is the username I use to log in to my machine):

Error opening /home/userfile.txt
File /home/userfile.txt doesn't exist

Expected Results:

File named ~file.txt attached to email message

Steps to reproduce
1. touch "~file.txt"
2. open message composer
3. click on attach button
4. choose /path/to/~file.txt
5. click ok
6. see above error

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

This is a bug in the XP filepicker, actually.  It always expands a leading "~"
into the homedir. It should be checking for "~/" instead.

I'll take this.

Comment 2

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Mental note.  Typing "~" in the textfield and hitting enter should go to the 
home directory.  At the same time, someone may name a file "~".  Have to handle 
that somehow...

Comment 3

[[e-mail]]

Hmm I guess there are two options:
1) dropping the support for ~ alltogether. 
Since there is a "home" button that would not be too terrible I guess.
2) restricting support to just a single "~" (same as home button) or
something that starts with "~/" This leaves the problem that a file or 
directory might actually be called "~" and require some sort of escape
(e.g. the backslash) for that case. Since this is not described anywhere
and there is no help on it, this might still be confusing. Another problem
with supporting "~" might be that it makes it harder to have the XP filepicker
truly be XP. But then it is not that XP currently anyway ... 
3) implementing the full tilde substitution scheme from the shell, including
~xxx to denote the home dir of user xxx and backslash ecaping.

Comment 4

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

1)  Please, no.  It's a lot faster than the button
2)  Something like this, yes.... Maybe disallow selection of a file called "~"
    by typing the "~" (but allow if it's selected in the list).  Or check for a
    file called "~" before treating it as the homedir.  Either one.
3)  That would be hell (especially because different shells treat it
    differently).

Comment 5

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

I won't get to this in the foreseeable future.  If someone could take this, that
would be great.

Comment 6

[Christian :Biesinger (don't email me, ping me on IRC)]

Attachment: suggested patch

thoughts about this patch?
should I put the new clone() into a try..catch block?

Comment 7

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Comment on attachment 126717 [details] [diff] [review]
suggested patch

Looks reasonable.  Test well!

Comment 8

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

To the man with the patch.

Comment 9

[Christian :Biesinger (don't email me, ping me on IRC)]

Checking in res/content/filepicker.js;
/cvsroot/mozilla/xpfe/components/filepicker/res/content/filepicker.js,v  <--  fi
lepicker.js
new revision: 1.83; previous revision: 1.82
done