1631180 - Blank line added at start of plain text message

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Description

[Paul Menzel]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:74.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/74.0

Steps to reproduce:

Reply to a multi-part message in MIME format, and Thunderbird is configured to only display the plain text part, and to only reply with plain text messages.

Actual results:

Despite the message window showing no additional blank line at the top, the reply had a blank line at the top. This can be verified in the folder Sent.

Expected results:

The reply message should send what the user sees, that means no additional blank line at the top.

Comment 1

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

I blank line is there so you have somewhere to start typing, I think. Why would you send it back without typing anything?

Comment 2

[Paul Menzel]

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I didn’t reply with a blank message. There is text in the message body, and in the composer I started in the first one. I have several of these, and it looks like the message replied to has mixed content.

Two examples:

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit


Dear Magnus,
[…]

With S/MIME signature:

Content-Type: multipart/signed; protocol="application/pkcs7-signature"; micalg=sha-256; boundary="------------ms000503020604070507040703"

This is a cryptographically signed message in MIME format.

--------------ms000503020604070507040703
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Language: en-US
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable


Dear Magnus,
[…]

Comment 3

[Firefox Bug Husbandry Bot]

Because this bug's Severity has not been changed from the default since it was filed, and it's Priority is -- (non,) indicating it has has not been previously triaged, the bug's Severity is being updated to -- (default, untriaged.)

Comment 4

[Paul Menzel]

@mkmelin, was my explanation clear? If you write plain text messages a lot, you should be able to find some examples in your Sent folder.

Comment 5

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Seems related to S/MIME, or is it reproducible somehow else?

Comment 6

[Paul Menzel]

I still haven’t found a reproducer, but it’s happening happening without S/MIME (set up in Thunderbird). I just checked some of the message, I replied to, and it even happened with a messages in plain text but base64 encoded.

Comment 7

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Reporter,
How does it behave when using version 78?

Comment 8

[Phoenix]

Resolved per whiteboard

Comment 9

[Paul Menzel]

I just reproduced it with 78.6.0.

Comment 10

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Thomas, can you reproduce?

Comment 11

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #10)

Thomas, can you reproduce?

I've tried very hard, but this does not reproduce for me. 78.11.0 (32-bit), Win10.

STR

• View > Message Body as > Plaintext
• For the account/identity which you'll use for writing/sending:
  ≡ > Account Settings > YourAccount > Composition and Addressing > Composition > uncheck [ ] Compose messages in HTML format
• Original message is multipart (multipart/alternative = text+html). 7 bit or 8 bit. Per step 1, only the plaintext part displays.
• Reply to original message.
• Add reply text "Hello world, this is the very first line" in the very first line of reply.
• Send (Well, I'm using Send later (Ctrl+Shift+Enter) to test and check outgoing message in Local Folders > Outbox).

Actual = Expected

• First reply text line remains first line after reply is received
• No empty line added as seen by reporter

So we need more detail to reproduce.
Is it about base64 encoded? How can I create an original message which has that?

Comment 12

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Paul (reporter), what we really need here is a test message from you which reproduces the problem for you reliably.
You can save that message as .eml, remove private data with text editor as required, and use Attach New File button above comment 0.

Comment 13

[Paul Menzel]

I had to look for a while, but I found one message in my Sent folder composed with Thunderbird/78.10.0. I have to check again, but could it be related to re-formatting text (Ctrl + r). I am sure, the blank line is not there in the compositing window, but I am often noting some formatting errors introduced by reformatting text, if there are special characters in that part. The compositing window, what the user sees, still uses some HTML renderer to display even plain text messages, right? Could there be a bug? Can I dump the “raw” message/data in the background somehow?

Comment 14

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Attachment: Screenshot: Using TB developer tools to inspect HTML display source of plain text message

(In reply to Paul Menzel from comment #13)

The compositing window,

"composition window" or "Write window"

what the user sees, still uses some HTML renderer to display even plain text messages, right?

Right.

Could there be a bug?

Bugs could be anywhere ;-)

Can I dump the “raw” message/data in the background somehow?

Yes (see screenshot). In TB main 3-pane, Ctrl+Shift+I to start TB developer tools (also in the Tools menu). Confirm connection alert with OK. In devtools, change to Inspector tab. Click on "Select an iframe..." iconic button and select messengercompose.xhtml to inspect composition window. Before inspector tab, there's pick an element icon to select anything on the target window and inspect in code.

Comment 15

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Thomas D. (:thomas8) from comment #14)

Can I dump the “raw” message/data in the background somehow?

Yes (see screenshot). In TB main 3-pane, Ctrl+Shift+I to start TB developer tools (also in the Tools menu). Confirm connection alert with OK. In devtools, change to Inspector tab. Click on "Select an iframe..." iconic button and select messengercompose.xhtml to inspect composition window. Before inspector tab, there's pick an element icon to select anything on the target window and inspect in code.

Can you try with version 91?

Comment 16

[Paul Menzel]

Yes, it still happens with Mozilla Thunderbird 91.5.1.

Comment 17

[Paul Menzel]

It still happens with thunderbird 102.2.2-1 (libgtk-3-0 3.24.34-3).

Comment 18

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

We still very much need a testcase message attached to the bug report.

Comment 19

[Phoenix]

Resolved per whiteboard