187949 - kernel.org - Downloading PGP signature files fails with zero-length file (bogus content-encoding header)

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Tech Evangelism Graveyard :: English US, defect)

Description

[Valdis Kletnieks]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.3a) Gecko/20021212
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.3a) Gecko/20021212

Not sure if this is download manager or network:http or other.

Going to the URL and trying to download one of the *.bz2.sign files works fine.

Downloading any of the *.gz.sign files fails and creates a zero-length file.
Apparently, an attempt is made to unzip it, which produces no output since it's
not a gzipped file, it's a PGP signature of the gzipped file.

Even worse, trying to download it a second time produces a popup error:

"/tmp/ygzxlhm6.sign could not be saved, because the source file could not be read.

Try again later, or contact the server administrator."

This seems to hint that the confusion has extended into the local cache.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Go to the URL
2. Select any of the *.gz.sign files for downloading.
3. 

Actual Results:  
First attempt to download produced a zero-length file, subsequent attempts
produced an error popup.

Expected Results:  
Downloaded a 248-byte PGP ascii-armored signature.

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

> Apparently, an attempt is made to unzip it

Of course.  The server claims it's gzipped:

Content-Encoding: x-gzip

This looks like a server configuration issue to me, pure and simple...

Comment 2

[Valdis Kletnieks]

And some snooping with 'snort' shows that it only works with the *.bz2.sign
files because THOSE get sent with a 'Content-Encoding: x-bzip2' which gets
ignored because Mozilla doesn't do bzip2.

I think there's two problems here:

1) The issue with www.kernel.org sending duff content-encodings is obviously an
issue for 'Tech Evangelism'.

2) I contend the fact that there's a Mozilla bug here as well - it tries to
handle the 'Content-Encoding: gzip', fails, and then SILENTLY SAVES AN EMPTY
FILE.  More reasonable behavior would be either:

a) Save the original input stream (possibly not doable if we're unzipping on the
fly and don't have the earlier stream handly).

b) Put up a popup *telling* me that there's been an error decoding.

The current behavior of silently saving a demonstrably broken file is well past
sub-optimal and into pessimal...

On the bright side, I now understand why every once in a while, I'll download
a *.tar.gz file and find it magically unzipped and still called foo.tar.gz -
mozilla undid a gratuitous incorrect Content-Encoding: for me....

(I tried to refile this to 'Tech Evangelism' before I realized there was a
Mozilla side to it as well, but it claimed I wasn't the submitter, not sure why)

Comment 3

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

> b) Put up a popup *telling* me that there's been an error decoding.

Bug 184144

> I'll download a *.tar.gz file and find it magically unzipped

I put in code that explicitly checks for .tar.gz and does _not_ unzip... if you
see those being unzipped (with current trunk builds) please file a bug and cc
me; we should not be unzipping those (a pox on people who write content-encoding
when they mean transfer-encoding).

Over to tech evang, since the mozilla issues are already covered by another bug.

Comment 4

[Valdis Kletnieks]

OK.. I've cc'ed myself on 184144, and I'll let the tech-evangelists work the
other side.  I'll keep an eye open for the 'unzip a tar.gz' failure, and open a
bug if I catch it happening again (all I can remember about the LAST time was
being ticked because I was downloading a large tar.gz, clearing enough space on
/home so it would fit with 5M to spare, and being amazed that I had to clear
*another* 75M to get it to fit... ;)

Comment 5

[Bob Clary [:bc] (inactive)]

tech evang june 2003 reorg

Comment 6

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

is this now fixed ?

Comment 7

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

INCOMPLETE due to lack of activity since the end of 2009.

If someone is willing to investigate the issues raised in this bug to determine whether they still exist, *and* work with the site in question to fix any existing issues, please feel free to re-open and assign to yourself.

Sorry for the bugspam; filter on "NO MORE PRE-2010 TE BUGS" to remove.