277159 - disabling general handler for application/octet-stream is not acceptable

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Baldvin Kovács]

In nsHelperAppDlg.js.in:
      if (mimeType == "application/octet-stream" || 
          mimeType == "application/x-msdownload" ||
          this.mLauncher.targetFile.isExecutable()) {
        rememberChoice.checked = false;
        rememberChoice.disabled = true;
      }

This is definitely not acceptable. See my case:

1. I'd like to use my own script that checks the file type with the unix
   utility called "file", and handles it.
2. I'd like to it always.
3. I don't like to learn how to write manually a mimeTypes.rdf for this
   (though I could).
4. So I create my ~/.mime.types and ~/.mailcap, for handling    
application/octet-stream.
5. It works, mozilla recognizes my item, just it DOES NOT allow to save my
preference into mimeTypes.rdf because of those dirty lines.

I will never ever accept that I am not allowed to do it. I'll make a patch, if
I'll be turned down by developers, although I am pretty sure that if somebody
thinks over it, he/she will understand that this is not ok.

Thanks for any replies,
Baldvin Kovacs

(Anyways: why I cannot add mime types manually anymore under preferences/dowloads?)

Comment 1

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

application/octet-stream is what we munge binary data sent as text/plain to, so
there is no "single" handler that's appropriate (yes, your script does the job,
but most people don't have that option).  If someone sees the dialog say its an
mpeg, and they pick their favourite video player, then get something like a .rar
file from somewhere else, they'll be confused.  They might find the mimetypes
settings, then again, they might not.  The risk/reward just isn't there in this
case.

You can always just roll your own build from source, but we're not going to
expose this to users.

As for your secondary question, most users have no need to manually add
arbitrary mimetypes.  The idea is to "learn" as the user goes through the
process of normal use, and adding arbitrary mimetypes doesn't really add value
in any way.  You can try to argue the point, but its been done and I really
don't care to do it yet again.