673471 - `+' is an invalid character in key/directory names

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 541130

(Thunderbird :: General, defect)

Description

[Mahesh Asolkar]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:7.0a2) Gecko/20110720 Firefox/7.0a2
Build ID: 20110720225139

Steps to reproduce:

During normal Thunderbird (Shredder) use, only for some messages, not sure which ones, I get this error message.


Actual results:

An error dialog pops up with the following content:

"An error occurred while loading or saving configuration information for Gecko. Some of your configuration settings may not work properly."

Details:
-----
Bad key or directory name: "/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/GMT+00/command": `+' is an invalid character in key/directory names
Bad key or directory name: "/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/GMT+00/command": `+' is an invalid character in key/directory names
Bad key or directory name: "/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/GMT+00/command": `+' is an invalid character in key/directory names
Bad key or directory name: "/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/GMT+00/command": `+' is an invalid character in key/directory names
Bad key or directory name: "/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/GMT+00/command": `+' is an invalid character in key/directory names
Bad key or directory name: "/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/GMT+00/command": `+' is an invalid character in key/directory names
Bad key or directory name: "/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/GMT+00/command": `+' is an invalid character in key/directory names
Bad key or directory name: "/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/GMT+00/command": `+' is an invalid character in key/directory names
Bad key or directory name: "/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/GMT+00/command": `+' is an invalid character in key/directory names
Bad key or directory name: "/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/GMT+00/command": `+' is an invalid character in key/directory names
-----



Expected results:

Shredder should not pop up this error message.

Comment 1

[Mahesh Asolkar]

Just in case, here's my user agent:

  Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:8.0a1) Gecko/20110722 Thunderbird/8.0a1

Comment 2

[John Fitzgibbon]

I have this problem too with Thunderbird 3, (installed on various 32-bit OSes: Centos 5.3, Fedora 12, Fedora 14).

Version details: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.2.9) Gecko/20100930 Fedora/3.1.4-1.tb.el5 Thunderbird/3.1.4

It's a real pain, because it happens for any mail, (usually replies, forwards), that include Date headers in plain text. For example, I can be recreate the problem by sending myself a mail with just the following content:

GMT+01:00

Whenever I view this mail, I get the following popup error:

Bad key or directory name: "/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/GMT+01/command": `+' is an invalid character in key/directory names

Looks to me like TB is searching for URI scheme names, (like http:, ftp:, etc.), in the text, (presumably to create clickable links), and then looking for a handler command in a path that is based on the scheme name.

From RFC 2396, a scheme name can include a '+':

scheme        = alpha *( alpha | digit | "+" | "-" | "." )

... so there's nothing wrong with looking for a scheme called "GMT+01:". However, if a '+' is included in a path/filename, ***it needs to be escaped***.

Comment 3

[Wolfgang Rosenauer [:wolfiR]]

Ok, I was just talking to a Gnome developer about that:
Apparently while a scheme is perfectly allowed to contain a plus sign GConf never had a concept of handling those. + is explicitely marked as invalid character and there is no special handling for such a scheme.

So I see the following to resolve that issue:

1. filter those URIs in the GConf interface code
2. ignore the errors (and switch newer TB versions to GIO (see below))

About 2.: Since Gnome3 GConf usage for scheme handlers is obsolete and is handled using GIO interfaces. Firefox and Thunderbird _should_ work fine if GIO support is enabled in the builds (openSUSE is shipping its Firefox >=4 and Thunderbird >=5 builds with GIO enabled for example)
I _think_ that GIO is able to handle that but haven't checked it myself.

Comment 4

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Same problem as bug 541130?

Comment 5

[Wolfgang Rosenauer [:wolfiR]]

Yes, it's the same. I'm not sure from both reports if some addon scans the mailbody or if it's an internal TB feature though.
Also it seems to depend on the Linux distribution and environment if a dialog appears or if it's logged to stderr.