865416 - Linux Print to PDF "path" ignored in multiple Mozilla products

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Untriaged, defect)

Description

[Craig Arno]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:20.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/20.0
Build ID: 2013032900

Steps to reproduce:

I printed an email message to a PDF file and specified a path. The output PDF saved to my home login directory, ignoring path information. Not what I expected/wanted.

This PDF Path ignoring behavior is exhibited, repeatable, and consistent in Thunderbird 17.0.5, Firefox 20.0, and Chrome 27.0.1425.0 (which uses Mozilla Engine)

OpenSUSE 12.3 x64 - Thunderbird 17.0.5
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:17.0) Gecko/20130329 Thunderbird/17.0.5
Application Build ID: 2013032900
Profile directory: /local/craig/.thunderbird (Local Drive)


Actual results:

After some testing I can now characterize this Thunderbird PDF saving (path ignoring) behavior:

   1. Thunderbird will use PDF path information on Local storage -only-.
    i.e. I make a directory in ~/test, save PDF to ~/test (local drive) and the PDF file will show up in ~/test

   2. Thunderbird will not save PDF files to NFS mounted paths (Network drives).
    i.e. pluto.arno.com:/home is mounted as /home on the local machine.
    Attempts to save the PDF to /home/usr/craig/Documents/taxes/2012 result in the PDF being saved to my home login directory on the local drive (/local/craig)

   3.  Thunderbird will not save files to soft linked directory paths.
    i.e. ln -s test Doclink (creating ~/Doclink directory)
    Try to save the file to /local/craig/Doclink and the file is again placed in /local/craig

<speculation> This behaves like a very low level <io.h> call is made to open the PDF file for output when a higher level fopen() {capable of resolving network paths and softlinks} should have been used for output. </speculation>


Expected results:

Thunderbird and Firefox (and Chrome) should correctly resolve network path and softlink path information for PDF print file output.

Comment 1

[Benjamin Kraus]

I'm seeing this behavior in Firefox, except it is a very unpredictable behavior for me. Sometimes it will ignore the "Save in folder" setting, other times it will respect it. I have no way to predict it. Up until this evening, it either used the specified folder, or it saved to my Home directory. This evening it did something different, it is always saving to the last directory that it successfully saved to (which is not my home directory). All folders are local, although one is mounted via Gnome Encfs Manager. I see no evidence that this has anything to do with softlinks or network shares.

Comment 2

[Benjamin Kraus]

Related (Duplicate) Bugs: Bug 806357, Bug 845425, Bug 865416, Bug 923041
Bug 923041 seems like the most accurate description from my experience.
Bug 845425 concluded that it was a gtk+ issue, not Mozilla issue.

See also:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gtk+3.0/+bug/1213385
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=888080

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Much has changed in printing in the past couple years. (but not so much for linux)
Do you still see this problem when using the most current version?

Comment 4

[Craig Arno]

Wayne,

I tested Thunderbird 31.3.0 and Firefox 35.0 against #2-NFS and #3-Soft Links in my original message.  Both testcases now appear to work properly in both Mozilla Linux (OpenSUSE 12.3 x64) applications.

So I'll mark this bug as closed.  If the bug returns, I'll reopen.

Craig