winmail.dat attachments

winmail.dat attachments

[dnc]

I often receive attachments called simply "winmail.bat" of type
application/ms-tnef.  Often I can ignore these, but sometimes they
contain attachments that I'm geniunely interested in.  (At least I
think they do.)  Can gnus handle these properly?

I suspected this was a FAQ, so I did a few minutes research on the
web.  I saw some comments to the effect that winmail.dat simply
contained underlining, font and other rich text information, and
therefore it was safe to ignore it (because you still get the email
text).  But I don't think this is correct.  I think these days
winmail.dat can actually contain other attachments.  I also saw a post
(from Simon if memory serves) referring to an application 'tnef2txt'
which could grok this garbage, but I haven't been able to find
tnef2txt.  I suspect it will not work with the attachments, anyway.

So I apologize if this is a faq.  I'm hoping to get some accurate
information, and hopefully get these attachment to work with gnus,
cause I'm tired of asking people to resend attachments to me.
(Although I never tire of telling them how lame their email client
is).

BTW I'm using Gnus 5.8.8 on Windows 2000.

Thanks.

-Dave

Re: winmail.dat attachments

[Simon Josefsson]

dnc@bigfoot.com writes:

> text).  But I don't think this is correct.  I think these days
> winmail.dat can actually contain other attachments.  I also saw a post
> (from Simon if memory serves) referring to an application 'tnef2txt'
> which could grok this garbage, but I haven't been able to find
> tnef2txt.  I suspect it will not work with the attachments, anyway.

No, it handles attachments too, see <URL:http://www.fiction.net/blong/
programs/#tnef2txt>.

A dired-like elisp interface to tnef blobs would be nice... Hm.

Re: winmail.dat attachments

[Christoph Conrad]

    Simon> No, it handles attachments too, see
    Simon> <URL:http://www.fiction.net/blong/ programs/#tnef2txt>.

With the following fix it works under Windows NT too:

  if ((fp = fopen(filename,"r")) == NULL) {
=>
  if ((fp = fopen(filename,"rb")) == NULL) {

(mailed to the author)

i. A.
Best regards,
Christoph Conrad
-- 
TTi Entwicklungszentrum GmbH,  Matthiashofstr. 28-30,  D-52064 Aachen
Fon: +49 241 47051-0  Fax: +49 241 47051-89 Web: http://www.cli.de
Look Ma, this man can twist his fingers as if they were made of rubber,
isn't that amazing? -- Not really, he's been using emacs for years...!

Re: winmail.dat attachments

[Hannu Koivisto]

dnc@bigfoot.com writes:

| cause I'm tired of asking people to resend attachments to me.
| (Although I never tire of telling them how lame their email client
| is).

Actually, their Exchange server's configuration is probably even
more lame.  So instead of directing your complaints to them, tell
them to complain to their Exchange administrators to configure the
server not to send tnef-junk outside the company.  This can be done
at least in Exchange 2k.

Hm, now that I think of it again, go ahead and complain about their
email clients too.  I mean, if it's something else than Gnus, there
must be some good reason to complain about it :)

-- 
Hannu
Please don't send copies of list mail