missing Mime-Version and format=flowed

missing Mime-Version and format=flowed

[Reiner Steib]

Hi,

Gnus displays garbage when viewing the following messages:

,----(1)
| Subject: Bitte um Rat: "Symbol's function definition is void: subject"
| Newsgroups: de.comm.software.gnus
| Organization: Newsoffice.de - http://www.newsoffice.de
| Date: Tue, 03 Aug 2004 08:32:11 +0200
| Message-ID: <cenbhb$g7b$1@server.stgb.info>
| Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
| User-Agent: Newsoffice.de - based on NewsPortal
`----

==> Gnus doesn't decode the UTF-8 characters correctly.

,----(2)
| Subject: Re: Bitte um Rat: "Symbol's function definition is void: subject"
| Newsgroups: de.comm.software.gnus
| Organization: Newsoffice.de - http://www.newsoffice.de
| Date: Tue, 03 Aug 2004 10:34:43 +0200
| Message-ID: <cenin3$knn$1@server.stgb.info>
| Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed
| User-Agent: Newsoffice.de - based on NewsPortal
`----

==> The Latin-1 characters are displayed as eight-bit-graphic.

Further tests (those messages have been posted in <nntp://gmane.test>)
showed that Gnus displays message no. (1) correctly if a Mime-Version
header is added or if "format=flowed" is stripped:

[ for i in {4,5,6,8}-v98ycvrqoe.fsf@marauder.physik.uni-ulm.de; do
    echo "# <news:$i>"
    echo head "<$i>"|nc -w1 news.gmane.org nntp|grep -ie '^Content-\|^Mime-'
  done ]

# <news:4-v98ycvrqoe.fsf@marauder.physik.uni-ulm.de>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

==> Displayed correctly in Gnus.

# <news:5-v98ycvrqoe.fsf@marauder.physik.uni-ulm.de>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

==> Displayed correctly in Gnus.

# <news:6-v98ycvrqoe.fsf@marauder.physik.uni-ulm.de>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

==> Displayed correctly in Gnus.

# <news:8-v98ycvrqoe.fsf@marauder.physik.uni-ulm.de>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

==> Displays garbage as message (1). 


As the Mime-Version header is required (IIRC), it's a bug in
Newsportal, I think.  But maybe we could make Gnus more tolerant.

It's quite surprising, that the more tolerant decoding in Gnus doesn't
allow "format=flowed".

Bye, Reiner.
-- 
       ,,,
      (o o)
---ooO-(_)-Ooo--- PGP key available via WWW   http://rsteib.home.pages.de/

Re: missing Mime-Version and format=flowed

[Katsumi Yamaoka]

>>>>> In <v9y8ks7f7k.fsf@marauder.physik.uni-ulm.de>
>>>>>	Reiner Steib <4.uce.03.r.s@nurfuerspam.de> wrote:

> Hi,

> Gnus displays garbage when viewing the following messages:

>| Newsgroups: de.comm.software.gnus
>| Message-ID: <cenbhb$g7b$1@server.stgb.info>

==> Gnus doesn't decode the UTF-8 characters correctly.

>| Newsgroups: de.comm.software.gnus
>| Message-ID: <cenin3$knn$1@server.stgb.info>

==> The Latin-1 characters are displayed as eight-bit-graphic.

[...]

I'm using the value t for the gnus-article-loose-mime variable
and I can see those articles correctly.  It does not mean I can
read German, though. :-p

Re: missing Mime-Version and format=flowed

[Reiner Steib]

On Fri, Aug 06 2004, Katsumi Yamaoka wrote:

> I'm using the value t for the gnus-article-loose-mime variable
> and I can see those articles correctly.

Thanks.  I should have checked the Fine Manual for `MIME-Version'. ;-)

,----[ (info "(gnus)MIME Commands") ]
| `gnus-article-loose-mime'
|      If non-`nil', Gnus won't require the `MIME-Version' header before
|      interpreting the message as a MIME message.  This helps when
|      reading messages from certain broken mail user agents.  The
|      default is `nil'.
`----

Bye, Reiner.
-- 
       ,,,
      (o o)
---ooO-(_)-Ooo--- PGP key available via WWW   http://rsteib.home.pages.de/

Re: missing Mime-Version and format=flowed

[Simon Josefsson]

Reiner Steib <4.uce.03.r.s@nurfuerspam.de> writes:

> On Fri, Aug 06 2004, Katsumi Yamaoka wrote:
>
>> I'm using the value t for the gnus-article-loose-mime variable
>> and I can see those articles correctly.
>
> Thanks.  I should have checked the Fine Manual for `MIME-Version'. ;-)
>
> ,----[ (info "(gnus)MIME Commands") ]
> | `gnus-article-loose-mime'
> |      If non-`nil', Gnus won't require the `MIME-Version' header before
> |      interpreting the message as a MIME message.  This helps when
> |      reading messages from certain broken mail user agents.  The
> |      default is `nil'.
> `----

What harm would there be if the default for this variable was `t'?

If the variable is only used for interpretation, it seems to me that
the default should be to give the user as good experience as possible.
Even with broken input, unless that has other bad consequences.  Which
here would seem to argue for changing the default to `t'.

Re: missing Mime-Version and format=flowed

[Per Abrahamsen]

Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:

> Reiner Steib <4.uce.03.r.s@nurfuerspam.de> writes:
>
>> On Fri, Aug 06 2004, Katsumi Yamaoka wrote:
>>
>>> I'm using the value t for the gnus-article-loose-mime variable
>>> and I can see those articles correctly.
>>
>> Thanks.  I should have checked the Fine Manual for `MIME-Version'. ;-)
>>
>> ,----[ (info "(gnus)MIME Commands") ]
>> | `gnus-article-loose-mime'
>> |      If non-`nil', Gnus won't require the `MIME-Version' header before
>> |      interpreting the message as a MIME message.  This helps when
>> |      reading messages from certain broken mail user agents.  The
>> |      default is `nil'.
>> `----
>
> What harm would there be if the default for this variable was `t'?

And why would anyone set it to nil?  

Maybe Gnus could do with one less variable, and obey the "be liberal in
what you accept" maxim.

Re: missing Mime-Version and format=flowed

[Simon Josefsson]

Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk> writes:

> Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:
>
>> Reiner Steib <4.uce.03.r.s@nurfuerspam.de> writes:
>>
>>> On Fri, Aug 06 2004, Katsumi Yamaoka wrote:
>>>
>>>> I'm using the value t for the gnus-article-loose-mime variable
>>>> and I can see those articles correctly.
>>>
>>> Thanks.  I should have checked the Fine Manual for `MIME-Version'. ;-)
>>>
>>> ,----[ (info "(gnus)MIME Commands") ]
>>> | `gnus-article-loose-mime'
>>> |      If non-`nil', Gnus won't require the `MIME-Version' header before
>>> |      interpreting the message as a MIME message.  This helps when
>>> |      reading messages from certain broken mail user agents.  The
>>> |      default is `nil'.
>>> `----
>>
>> What harm would there be if the default for this variable was `t'?
>
> And why would anyone set it to nil?  
>
> Maybe Gnus could do with one less variable, and obey the "be liberal in
> what you accept" maxim.

If the header IS present, and doesn't contain "1.0", it might make
sense to actually not invoke the current MIME code, though.

Hm.

It seems Gnus doesn't check the MIME version number in that header
now.  It just check for presence of the header (unless g-a-l-m is
set).  'MIME-Version: 42' would appear to be equally acceptable.

The horror!

I've changed the default now, speak up or revert if you don't like it.

All code relating to this ("loose-mime", "strict-mime"), during
decoding, actually make reading the code harder.  FWIW, I wouldn't
oppose removing the variable altogether.  Doing so would acknowledge
that the header is useless in practice.

Encoding is an entirely different creature, of course.