GNU bug report logs - #7743
unrmail loses extra blank line at end of message

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Mark Lillibridge <mark.lillibridge <at> hp.com>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: unrmail loses extra blank line at end of message
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2010 11:54:10 -0800

    As of at least Emacs 23.1 and still present in version 24, unrmail
throws away the last blank line of a message if present.  The offending
code is in unrmail.el:

unrmail.el:235:
	    ;; Make sure the message ends with two newlines
	    (goto-char (point-max))
	    (unless (looking-back "\n\n")
	      (insert "\n"))

This is wrong!  Mbox format ends every message with a blank line, which
is not part of the message, so this code by failing to add the necessary
terminator blank line to messages that already end with a blank line
effectively removes the last blank line of such messages.


    The fix is easy: just always add the blank line like so:

unrmail.el:235:
	    ;; Add terminator blank line to message
	    (goto-char (point-max))
	    (insert "\n")


- Mark
PS, the patch for this change hopefully is:

ts-rhel5 [106]% diff original-unrmail.el new-unrmail.el
235c235
<           ;; Make sure the message ends with two newlines
---
>           ;; Add terminator blank line to message
237,238c237
<           (unless (looking-back "\n\n")
<             (insert "\n"))
---
>           (insert "\n")

Message #8 received at 7743 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Mark Lillibridge <mark.lillibridge <at> hp.com>
To: 7743 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug #7743: unrmail loses extra blank line at end of message [PATCH]
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2011 11:59:58 -0800

    The automatic system seems not to have noticed, but I provided a
patch for this bug:

ts-rhel5 [124]% ( setenv LC_ALL C ; setenv TZ UTC0 ; diff -Naur original-unrmail.el unrmail.el)
--- original-unrmail.el 2011-11-13 19:57:25.156549000 +0000
+++ unrmail.el  2011-11-13 19:58:34.826505000 +0000
@@ -232,10 +232,9 @@
              (while (search-forward "\nFrom " nil t)
                (forward-char -5)
                (insert ?>)))
-           ;; Make sure the message ends with two newlines
+           ;; Add terminator blank line to message
            (goto-char (point-max))
-           (unless (looking-back "\n\n")
-             (insert "\n"))
+           (insert "\n")
            ;; Write it to the output file, suitably encoded.
            (let ((coding-system-for-write coding))
              (write-region (point-min) (point-max) to-file t

Message #11 received at 7743 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
To: mark.lillibridge <at> hp.com
Cc: 7743 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#7743: unrmail loses extra blank line at end of message
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:52:53 -0500

Mark Lillibridge wrote:

>     As of at least Emacs 23.1 and still present in version 24, unrmail
> throws away the last blank line of a message if present.

This sounds very believable, but I am having a hard time convinving
myself.

I used the system `mail' command to send myself a few mails ending in
blank lines. I used Emacs 22.3 to convert the resulting mail spool file
to Babyl, then the current trunk's unrmail to convert that Babyl back to
mbox. The mbox I got back was identical to the original mail spool
(modulo the addition of X-RMAIL-ATTRIBUTES and X-Coding-System) headers.

So I cannot see that blank lines are going missing (unless going from
Babyl to mbox adds one, and going the other way subtracts one?).

Message #14 received at 7743 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Mark Lillibridge <mark.lillibridge <at> hp.com>
To: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 7743 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#7743: unrmail loses extra blank line at end of message
Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2011 12:28:00 -0800

Glenn wrote:
>  Mark Lillibridge wrote:
>  
>  >     As of at least Emacs 23.1 and still present in version 24, unrmail
>  > throws away the last blank line of a message if present.
>  
>  This sounds very believable, but I am having a hard time convinving
>  myself.
>  
>  I used the system `mail' command to send myself a few mails ending in
>  blank lines. I used Emacs 22.3 to convert the resulting mail spool file
>  to Babyl, then the current trunk's unrmail to convert that Babyl back to
>  mbox. The mbox I got back was identical to the original mail spool
>  (modulo the addition of X-RMAIL-ATTRIBUTES and X-Coding-System) headers.
>  
>  So I cannot see that blank lines are going missing (unless going from
>  Babyl to mbox adds one, and going the other way subtracts one?).

    You got it!  Examine the BABYL file and you will see that Rmail 22.3
has added an extra blank line after each of your messages.  That was a
recent (pre transformation to 23) RMAIL bug, I believe.  My older email
does not have these extra blank lines.  I haven't reported all the Rmail
22 bugs I've found because they are moot at this point.

- Mark
PS, I will send you (Glenn) my relevant test files in case you didn't
keep yours.

Message #19 received at 7743-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
To: 7743-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#7743: unrmail loses extra blank line at end of message
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2011 02:50:29 -0500

Version: 24.0.92

Mark Lillibridge wrote:

>>  So I cannot see that blank lines are going missing (unless going from
>>  Babyl to mbox adds one, and going the other way subtracts one?).
>
>     You got it!  Examine the BABYL file and you will see that Rmail 22.3
> has added an extra blank line after each of your messages.  That was a
> recent (pre transformation to 23) RMAIL bug, I believe.  My older email
> does not have these extra blank lines. 

It sort of makes me wonder if it is worth changing this now, because if
most BABYL files started life as mbox files but were converted by Emacs,
then they have an extra blank line.

But anyway, I installed this.

Message #22 received at 7743 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Mark Lillibridge <mark.lillibridge <at> hp.com>
To: <7743 <at> debbugs.gnu.org>
Cc: rgm <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#7743: closed (Re: bug#7743: unrmail loses extra blank line at
	end of message)
Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2011 22:06:05 -0800

Glenn Morris writes:
>  Mark Lillibridge wrote:
>  
>  >>  So I cannot see that blank lines are going missing (unless going from
>  >>  Babyl to mbox adds one, and going the other way subtracts one?).
>  >
>  >     You got it!  Examine the BABYL file and you will see that Rmail 22.3
>  > has added an extra blank line after each of your messages.  That was a
>  > recent (pre transformation to 23) RMAIL bug, I believe.  My older email
>  > does not have these extra blank lines. 
>  
>  It sort of makes me wonder if it is worth changing this now, because if
>  most BABYL files started life as mbox files but were converted by Emacs,
>  then they have an extra blank line.

        The adding an extra line on incorporation is a recent bug; my
older BABYL files don't have the extra blank lines.

- Mark

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