GNU bug report logs - #9840
23.3; rmail-edit-current-message destroys MIME messages [SEVERE]

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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: 23.3; rmail-edit-current-message destroys MIME messages [SEVERE]
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2011 11:41:11 -0700

    In gnuemacs 23.3.1 (or earlier?), displaying of MIME text parts got
turned on by default.  E.g., buttons like:

[1/1:text/plain Hide]

appear in the message body displayed followed by the decoded text part.

    When you invoke message editing via 'e', rmailedit.el assumes
(mistakenly) that it is dealing with a normal message body (e.g., not
decoded) and lets you edit the buttons and decoded text.  Far, far
worse, when you finish editing, rmailedit.el replaces the original valid
message with the decoded text!  This destroys all the nontext parts and
put the button text in the message itself.  Worse, if you realize
something is wrong and attempt to abort the edit via ^c^[, your message
is still destroyed since rmail-abort-edit just restores the "message
text" (e.g., the decoded view) then calls the normal edit exit code
(rmail-cease-edit).  To add to the fun, if you attempt to abort editing
by killing the rmail buffer, you will lose any other changes made to
that mbox file, including the incorporation of new mail.

Executive summary: if you press 'e' (even accidentally) in Rmail mode
while viewing a MIME message, it will be destroyed the matter what you
do.

- Mark

Message #12 received at 9840 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
To: Kenichi Handa <handa <at> m17n.org>
Cc: 9840 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, mark.lillibridge <at> hp.com
Subject: Re: bug#9840: 23.3;
	rmail-edit-current-message destroys MIME messages [SEVERE]
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 03:56:13 -0500

http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=9840

seems like a pretty serious problem with Emacs 23.3+'s rmail mime
handling. Any ideas on how to fix this?

(It happens in 23.3 as well, so is not related to bug#9520.)

Message #15 received at 9840 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 9840 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, mark.lillibridge <at> hp.com, handa <at> m17n.org
Subject: Re: bug#9840: 23.3;
	rmail-edit-current-message destroys MIME messages [SEVERE]
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 07:24:15 -0500

> From: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
> Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 03:56:13 -0500
> Cc: 9840 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, mark.lillibridge <at> hp.com
> 
> 
> http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=9840
> 
> seems like a pretty serious problem with Emacs 23.3+'s rmail mime
> handling. Any ideas on how to fix this?

Do the equivalent of `v' (rmail-mime) to get the rmail-view-buffer to
its original non-MIME state, let the user edit it, then replace the
message text in the rmail-buffer (mbox format) with the results of
editing, and redisplay the message?

Message #18 received at 9840 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 9840 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, mark.lillibridge <at> hp.com, handa <at> m17n.org
Subject: Re: bug#9840: 23.3;
	rmail-edit-current-message destroys MIME messages [SEVERE]
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:52:58 -0500

Eli Zaretskii wrote:

> Do the equivalent of `v' (rmail-mime) to get the rmail-view-buffer to
> its original non-MIME

I think your method is right; except currently this doesn't work because
of bug#9520.

>  state, let the user edit it, then replace the message text in the
> rmail-buffer (mbox format) with the results of editing, and redisplay
> the message?

Message #21 received at 9840 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Mark Lillibridge <mark.lillibridge <at> hp.com>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: rgm <at> gnu.org, 9840 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, handa <at> m17n.org
Subject: Re: bug#9840: 23.3;
	rmail-edit-current-message destroys MIME messages [SEVERE]
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:05:52 -0800

Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>  > From: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
>  > Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 03:56:13 -0500
>  > Cc: 9840 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, mark.lillibridge <at> hp.com
>  > 
>  > 
>  > http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=9840
>  > 
>  > seems like a pretty serious problem with Emacs 23.3+'s rmail mime
>  > handling. Any ideas on how to fix this?
>  
>  Do the equivalent of `v' (rmail-mime) to get the rmail-view-buffer to
>  its original non-MIME state, let the user edit it, then replace the
>  message text in the rmail-buffer (mbox format) with the results of
>  editing, and redisplay the message?

    I think that's what 'e' should do.  Note that 'v' currently fails to
show the raw message -- I haven't had a chance to submit a complaint
about that behavior yet.  Should think about fixing bug 9841 while
you're at it.  I'm thinking at the moment we should just refuse to
accept edits that include (new) From lines, allowing the user to decide
how they want to quote them manually.  (Put point on start of From line
and signal an error?)

    In the future, (this probably qualifies as a wish list item), it
would be nice if there was a way to edit individual MIME parts.  For
example, hitting 'E' adds [edit] buttons to each MIME part.  Selecting
such a button brings up the new edit buffer with the contents of that
decoded MIME part.  After the user edited the part, it would be
re-encoded and replace the original version in the original message.
This extension would make it easy to edit printable and base64 parts.
Trying to synchronize the two buffers might be a pain though so this
extension probably needs more thought before trying implement anything.

- Mark

Message #24 received at 9840 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 9840 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, mark.lillibridge <at> hp.com,
	Kenichi Handa <handa <at> m17n.org>
Subject: Re: bug#9840: 23.3;
	rmail-edit-current-message destroys MIME messages [SEVERE]
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:10:33 -0500

Glenn Morris wrote:

> Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>
>> Do the equivalent of `v' (rmail-mime) to get the rmail-view-buffer to
>> its original non-MIME
>
> I think your method is right; except currently this doesn't work because
> of bug#9520.

Actually 9520 does not seem to be relevant, because rmail-mime does not
seem to offer a way to show the raw message. Toggling rmail-mime off is
not the same as viewing a message with rmail-enable-mime nil. The mime
boundaries are always absent.

Anyway, I installed something that hopefully stops rmailedit destroying
messages. I hope Rmail users will test it.

Feel free to rip this out and replace it with something more elegant...

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