recoll and mime-text

[Dave Stevens]

I've taken the suggestion of poma from earlier to try recoll as a  
desktop search engine. It indexed everything nicely and is very quick.  
I can't seem to get attachments out of my retrieved emails.

So the one I'm looking for right now has an attached .pdf, but the  
whole mail, headers and mime text and all, displays as ascii text.

I can use recoll's 'open' command, which fires up thunderbird and  
shows the attachment with an automatically generated name (gibberish,  
more or less) but when I try to save then view the attachment gedit is  
showing me the ascii. I vaguely recall years ago having to manually  
detach mime-encoded text but don't remember details.

Anyone?

Dave

Sorry for top posting. Bbm does not allow bottom posting.

Ifirc its uudecode. It has been 14 years since I used it.

Hth

Dave
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone powered by Mobilicity

-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Stevens 
Sender: [e-mail]
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:56:31 
To: Community support for Fedora users
Reply-To: Community support for Fedora users 
Subject: recoll and mime-text

I've taken the suggestion of poma from earlier to try recoll as a  
desktop search engine. It indexed everything nicely and is very quick.  
I can't seem to get attachments out of my retrieved emails.

So the one I'm looking for right now has an attached .pdf, but the  
whole mail, headers and mime text and all, displays as ascii text.

I can use recoll's 'open' command, which fires up thunderbird and  
shows the attachment with an automatically generated name (gibberish,  
more or less) but when I try to save then view the attachment gedit is  
showing me the ascii. I vaguely recall years ago having to manually  
detach mime-encoded text but don't remember details.

Anyone?

Dave

[Dave Stevens]

Quoting [e-mail]:
> Sorry for top posting. Bbm does not allow bottom posting.
>
> Ifirc its uudecode. It has been 14 years since I used it.
>
> Hth

yes, that's it, in sharutils, too.

Thanks!

Dave
> Dave
> Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone powered by Mobilicity
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave Stevens 
> Sender: [e-mail]
> Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:56:31
> To: Community support for Fedora users
> Reply-To: Community support for Fedora users 
> Subject: recoll and mime-text
>
> I've taken the suggestion of poma from earlier to try recoll as a
> desktop search engine. It indexed everything nicely and is very quick.
> I can't seem to get attachments out of my retrieved emails.
>
> So the one I'm looking for right now has an attached .pdf, but the
> whole mail, headers and mime text and all, displays as ascii text.
>
> I can use recoll's 'open' command, which fires up thunderbird and
> shows the attachment with an automatically generated name (gibberish,
> more or less) but when I try to save then view the attachment gedit is
> showing me the ascii. I vaguely recall years ago having to manually
> detach mime-encoded text but don't remember details.
>
> Anyone?
>
> Dave
>
> --
> The problem with being cynical is you can't keep up!
>
> -- anon. philosopher
>
> --
> users mailing list
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> [recoll not properly managing an attachment]
> > Ifirc its uudecode. It has been 14 years since I used it.
> >
> > Hth
>
> yes, that's it, in sharutils, too.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Dave

Hi,

Normally, Recoll should properly separate the attachment. What you are
seeing looks like a bug in Recoll email handling. Being the Recoll
developer, I'd be quite interested to have a look at the issue

If you are willing to help me fix it, you can reach me directly:
[e-mail]

Cheers,

jf

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[poma]

On 19.04.2013 14:14, medoc wrote:
> > [recoll not properly managing an attachment]
> > > Ifirc its uudecode. It has been 14 years since I used it.
> > >
> > > Hth
> >
> > yes, that's it, in sharutils, too.
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > Dave
>
> Hi,
>
> Normally, Recoll should properly separate the attachment. What you are
> seeing looks like a bug in Recoll email handling. Being the Recoll
> developer, I'd be quite interested to have a look at the issue
>
> If you are willing to help me fix it, you can reach me directly:
> [e-mail]

Management of all existing types of attachments works in Xfce, KDE and
GNOME.
So, Dave what's up? :)
Cheers Jan.

poma

[Dave Stevens]

Quoting poma :
> On 19.04.2013 14:14, medoc wrote:
> > > [recoll not properly managing an attachment]
> > > > Ifirc its uudecode. It has been 14 years since I used it.
> > > >
> > > > Hth
> > >
> > > yes, that's it, in sharutils, too.
> > >
> > > Thanks!
> > >
> > > Dave
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > Normally, Recoll should properly separate the attachment. What you are
> > seeing looks like a bug in Recoll email handling. Being the Recoll
> > developer, I'd be quite interested to have a look at the issue
> >
> > If you are willing to help me fix it, you can reach me directly:
> > [e-mail]
>
> Management of all existing types of attachments works in Xfce, KDE and
> GNOME.
> So, Dave what's up? :)
> Cheers Jan.

Mate
> poma
>
> --
> users mailing list
> [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe or change subscription options:
> https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users
> Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
> Have a question? Ask away: http://ask.fedoraproject.org

Hi,

While I appreciate the importance of waging desktop wars :) I really believe
that the problem resides elsewhere, it might be a corrupt MIME format for
this particular message, or Recoll not identifying the container as a mail
folder (unlikely as you wrote that Thunderbird was launched by "Open"), or
Recoll making a parsing error when reading the folder or the message.

There are cases where Thunderbird folders are mis-parsed because their
format is weird, this is usually fixable by tweaking the config.

In other words I'm curious and I would very much appreciate getting more
info, to get to the bottom, and maybe fix, the issue.

I wonder if the mailing list manager may have hidden my address from the
previous message (depending how you read it). This would be jfd (at) recoll
(dot) org

Cheers,

jf

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[poma]

On 19.04.2013 18:36, Dave Stevens wrote:
> Quoting poma :
> > On 19.04.2013 14:14, medoc wrote:
> > > > [recoll not properly managing an attachment]
> > > > > Ifirc its uudecode. It has been 14 years since I used it.
> > > > >
> > > > > Hth
> > > >
> > > > yes, that's it, in sharutils, too.
> > > >
> > > > Thanks!
> > > >
> > > > Dave
> > >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > Normally, Recoll should properly separate the attachment. What you are
> > > seeing looks like a bug in Recoll email handling. Being the Recoll
> > > developer, I'd be quite interested to have a look at the issue
> > >
> > > If you are willing to help me fix it, you can reach me directly:
> > > [e-mail]
> >
> > Management of all existing types of attachments works in Xfce, KDE and
> > GNOME.
> > So, Dave what's up? :)
> > Cheers Jan.
>
> Mate

Fedora release 18
MATE Desktop Environment 1.5.8-1
Evince 3.6.1-2
Thunderbird 17.0.5-1

Working like a charm. ;)

~/.recoll/mimemap
/usr/share/recoll/examples/mimemap:
.pdf = application/pdf

~/.recoll/mimeconf
/usr/share/recoll/examples/mimeconf:
application/pdf = pdf

~/.recoll/mimeview
/usr/share/recoll/examples/mimeview:
application/pdf  = evince --page-index=%p --find=%s %f

poma

[Dave Stevens]

Quoting poma :
> On 19.04.2013 18:36, Dave Stevens wrote:
> > Quoting poma :
> > > On 19.04.2013 14:14, medoc wrote:
> > > > > [recoll not properly managing an attachment]
> > > > > > Ifirc its uudecode. It has been 14 years since I used it.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Hth
> > > > >
> > > > > yes, that's it, in sharutils, too.
> > > > >
> > > > > Thanks!
> > > > >
> > > > > Dave
> > > >
> > > > Hi,
> > > >
> > > > Normally, Recoll should properly separate the attachment. What you are
> > > > seeing looks like a bug in Recoll email handling. Being the Recoll
> > > > developer, I'd be quite interested to have a look at the issue
> > > >
> > > > If you are willing to help me fix it, you can reach me directly:
> > > > [e-mail]
> > >
> > > Management of all existing types of attachments works in Xfce, KDE and
> > > GNOME.
> > > So, Dave what's up? :)
> > > Cheers Jan.
> >
> > Mate
>
> Fedora release 18
> MATE Desktop Environment 1.5.8-1
> Evince 3.6.1-2
> Thunderbird 17.0.5-1
>
> Working like a charm. ;)
>
> ~/.recoll/mimemap
> /usr/share/recoll/examples/mimemap:
> .pdf = application/pdf
>
> ~/.recoll/mimeconf
> /usr/share/recoll/examples/mimeconf:
> application/pdf = pdf
>
> ~/.recoll/mimeview
> /usr/share/recoll/examples/mimeview:
> application/pdf  = evince --page-index=%p --find=%s %f
>
> poma

ok, I'm using sylpheed but will look.

Thanks,

D
>

[poma]

On 19.04.2013 21:09, Dave Stevens wrote:
> Quoting poma :
> > On 19.04.2013 18:36, Dave Stevens wrote:
> > > Quoting poma :
> > > > On 19.04.2013 14:14, medoc wrote:
> > > > > > [recoll not properly managing an attachment]
> > > > > > > Ifirc its uudecode. It has been 14 years since I used it.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Hth
> > > > > >
> > > > > > yes, that's it, in sharutils, too.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Thanks!
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Dave
> > > > >
> > > > > Hi,
> > > > >
> > > > > Normally, Recoll should properly separate the attachment. What you are
> > > > > seeing looks like a bug in Recoll email handling. Being the Recoll
> > > > > developer, I'd be quite interested to have a look at the issue
> > > > >
> > > > > If you are willing to help me fix it, you can reach me directly:
> > > > > [e-mail]
> > > >
> > > > Management of all existing types of attachments works in Xfce, KDE and
> > > > GNOME.
> > > > So, Dave what's up? :)
> > > > Cheers Jan.
> > >
> > > Mate
> >
> > Fedora release 18
> > MATE Desktop Environment 1.5.8-1
> > Evince 3.6.1-2
> > Thunderbird 17.0.5-1
> >
> > Working like a charm. ;)
> >
> > ~/.recoll/mimemap
> > /usr/share/recoll/examples/mimemap:
> > .pdf = application/pdf
> >
> > ~/.recoll/mimeconf
> > /usr/share/recoll/examples/mimeconf:
> > application/pdf = pdf
> >
> > ~/.recoll/mimeview
> > /usr/share/recoll/examples/mimeview:
> > application/pdf  = evince --page-index=%p --find=%s %f
> >
> > poma
>
> ok, I'm using sylpheed but will look.
>
> Thanks,
>
> D

Sylpheed version 3.3.0-1
Working like a charm. :)
Recoll settings related to the file types are default ones.

poma

poma wrote
> Sylpheed version 3.3.0-1
> Working like a charm. :)
> Recoll settings related to the file types are default ones.

Hi,

Dave's problem was not to get at the attachment from the result list, but
trying to 'Open' the message, then get at the attachment from there. This
failed because Thunderbird started in 'Compose' mode with the message itself
as a text attachment, instead of doing the right thing.

As far as I know, using 'Open' on an email does not work currently because
neither xdg-open nor any common mail client supports it. Are you able to do
it anyway ? Maybe I'm missing something.

To get at the attachment, you need to fiddle with the search until you can
see it as a search result. There will be something in a future Recoll to
make extracting attachments easier.

But this is not a subject for the Fedora mailing list, I think we should get
off it if you would like to pursue this further.

Cheers,

jf

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[poma]

On 22.04.2013 08:18, medoc wrote:
> poma wrote
> > Sylpheed version 3.3.0-1
> > Working like a charm. :)
> > Recoll settings related to the file types are default ones.
>
> Hi,
>
> Dave's problem was not to get at the attachment from the result list, but
> trying to 'Open' the message, then get at the attachment from there. This
> failed because Thunderbird started in 'Compose' mode with the message itself
> as a text attachment, instead of doing the right thing.
>
> As far as I know, using 'Open' on an email does not work currently because
> neither xdg-open nor any common mail client supports it. Are you able to do
> it anyway ? Maybe I'm missing something.
>
> To get at the attachment, you need to fiddle with the search until you can
> see it as a search result. There will be something in a future Recoll to
> make extracting attachments easier.

Cheers Jean, Dave
It doesn't matter which method is used. ;)
Both do work like a charm.
You only need to set the proper mime type association - "rfc822"
A reason why I mentioned the Xfce because it has a very convenient MIME
type editor - xfce4-mime-settings(xfce4-settings)[1], which can be used
for someone who is not proficient in direct editing MIME type file/s.

RFC #  822[2]
~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list
message/rfc822=mozilla-thunderbird.desktop

/usr/share/applications/mozilla-thunderbird.desktop
Exec=thunderbird %u
TryExec=thunderbird
> But this is not a subject for the Fedora mailing list, I think we should get
> off it if you would like to pursue this further.

Au contraire, it's a good title and theme. Let the people learn. :)
And thanks for useful application.

poma

[1] http://docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-settings/mime
[2] http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc822

poma writes:
> On 22.04.2013 08:18, medoc wrote:
> > poma wrote
> > > Sylpheed version 3.3.0-1
> > > Working like a charm. :)
> > > Recoll settings related to the file types are default ones.
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > Dave's problem was not to get at the attachment from the result list, but
> > trying to 'Open' the message, then get at the attachment from there. This
> > failed because Thunderbird started in 'Compose' mode with the message itself
> > as a text attachment, instead of doing the right thing.
> >
> > As far as I know, using 'Open' on an email does not work currently because
> > neither xdg-open nor any common mail client supports it. Are you able to do
> > it anyway ? Maybe I'm missing something.
> >
> > To get at the attachment, you need to fiddle with the search until you can
> > see it as a search result. There will be something in a future Recoll to
> > make extracting attachments easier.
>
> Cheers Jean, Dave
> It doesn't matter which method is used. ;)
> Both do work like a charm.
> You only need to set the proper mime type association - "rfc822"
> A reason why I mentioned the Xfce because it has a very convenient MIME
> type editor - xfce4-mime-settings(xfce4-settings)[1], which can be used
> for someone who is not proficient in direct editing MIME type file/s.
>
> RFC #  822[2]
> ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list
> message/rfc822=mozilla-thunderbird.desktop
>
> /usr/share/applications/mozilla-thunderbird.desktop
> Exec=thunderbird %u
> TryExec=thunderbird
> > But this is not a subject for the Fedora mailing list, I think we should get
> > off it if you would like to pursue this further.
>
> Au contraire, it's a good title and theme. Let the people learn. :)

Ok then.

I did a little more testing, and Dave supplied a hint about kmail.

As far as I know Thunderbird will only open and display a message file
passed on the command line if the file name has a ".eml" extension.

When you get a Recoll message result which is part of an mbox folder, which
would be the case if the message is actually held in the Thunderbird
profile, or also if it is found inside another "mbox" format file, and when
you click "Open" on it, Recoll creates a ".eml" temporary file and starts
Thunderbird on it (through xdg-open), ** which is, I think, why you see
things working ** (I'd be delighted to be wrong).

But, if the message is held in a single-message file inside an MH or
Maildir directory, (in general without a .eml extension), Recoll will have
no reason to create a temporary file, and it will execute
xdg-open/Thunderbird directly on it. I could find no way to get Thunderbird
to behave in this situation (it will usually start in 'Compose' mode, with
the message as a text attachment).

There is a reasonably simple workaround using an intermediary script to
create a temp file, it is described here:
  https://bitbucket.org/medoc/recoll/wiki/OpenHelperScript

Dave showed me that kmail was able to do the right thing in this situation,
using the --view option. You can set this up by adding message/rfc822 to
the non-desktop mime type exceptions in the Recoll preferences and setting
up "kmail --view %u" as the message/rfc822 viewer.

I would **love** to find a simple mail client which could display any
message/rfc822 file or mail folder passed on the command line, but this
does not seem to really exist. Kmail does the job, but it comes with the
whole akonadi/nepomuk baggage, which is a bit much for people who are not
using KDE already.

Cheers,

jf

[poma]

On 23.04.2013 09:44, [e-mail] wrote:
> Ok then.
>
> I did a little more testing, and Dave supplied a hint about kmail.
>
> As far as I know Thunderbird will only open and display a message file
> passed on the command line if the file name has a ".eml" extension.
>
> When you get a Recoll message result which is part of an mbox folder, which
> would be the case if the message is actually held in the Thunderbird
> profile, or also if it is found inside another "mbox" format file, and when
> you click "Open" on it, Recoll creates a ".eml" temporary file and starts
> Thunderbird on it (through xdg-open), ** which is, I think, why you see
> things working ** (I'd be delighted to be wrong).
>
> But, if the message is held in a single-message file inside an MH or
> Maildir directory, (in general without a .eml extension), Recoll will have
> no reason to create a temporary file, and it will execute
> xdg-open/Thunderbird directly on it. I could find no way to get Thunderbird
> to behave in this situation (it will usually start in 'Compose' mode, with
> the message as a text attachment).

Yup, if the 'Tbird' isn't already started, a temporary "*.eml" gets created:
/usr/lib64/thunderbird/thunderbird /tmp/foobar.eml

*But* it doesn't matter which messages storing format is used. :)
*Both* supported storing *formats* do *work* like a charm.

Default - flat messages storing format - berkeley *mailbox*[1]:
mail.serverDefaultStoreContractID;@mozilla.org/msgstore/berkeleystore;1
or
User set - tree messages storing format - *maildir*[2]:
~/.thunderbird/<PROFILE>/prefs.js
user_pref("mail.serverDefaultStoreContractID",
"@mozilla.org/msgstore/maildirstore;1");

MH (Message Handler) is beyond the scope - for the 'Tbird'. ;)
> There is a reasonably simple workaround using an intermediary script to
> create a temp file, it is described here:
>   https://bitbucket.org/medoc/recoll/wiki/OpenHelperScript
>
> Dave showed me that kmail was able to do the right thing in this situation,
> using the --view option. You can set this up by adding message/rfc822 to
> the non-desktop mime type exceptions in the Recoll preferences and setting
> up "kmail --view %u" as the message/rfc822 viewer.
>
> I would **love** to find a simple mail client which could display any
> message/rfc822 file or mail folder passed on the command line, but this
> does not seem to really exist. Kmail does the job, but it comes with the
> whole akonadi/nepomuk baggage, which is a bit much for people who are not
> using KDE already.

poma

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbox
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maildir

poma writes:
> Yup, if the 'Tbird' isn't already started, a temporary "*.eml" gets created:
> /usr/lib64/thunderbird/thunderbird /tmp/foobar.eml
>
> *But* it doesn't matter which messages storing format is used. :)
> *Both* supported storing *formats* do *work* like a charm.

Ok, very good then. Dave told me that making Sylpheed his default mailer
also got things to work for him.

So all is well and I finally seem to be the only one having difficulties 
getting Recoll to use an external program to open email. Which is great :)

Cheers,

jf

[poma]

On 23.04.2013 19:37, [e-mail] wrote:
> Ok, very good then. Dave told me that making Sylpheed his default mailer
> also got things to work for him.
>
> So all is well and I finally seem to be the only one having difficulties 
> getting Recoll to use an external program to open email. Which is great :)
>
> Cheers,
>
> jf

The cobbler always wears the worst shoes.
Don't worry, you'll be fine. :)

poma

[poma]

On 19.04.2013 00:56, Dave Stevens wrote:
> I've taken the suggestion of poma from earlier to try recoll as a
> desktop search engine. It indexed everything nicely and is very quick. I
> can't seem to get attachments out of my retrieved emails.
>
> So the one I'm looking for right now has an attached .pdf, but the whole
> mail, headers and mime text and all, displays as ascii text.
>
> I can use recoll's 'open' command, which fires up thunderbird and shows
> the attachment with an automatically generated name (gibberish, more or
> less) but when I try to save then view the attachment gedit is showing
> me the ascii. I vaguely recall years ago having to manually detach
> mime-encoded text but don't remember details.

"Open" opens an attachments in the the default applications without any
problemos - of course in Xfce. ;)

poma