Re: [Pan-users] Sending attachments

[Camaleón]

On Fri, 16 Oct 2015 10:47:47 +0000, Duncan wrote:

> Camaleón posted on Thu, 15 Oct 2015 17:40:26 +0000 as excerpted:

(...)
 
>> Any advice about the right way for sending attachments (plain text
>> and/or binary files) with Pan?
>> 

Hi Duncan, thanks for replying and the long explanation. I'll cut the 
text not because is not relevant nor interesting but in the aim to go to 
the main issue.

> Those aren't corrupted files, as pan sends them anyway.  

Well, the fact a file is sent over the wires does not mean it arrives 
intact, it can get corrupted in transit. 

> They're simply encoded using yenc, 

Oh, that explains all. I've never heard of it before.

> which was designed as a much more efficient encoder of binary files 

(...)

And some problems, too:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YEnc
 
> As a result, while the attachment was transmitted y-encoded (aka yenc),
> and very likely the attachment actually arrived uncorrupted in most
> mailboxes 

(...)

People complained about the file was corrupted so I guess this is not the 
case. But yes, you are right in that the file is okay -not corrupted- 
when fetched from a newsreader, at least from Pan (I have not tested from 
a different newsreader client). Anyway, this is not a solution for me 
because I'm posting into a mailing list thus not newsreaders are 
expected. In addition, I'm sending files as attachments that need to be 
compiled afterwards to build packages and cannot be any errors (encoding, 
transmission).

> OK, be that as it may, what to actually /do/ about it?  How to send
> attachments that those using traditional mail clients, etc, can read?
> 
> Basically, since pan only does yenc attachments, you can't use pan's
> attachment mechanism when sending to what is actually a mailing list,
> just gatewayed thru gmane, etc.  There are, however, a number of
> alternatives that work, letting you pick the one that works best for
> you.

In fact I was/am using Mutt to send those attachments (which adds an 
extra work from my part) but always wondered what was the [+] icon 
showing in the Pan's toolbar :-)

> Likely the easiest for many is to remember how pan behaves when you send
> a reply directly to the author, instead of replying to the "group", and
> use that.

(...)

You mean clicking "R" but this workflow adds too extra work as I need to 
replace the "To", add the Gmane newsgroup and remove the original author 
which is a "no-no" on Debian mailing lists (unless someone states 
otherwise). Also, I need to add the attachment which is indeed very time 
consuming.

What I was doing was simply create a new message from my e-mail client 
(Mutt) and use that. The only drawback I see here is that I need to fake 
the "In-Reply-To" header field in order to get the message threaded 
properly. I'm afraid I will have to keep it that way.
 
> uuenview can actually encode in yenc, base64, or uue.  UUE, the -u
> option, is what we want, for the reasons explained above.
> 
> uuenview -u file

(...)

I cannot risk the file or message body is not properly encoded or has any 
problem by using an encoding tool. This can be acceptable for sending an 
image as attachment but nor for a list of translators that need to review 
the file easily. Also, there is Gmane and then the mailing list so 
encoding errors are more prone to come up that for a true nntp newsgroup.

> Once your tests are working, /then/ send your first real manual
> attachment to the list. =:^)

I'm afraid I give up O:-)

> Another alternative (actually two).  Quite some years ago now, I coded
> up a couple little scripts to help automate the otherwise manual
> encoding and attachment process above.  

(...)

That's really nice, but I expect this task is completely done by the 
newsreader (I mean, no more extra work from my part). If it cannot get 
the way I need, no problem, I will go elsewhere to send the attachment.

Anyway, have you thought about adding/embedding those utilities into Pan?

Thanks again for the extended explanation, it is indeed a bit weird the 
way Pan handles attachments and this nows clears it all.

Greetings,

-- 
Camaleón