[Lynx-dev] possible bug in lynx download...

[Rick Thomas]

Hi there!

The following discussion occurred on the "debian-users" email list.   
It was suggested that reporting it here might be of interest and, if  
the behavior it describes is felt to be a genuine bug, maybe get it  
fixed.  I'll also be submitting a bugreport to Debian.

Enjoy!

Rick

======================================================
Rick wrote:

> On an apple macintosh G4, running debian squeeze,  I use lynx to  
> download cd-images from cdimage.debian.org.  I have no problem   
> getting CD ".iso" images. (Except that it seems to prefer IPv6,  
> which is significantly slower for me than IPv4. Is there a config  
> option to change that behavior?)
>
> But when I try downloading the MD5SUMS file from the same directory,  
> I get a few lines of HTML pre-pended to the downloaded file.
>
> Has anybody else seen this behavior?  Am I doing something wrong?   
> Is this a bug in Lynx?
>
> Rick



Then wes wrote, in reply:

> hi rick.
>
> > But when I try downloading the MD5SUMS file from the same  
> > directory, I get a few lines of HTML pre-pended to the downloaded  
> > file.
>
> lines like the following?
>
> > <!-- X-URL: http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/6.0.7/powerpc/iso-cd/MD5SUMS 
> >  -->
> > <!-- Date: Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:34:12 GMT -->
> > <!-- Last-Modified: Sun, 24 Feb 2013 00:31:23 GMT -->
> > <BASE HREF="http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/6.0.7/powerpc/iso-cd/MD5SUMS 
> > ">
>
> > Has anybody else seen this behavior?
>
> well, i just noticed it now, retracing your steps.
>
> > Is this a bug in Lynx?
>
> i do not believe so.  afaict, lynx adds those lines for generally
> sensible reasons, as explained here:
>
> http://lynx.isc.org/current/lynx2-8-8/lynx_help/Lynx_users_guide.html#RemoteSource
>
> as mentioned there, if you really want to, you can disable this
> behavior by adding
>
> PREPEND_BASE_TO_SOURCE:FALSE
>
> to your lynx.cfg.
>
> <some discussion of using wget instead of lynx for this particular  
> application>
>
> hope this helps,
> wes



To which Rick replied:

> Thank you , Wes, for the very complete and helpful explanation.
>
> You seem to know a lot about this.
> I hope you don't mind if I continue to pick your brain on this  
> subject...  (-:
>
>
> On Mar 31, 2013, at 7:49 PM, wes wrote:
>
> > hi rick.
> >
> > > But when I try downloading the MD5SUMS file from the same  
> > > directory, I get a few lines of HTML pre-pended to the downloaded  
> > > file.
> >
> > lines like the following?
> >
> > > <!-- X-URL: http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/6.0.7/powerpc/iso-cd/MD5SUMS 
> > >  -->
> > > <!-- Date: Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:34:12 GMT -->
> > > <!-- Last-Modified: Sun, 24 Feb 2013 00:31:23 GMT -->
> > > <BASE HREF="http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/6.0.7/powerpc/iso-cd/MD5SUMS 
> > > ">
>
> Yes, exactly.
>
> As you probably figured out, I'm using the "d" command not the  
> "<cr>" option to start the download.
>
> So my next question is: Why does it do this when downloading MD5SUM,  
> but *not* when downloading the ".iso" file?  Does it recognize a  
> difference between the two formats (binary vs a text) and invoke a  
> corresponding difference in treatment for download?
>
> And the next-next question: The text file is not an html text file.   
> This is a difference that it could also recognize, one would think.   
> It seems reasonable to me that a non-html file should be treated  
> just like a binary file for download purposes.  Am I missing  
> something?
>
>
> > > Has anybody else seen this behavior?
> >
> > well, i just noticed it now, retracing your steps.
> >
> > > Is this a bug in Lynx?
> >
> > i do not believe so.  afaict, lynx adds those lines for generally
> > sensible reasons, as explained here:
> >
> > http://lynx.isc.org/current/lynx2-8-8/lynx_help/Lynx_users_guide.html#RemoteSource
>
>
> So it's a feature (hence, not a bug) when downloading html text  
> files.  Is it, then, a bug when that feature gets applied  
> indiscriminately to all text files, even those that don't contain  
> html?
>
>
> > as mentioned there, if you really want to, you can disable this
> > behavior by adding
> >
> > PREPEND_BASE_TO_SOURCE:FALSE
> >
> > to your lynx.cfg.
>
>
>
> I'd prefer, of course, if it automatically knew the difference and  
> acted correctly in all cases.  But if that's not possible, I guess  
> having a config option to disable the behavior is the next best thing.
>
> For what it's worth, I've never known any browser other than lynx  
> that behaves this way.  Is there something special about the design  
> of lynx that makes this desirable?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Rick


And wes replied:

> fair enough.  report bugs to this address:
>
> address@hidden

Please CC me in any replies.  I'm not currently subscribed to the lynx- 
dev mailinglist.

Hope this helps,