OpenType Fonts associated as ODF Template Files

[Mark Steadman]

Binary package hint: shared-mime-info

OpenType Fonts with file extension *.otf have file association vnd.oasis.opendocument.formula-template rather than being associated as OpenType Fonts. Previously, I could right click -> actions -> install or right click -> open with -> KFontView. This is no longer the case.

Steps to reproduce:

1) Download an open type font eg. http://www.ctan.org/get/fonts/cm/ps-type1/bakoma/otf/cmb10.otf
2) Right click in Dolphin

Expected Behavior:

KFontView should be the associated application

Observed Behavior:
OpenOffice.org Formula is the associated application

Description: Ubuntu jaunty (development branch)
Release: 9.04

shared-mime-info
 Installed: 0.60-1
  Candidate: 0.60-1
  Version table:
 *** 0.60-1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Jacques L. (asdfgerv)]

I can confirmed this bug in Jaunty.

Interestingly, when the ".otf" extension is removed from the filename, the file is correctly identified as "application/x-font-otf" instead of "application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.formula-template".

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thanks for your bug report. This bug has been reported to the developers of the software. You can track it and make comments here: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=20603

[Nicolas-mailhot-laposte (nicolas-mailhot-laposte)]

The gnome mime database thinks OTF files are some kind of ODF file (as
documented in the ODF spec).

However the OTF extension has long been used for OpenType fonts with CFF data,
and it's easy to check font OTF files massively outnumber ODF OTF files in the wild (and are likely to continue as OTF is used for pretty much every new font nowadays)

Therefore the default should be switched to font file.

Even OO.o uses the OTF moniker for font files
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=43029

[Nicolas-mailhot-laposte (nicolas-mailhot-laposte)]

(for example I count ~ 30 packages including one or many OTF font files in Fedora, and none including ODF OTF files)

[Bastien Nocera (hadess-deactivatedaccount)]

All the mime-types associated with *.otf have magic data associated, so front-ends should be able to detect which is which by using magic in case of conflict.

Adding weight for one or the other would cause more problems than it would solve. So file a bug against the applications that fail to detect the files correctly instead.

[Bastien Nocera (hadess-deactivatedaccount)]

*** Bug 20603 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

upstream says that's not a shared-mime-info bug but that bug should be opened against applications rather

[Brian Burger (bburger)]

Which applications should it be opened against?

This is still happening in Ubuntu 9.04 final release; Nautilus also identifies OTF as "OpenOffice Template" rather than a font file.

Should we be reporting this against Nautilus?

[Brian Burger (bburger)]

Having read the Freedesktop.org report Sebastien linked to, I'll change this report to be against Nautilus - as I'm not a KDE user, I'll leave adding KDE's filemanager to someone else.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the bug is not a nautilus one, that should be opened against whatever software should open the font in your opinion

[Brian Burger (bburger)]

https://bugs.launchpad.net/nautilus/+bug/338682

Over on Launchpad, Seb Bacher is saying this isn't a Nautilus/file-handling bug.

Over here, it's not a mime-type bug.

It's got to be one or the other. So which is it?

[Brian Burger (bburger)]

Copypasta from one of my comments on the Launchpad bug:

This is not a problem with the current Gnome Font Viewer, as is easily proven:
1. Find an OTF font file on your system.
2. If you just double-click on it, OpenOffice attempts to open it, and fails.
2. Right-click the OTF, go Open With -> Open With Other Application -> Font Viewer
3. Font Viewer opens and displays the OTF preview just as it should, exactly like a TTF is shown.

So I'm not sure how this bug can be Invalid against all three of the targets currently listed. It's should be valid against at least one, if not all.

(The above was all done on Ubuntu 9.04)

[Brian Burger (bburger)]

Does Nautilus not handle mime-type/opening issues in Gnome?

This is not a problem with the current Gnome Font Viewer, as is easily proven:
1. Find an OTF font file on your system.
2. If you just double-click on it, OpenOffice attempts to open it, and fails.
2. Right-click the OTF, go Open With -> Open With Other Application -> Font Viewer
3. Font Viewer opens and displays the OTF preview just as it should, exactly like a TTF is shown.

So I'm not sure how this bug can be Invalid against all three of the targets currently listed. It's should be valid against at least one, if not all.

This bug isn't in Font Viewer, it's in Nautilus and/or whatever mime-type definitions are being used in Ubuntu 9.04.

[Bastien Nocera (hadess-deactivatedaccount)]

It is a bug in the file managers. File a bug against them.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the mimetype definition is a shared-mime-info one, what about arguing on the upstream bug rather than here?

[Brian Burger (bburger)]

Over on the upstream bug, Bastien Nocera says, "So file a bug against the applications that fail to detect the files
correctly instead."

Wouldn't that be Nautilus in this case, or KDE's equivilent?

I'm not trying to start an arguement, I'm puzzled - this is clearly a bug. It's a regression bug, even. Yet both upstream & here, the response is "Not ours, go elsewhere.". They claim it's not their mime type definitions at fault. You claim it's not Nautilus.

One party or another has to drop the NOTOURBUG flag, and as a user, I really don't care who does it, providing it gets accepted that yes, this is actually a bug.

OTF preview used to work, after all, before Ubuntu 8.04 wrecked font preview completely.

[Brian Burger (bburger)]

Reopened with comments on Freedesktop as well, just for good measure.

[Mark Steadman (bugaroosa)]

The package in kde I assume is kdebase-runtime. There is already a bug open for *.jar files on it.

[Brian Burger (bburger)]

The upstream freedesktop.org bug got closed less than a day after I reopened it, with the same 'not our problem' comment and 'NOTOURBUG' tag.

What's the Gnome equiv. of kdebase-runtime?

[Brian Burger (bburger)]

Opened with GNOME's bugzilla, just to attempt to get a rational response to this.

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=581388

[Mark Steadman (bugaroosa)]

Brian,

I see there is a package gnome-mime-data. Is that the equivalent gnome package?

[Jan Vlnas (jnv)]

I took a look a the filetypes using assoGiate, which clearly shows the problem. The mimetype application/x-font-otf doesn't have the filename pattern defined, while the application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.formula-template (which is the problematic MIME here) does have the filename pattern.
The easiest workaround is as follows: Install and run assogiate (package is in universe), find the application/x-font-otf type and edit it, at the filename tab add pattern *.otf.
I am not sure how to create regular formula template, but when I change extension of some formula document (*.odf) to .otf, it gets detected as OpenType font too, but since I almost never work with OpenOffice formulas this is not a big deal for me.

As you can see, this problem is clearly MIME related, now it depends whether the problem is in gnome-mime-data or shared-mime-info.

[Matthias Clasen (mclasen)]

Bastien,

we need to add a glob for *.otf to the font mime type too, since the current agreed-on matching algorithm only looks at magic to disambiguate if there is a glob conflict.

I tested locally that adding the glob makes otf fonts show up correctly in nautilus.

[Jan Vlnas (jnv)]

Reopened by Freedesktop, this bug isn't related to any file manager or desktop environment.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

could people not open hundredpapercuts tasks but let the design team to do that rather?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the bug there is a simple upstream issue and probably going to be fixed during the karmic cycle, not sure it's worth tagging it as hundredpapercut issue

[Lightbreeze (nedhoy-gmail)]

Not a paper cut as it effects a small user population.

[Bastien Nocera (hadess-deactivatedaccount)]

* freedesktop.org.xml.in: Add *.otf as a glob for
OpenType fonts so file managers use magic to check
for fonts vs. OO.o documents (Closes: #20854)

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

Fix committed upstream for shared-mime-info 0.61

[old_toby (simon-hornweb)]

When will shared-mime-info 0.61 be in the repositories? With the newest updates on karmic, I still have 0.60.2...

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

where do you find that 0.61? http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/shared-mime-info still has 0.60 has current version

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

there is a newer version fixing the issue in karmic now