Thunderbird attachment name changes cause send error

[Colan Schwartz]

Binary package hint: nautilus-sendto

I've got Thunderbird set up as my default MUA in Gnome. (System -> Preferences -> Preferred applications.) When I right-click on a file in Nautilus -> Send To..., the attachment name shows up in an e-mail composition window. However, the name of the attachment is messed up.

If I'm attaching a file called "Personal Learning Plan - 2010-2011.pdf", it gets renamed to "Personal%20Learning%20Plan%20-%202010-2011.pdf" with some sort of URL encoding. When clicking send, this results in the following error:

"Sending of message failed.
Unable to open the temporary file /path/to/file/Learning%20plans/Personal%20Learning%20Plan%20-%202010-2011.pdf. Check your 'Temporary Directory' setting."

However, there's nothing wrong with this directory setting, as it works fine without using Send To.

The workaround:
1) Right click on the attachment -> Remove Attachment.
2) Click on Attach, and then select the file from the file browser.
3) The file name will now be correct, without the URL encoding.
4) The message can now be sent.

There is a bit of a discussion on this topic over at http://ubuntuswitch.wordpress.com/2007/07/09/howto-use-mozilla-thunderbird-in-nautilus-send-to-instead-of-evolution-for-attachments/.

Thunderbird version information:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.2.14) Gecko/20110223 Thunderbird/3.1.8

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: nautilus-sendto 2.32.0-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-28.50-generic 2.6.35.11
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-28-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Apr 11 15:39:29 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100427.1)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_CA.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/zsh
SourcePackage: nautilus-sendto

[Simon Déziel (sdeziel)]

I can confirm this Maverick too.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

It would definitely be nice for this to work properly in Oneiric

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

This is actually a bug in the shell wrapper for Thunderbird. It strips the quotes from the command line that nautilus-sendto passes

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

M'eh, it's nautilus-sendto after all

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package nautilus-sendto - 3.0.0-1ubuntu3

---------------
nautilus-sendto (3.0.0-1ubuntu3) oneiric; urgency=low

  * Fix LP: #757976 - Attachment paths are mangled when sending via Thunderbird.
    Thunderbird doesn't properyly unescape the attachment URI's specified
    on the command line, so just send the unescaped filenames rather than
    converting them to file:/// URI's
    - add debian/patches/no-uris-for-thunderbird.patch
    - update debian/patches/series
  * Use GIO for the default mailer check rather than the deprecated gconf, to
    ensure we pick up the correct preffered mail client
    - add debian/patches/use-gio-for-default-mailer.patch
    - update debian/patches/series
    - update debian/rules to run autoreconf
 -- Chris Coulson <email address hidden> Wed, 27 Jul 2011 23:43:01 +0100

[Felix Möller (felix-derklecks)]

I think this has not been upstreamed yet, is there any reason for that? I just commented on the upstream bug with a link to the patch.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The reason is probably because the patch is not a proper one but a workaround for a thunderbird bug, see the patch comment

"/* XXX: Work around https://launchpad.net/bugs/757976"

[gyhor (gyhor)]

Here you find a nautilus-script with advanced feature like sending multiple files, send directories as a zip attachment.
http://www.dmesg.fr/astuces/107-send-to-thunderbird-envoyer-des-pieces-jointes-email-via-nautilus