Firefox stores editable documents in /tmp

[John McCabe-Dansted]

Binary package hint: firefox

If you browse to a file in Firefox (e.g. http://www.csse.uwa.edu.au/~john/bugs/test.rtf ), and select Open instead of "Save As" then it will save the file in /tmp. This file is writeable, so you can edit this file and save it.

The behaviour of each component take individually is reasonable, however as a system:
  * The user requested that OpenOffice "Save" the file, yet the file will only be stored temporarily (until /tmp is next cleaned.)
  * There is no indication or OpenOffice did not Save the file to a permanent location.
  * There is no visual reminder that the file is in /tmp.
      - The "Downloads" window lists it as a download and claims "All files downloaded to: Desktop"
      - OpenOffice doesn't display the path at the top of the window, just the file name.

As a result, it easy for the user to accidentally lose work done on downloaded files.

I expect that, every time I click save, my file is saved to a permanent location.
. Possible fixes include
 * Firefox could mark its temporary files in /tmp as read-only, forcing the user to save elsewhere (but see bug #97292)
 * OpenOffice (etc.) could warn the user the first time they attempt to "Save" a file to /tmp

(Bug detected with Firefox 2.0.0.6 and OpenOffice 2.2.0 on Fiesty)

[Hilario J. Montoliu (hjmf) (hmontoliu)]

Thank you John McCabe-Dansted for your report

This report can also be related to bug #90378 (Should make downloaded files-read only)