Unhelpful errors when trying to save to a read-only file

[Chris Jones]

Binary package hint: gimp

When opening a read only file (e.g. an attachment from an email), you can edit the file, but when saving it you just get an error message.
Ideally this should be more verbose, or (I think preferably) continue with a Save As dialog that contains an explanation of why they are seeing it.

[Chris Jones (cmsj)]

FWIW, this came to light while testing usability implications of fixing bug #87101

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

thank you for your bug report. how do you save the file using gedit? the current version has the icon and menu item not actives when editing a read only file, you can use the save as function though

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to 'New'. Thanks again!

[Henrik Nilsen Omma (henrik)]

Confirmed in intrepid alpha 6, Gimp 2.4.7. Setting to wishlist as it's a request for a more elegant handling of the situation, but the program does currently work as intended.

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

This does give an error message, which could be worded better or different. Perhaps something similar to the error message given when using Save As... which states explicitly that the file is "read only".

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

This does give an error message, which could be worded better or different. Perhaps stating explicitly that the file is "read only".

[Nicola Ferralis (feranick)]

Is this related to:

* Bugs fixed in GIMP 2.6.4:

 561899 – GIMP can't save to mounted filesystem if file exists

[Andreas J Guelzow (aguelzow)]

In Gnumeric you get a "permission denied" message including the complete file name for the file. I don't see how this could be any more verbose (in a useful way).

Users could choose to use save-as or to change teh permissions of the file. I don't thin kit is a good idea to presuppose that they will want to use save-as!

[Thomas Hotz (thotz-deactivatedaccount)]

I assume this bug is fixed, see #7. I'm not seeing problems anymore in Ubuntu 13.04. If you still see this bug in GIMP, please feel free to report here.