Ascii Attachments

[Steve Hayes]

When I send a file attachment in Pegasus -- like a PDF file, it goes
as an attachment, but when the file is in Ascii format, Pegasus
sometuimes seems to incorporate the attachment into the message,
instead of as a file attachment.

Is there a setting where I can change this behaviour, so that it will
not incorporate such attachments into the message?


--
Steve Hayes
Web: http://hayesgreene.wordpress.com/
http://hayesgreene.blogspot.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/afgen/

[Steve Hayes]

On Sat, 02 Apr 2016 22:08:31 -0500, Guy <g...@guysalias.tk.invalid>
wrote:

>Steve Hayes wrote:
>
>> When I send a file attachment in Pegasus -- like a PDF file,
>> it goes as an attachment, but when the file is in Ascii format,
>> Pegasus sometuimes seems to incorporate the attachment into the
>> message, instead of as a file attachment.
>>
>> Is there a setting where I can change this behaviour, so that
>> it will not incorporate such attachments into the message?
>>
>
>

>Check these two settings:
>
> Tools > Options
> Outgoing mail > Messages and replies
> Use these settings...
> Use MIME features [x] On
>
> Tools > Options
> Outgoing mail > Sending mail
> Advanced settings
> [] Enable text-file autodetection...

I've checked both of those, and they are set as above.

One of the biggest problems occurs when I send GEDCOM files (GEnealogy
Data COMmunications) files to non-savvy computer users. These are
genealogy data files in Ascii format, which can be imported into most
genealogy programs.

When it is sent as an attachment, anyone can simply tell their
genealogy program to import the attached file with no problems.

But when Pegasus incorporates it into a message, most non-savvy
computer users do not know how to mark the text, save it as a file
with a GED extension, and then import it.

[Nil]

On 02 Apr 2016, Steve Hayes <haye...@telkomsa.net> wrote in
comp.mail.pegasus-mail.ms-windows:

> When I send a file attachment in Pegasus -- like a PDF file, it goes
> as an attachment, but when the file is in Ascii format, Pegasus
> sometuimes seems to incorporate the attachment into the message,
> instead of as a file attachment.
>
> Is there a setting where I can change this behaviour, so that it will
> not incorporate such attachments into the message?

I think I recall this problem from years ago, and that the solution was
adding a line to one of PMail's configuration files, but I'll have to
do some investigation to find out which.

One possibility is FILETYPE.PM . Do you have this line in yours?

Text,0,X,0,.TXT

[Steve Hayes]

Yes, that line is there. I'm not sure what it does, though, or how to
change it.

[Nil]

On 10 Apr 2016, Steve Hayes <haye...@telkomsa.net> wrote in
comp.mail.pegasus-mail.ms-windows:

>>Text,0,X,0,.TXT
>
> Yes, that line is there. I'm not sure what it does, though, or how
> to change it.

You would change it by editing the file with a text editor while
Pegasus is shut down. But if you have that line and it's not commented
out, and that line is what controls the behavior, there would be no
need to alter it.

The FILETYPE.PM file is documented at the top. It tells Pegasus to
check either the first x bytes of a file or the file extension to
determine how to deal with attaching a file of that type. In this case,
Pegasus should see that the file extension is .txt and deal with it in
a consistent way. Are you sure the files you're attaching always have a
.txt extension?

My Pegasus setup handles *.txt files as attachments rather than
inclusions, as you and I prefer. I don't know why yours acts
differently. Maybe FILETYPE.PM isn't the file that controls it. By the
way I do NOT have the "Enable text-file autodetection when sending
attachments" option turned on.

[Steve Hayes]

On Sun, 10 Apr 2016 21:03:54 -0400, Nil
<redn...@REMOVETHIScomcast.net> wrote:

>On 10 Apr 2016, Steve Hayes <haye...@telkomsa.net> wrote in
>comp.mail.pegasus-mail.ms-windows:
>
>>>Text,0,X,0,.TXT
>>
>> Yes, that line is there. I'm not sure what it does, though, or how
>> to change it.
>
>You would change it by editing the file with a text editor while
>Pegasus is shut down. But if you have that line and it's not commented
>out, and that line is what controls the behavior, there would be no
>need to alter it.
>
>The FILETYPE.PM file is documented at the top. It tells Pegasus to
>check either the first x bytes of a file or the file extension to
>determine how to deal with attaching a file of that type. In this case,
>Pegasus should see that the file extension is .txt and deal with it in
>a consistent way. Are you sure the files you're attaching always have a
>.txt extension?

Not always. As I noted elsewhere, some of them are Gedcom files that
have a .GED extension. I could not understand from the documentation
what the FILETYPE.PM file actually does with the files, apart from
telling you what kind of file the attachment contains.

I see that it defines files with the .DOC extension as MS Word files,
but I have a number of text files with the DOC extention, before
Microsoft laid claim to it. It was used for READ.ME files and the
like, and consisted of formatted text with CR/LF at the end of each
line, as opposed to long lines that would word wrap in the reader.

>
>My Pegasus setup handles *.txt files as attachments rather than
>inclusions, as you and I prefer. I don't know why yours acts
>differently. Maybe FILETYPE.PM isn't the file that controls it. By the
>way I do NOT have the "Enable text-file autodetection when sending
>attachments" option turned on.

[Nil]

On 10 Apr 2016, Steve Hayes <haye...@telkomsa.net> wrote in
comp.mail.pegasus-mail.ms-windows:

> Not always. As I noted elsewhere, some of them are Gedcom files
> that have a .GED extension. I could not understand from the
> documentation what the FILETYPE.PM file actually does with the
> files, apart from telling you what kind of file the attachment
> contains.

I would think you could specify that GED files be treated as text files
with a recipe like

Text,0,X,0,.GED

I'm not in a position to test this right now.

> I see that it defines files with the .DOC extension as MS Word
> files, but I have a number of text files with the DOC extention,
> before Microsoft laid claim to it.

That's not the definition in my FILETYPE.PM file. Your definition is
mentioned in the examples, but in the business part of the file,
Pegasus is told to recognize Word docs by peeking at the file's header,
thus the recipe:

MS-Word,1,S,0,\219\165\045

[Euler German]

On article <q7t0gb9l4in4broj7...@4ax.com>, Steve Hayes
wrote:

> Is there a setting where I can change this behaviour, so that it will
> not incorporate such attachments into the message?
>
>

Try modifying Filetype.pm. Here is what I use:

;Text,0,X,0,.TXT
binary,0,R,0,\032,R,0,\013
\010,R,0,e,R,0,E,R,0,t,R,0,T,R,0,n,R,0,N,R,0,r,R,0,R,R,0,i,R,0,I,R,0,
o,R,0,O,R,0,a,R,0,A,R,0,s,R,0,S,R,0,d,R,0,D,R,0,h,R,0,H,R,0,l,R,0,L,R
,0,c,R,0,C,R,0,f,R,0,F,R,0,p,R,0,P,R,0,u,R,0,U,R,0,m,R,0,M

Note that the ordinary .TXT line was commented. The following line
that starts with "binary" goes all the way through "R,0,M". It's a
single line. I'm using this ever since, and it never failed me.

--
Kind regards,
Euler German

Please, reply preferably to the list.
Reply-To: partially ROT13, invalid=com
Due to spam I'm filtering-out GoogleGroups. Sorry. :(

[Steve Hayes]

On Mon, 11 Apr 2016 22:51:30 -0300, Euler German
<rstrezn...@znvyahyy.invalid> wrote:

>
>On article <q7t0gb9l4in4broj7...@4ax.com>, Steve Hayes
>wrote:
>
>> Is there a setting where I can change this behaviour, so that it will
>> not incorporate such attachments into the message?
>>
>>
>
>Try modifying Filetype.pm. Here is what I use:
>
>;Text,0,X,0,.TXT
>binary,0,R,0,\032,R,0,\013
>\010,R,0,e,R,0,E,R,0,t,R,0,T,R,0,n,R,0,N,R,0,r,R,0,R,R,0,i,R,0,I,R,0,
>o,R,0,O,R,0,a,R,0,A,R,0,s,R,0,S,R,0,d,R,0,D,R,0,h,R,0,H,R,0,l,R,0,L,R
>,0,c,R,0,C,R,0,f,R,0,F,R,0,p,R,0,P,R,0,u,R,0,U,R,0,m,R,0,M
>
>Note that the ordinary .TXT line was commented. The following line
>that starts with "binary" goes all the way through "R,0,M". It's a
>single line. I'm using this ever since, and it never failed me.

Thanks very much.

[Euler German]

On article <jhsogbd06aro06jo5...@4ax.com>, Steve Hayes
wrote:

> Thanks very much.
>
>

YW :)

[Nil]

On 11 Apr 2016, Euler German <rstrezn...@znvyahyy.invalid>
wrote in comp.mail.pegasus-mail.ms-windows:

> Try modifying Filetype.pm. Here is what I use:
>
> ;Text,0,X,0,.TXT
> binary,0,R,0,\032,R,0,\013
> \010,R,0,e,R,0,E,R,0,t,R,0,T,R,0,n,R,0,N,R,0,r,R,0,R,R,0,i,R,0,I,R,
> 0,
> o,R,0,O,R,0,a,R,0,A,R,0,s,R,0,S,R,0,d,R,0,D,R,0,h,R,0,H,R,0,l,R,0,L
> ,R ,0,c,R,0,C,R,0,f,R,0,F,R,0,p,R,0,P,R,0,u,R,0,U,R,0,m,R,0,M
>
> Note that the ordinary .TXT line was commented. The following line
> that starts with "binary" goes all the way through "R,0,M". It's a
> single line. I'm using this ever since, and it never failed me.

Does that "binary" line affect text files? I really don't know and I
don't understand how to parse that line, but I see that I added that
same line in 2002, then later commented it out again. I've been running
it that way since, and text files have been handled the way I prefer,
as attachments rather than inclusions.

[Bill McCray]

Are there instructions for the entries in this file available?

For that matter, what causes this file to be created? I've looked and
don't have one. (I'm looking in PMAIL/MAIL/ADMIN.)

Bill

[Euler German]

Nope. It only looks after text file common characters like line
terminators (0Dh, 0Ah), spaces (20h) etc. Any file in which its 512
bytes were found any of theses strings should be treat as binary even
though it is plain text. That's what the "R" is for: match the string
contained in "string" anywhere in the first 512 bytes of the file.
"0" is good for any succeeded search; "1" is good only if all
searches match.

The result is that Pmail will encapsulate the text attachment as a
MIME attachment instead of plain text added to the bottom of e-mail
body.