bug#70338: message-fcc-externalize-attachments has no effect

[Eric Abrahamsen]

On 04/18/24 13:11 PM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> From: Nicolas Graner <nicolas@graner.name>
>> Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2024 14:39:12 +0200
>> 
>> The variable message-fcc-externalize-attachments seems to have no effect
>> (tested in emacs 30.0.50). Whether I set it to t or nil, whenever I send
>> a mail message with a file attached, the file is included as an internal
>> message part in the FCC mailbox.
>> 
>> I am not sure if this is a bug or if I am missing something, such as
>> another variable that interferes with this one.
>
> Eric, can you please look into this?

I'm trying to figure out what "externalization" is actually supposed to
do. 

So far I don't see that this option would actually do anything in an FCC
context. `message-fcc-externalize-attachments' is only used in
`message-do-fcc`, where its value is let-bound to
`mml-externalize-attachments'.

But `mml-externalize-attachments' is only consulted in
`gnus-inews-do-gcc', which already doesn't sound very promising. That
function first let-binds `mml-externalize-attachments' to nil, before
doing its own setting, so any dynamic value is getting overridden
anyway.

I tried starting with `gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments' and sending a
message with an attachment, just to see how it's supposed to work.
Nothing seemed to happen.

Can you tell me what the desired effect is supposed to be? Does the
"gcc" version of this option work for you?

Eric