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

[Nicolas Graner]

Yes, your patch works for me.
Great, thanks!

Nicolas

Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> wrote on 2024-04-20 17:28:
> On 04/20/24 19:29 PM, Nicolas Graner wrote:
>> Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> wrote on 2024-04-20 08:36:
>>> 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
>>
>> When you attach a file to a mail message you are writing, only an anchor
>> with the file name is inserted in the message buffer. When the message
>> is sent, the anchor is replaced with the actual MIME-encoded contents of
>> the attached file. The copy of the message that is written to the FCC
>> file also includes the MIME-encoded attached file.
>>
>> I was expecting that externalization would mean that the copy in the FCC
>> file would only include an anchor rather than the attachment, which
>> would be extremely useful. I must admit this was only a guess (wishful
>> thinking?) since the documentation is not explicit at all.
>
> Oh, that sounds very useful, I've often wanted that.
>
>> I don't use gnus. To test the gnus version of the variable, I guess I
>> would need access to a free, public NNTP server, which I don't know
>> where to find. Can you help?
>
> I think most of us use news.gmane.io
>
> I tested the GCC version again (now that I know what it's supposed to
> do), and it did work -- the version of the message in my Sent folder had
> a mime part of "message/external-body".
>
> Long story short, the encoded body of the message is cached during
> sending, and the cached version is re-used during GCC/FCC handling. If
> the user has requested the externalization of attachments, the GCC
> version of the code knows to use that as a flag to dump the cache and
> re-generate it with externalized attachments; the FCC code doesn't do
> the equivalent.
>
> I've pushed a change that fixes this issue in my testing -- are you
> using Emacs master? If not, I've attached the commit here, I hope you'll
> be able to test it.
>
> Thanks,
> Eric