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Bug 781570 - Replace Unicode NBSP to ASCII space in text/plain before send
Replace Unicode NBSP to ASCII space in text/plain before send
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Product: evolution
Classification: Applications
Component: Composer
3.22.x (obsolete)
Other Linux
: Normal major
: ---
Assigned To: evolution-mail-maintainers
Evolution QA team
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2017-04-21 05:24 UTC by Paul Wise
Modified: 2017-04-25 17:56 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: 3.21/3.22

Attachments
example of mail with bogus space characters (2.96 KB, application/mbox)
2017-04-21 05:24 UTC, Paul Wise 		Details

Description Paul Wise 2017-04-21 05:24:13 UTC 
Created attachment 350175 [details]
example of mail with bogus space characters

The composer converts some U+0020 SPACE characters to U+00A0 NO-BREAK SPACE characters. This means that some systems that require normal space characters reject mails from me. For me this has affected mails to the Debian bug tracker, the Debian election voting system and mails to the Ubuntu bug tracker (Launchpad). I've attached an example of a mail I sent to Launchpad that exhibits this problem.

In case it matters, I'm using evolution and GNOME from Debian stretch.
Comment 1 Milan Crha 2017-04-21 09:20:51 UTC 
Thanks for a bug report. It makes sense to not use Unicode NBSP in text/plain, from my point of view, thus I made it to do so with:

Created commit 3796dfa in evo master (3.25.1+)
Created commit 6d31abb in evo gnome-3-24 (3.24.2+)
Comment 2 Paul Wise 2017-04-21 13:54:58 UTC 
I don't want to replace Unicode NBSP before sending.

If I type a normal space I should get a normal space, if I type a Unicode NBSP, I should get a Unicode NBSP.

I definitely typed a normal space when I got a Unicode NBSP.
Comment 3 Milan Crha 2017-04-21 14:13:00 UTC 
Unicode NBSP doesn't make sent in text/plain, from my point of view. And as it's a hack on the composer side it should be replaced.

I know there had been a discussion about usage of nbsp and distinguishing between what user typed and what composer used, but it's either still opened (here in bugzilla) or it didn't result in anything useful. I do not recall that much, I'm sorry.
Comment 4 Paul Wise 2017-04-22 02:06:26 UTC 
OK, thanks for the info.

The only other thing I'm concerned about is; does this replacement happen before OpenPGP and S/MIME signing? If it happens after then it will break signatures, which at least the Debian election voting system and mails to the Ubuntu bug tracker (Launchpad) require.
Comment 5 Milan Crha 2017-04-25 17:56:52 UTC 
The replace happens when evolution asks for a message body, consistently, and the Unicode NBSP is never returned as part of the body now, regardless before or after signing/encryption. I just verified it and the signature is marked valid in my Outbox, while the source message (in Drafts) contained Unicode NBSP-s and they were replaced before sending/signing/....