It seems that more and more people are posting as base64 encoded posts.
Presumably some idiotic reader is encoding news posts before posting.
slrn does not seem to translate these into something readable.
a) Is there some way of getting slrn to read these posts, other than to
save them unencode them and then read them? (Most of them turn out to be
not worth the effort)
b) if there is no way at present, could this feature be added to slrn?

William Unruh wrote:

> It seems that more and more people are posting as base64 encoded posts.
> Presumably some idiotic reader is encoding news posts before posting.
> slrn does not seem to translate these into something readable.
> a) Is there some way of getting slrn to read these posts, other than to
> save them unencode them and then read them? (Most of them turn out to be
> not worth the effort)
> b) if there is no way at present, could this feature be added to slrn?

not a problem here...

Welcome to the Emacs shell

~ $ slrn --version
slrn 1.0.3
S-Lang Library Version: 2.3.2
Operating System: Linux

COMPILE TIME OPTIONS:
Backends: +nntp +slrnpull +spool
External programs / libs: +canlock +inews +ssl +uudeview +iconv
Features: +decoding +emphasized_text +end_of_thread +fake_refs +gen_msgid
-grouplens -msgid_cache +piping +rnlock +spoilers -strict_from
Using 64 bit integers for article numbers.

DEFAULTS:
Default server object: nntp
Default posting mechanism: nntp
~ $

On 2022-05-09, issdr <p_u_n_k_i_n_d@yahoo.it> wrote:
> William Unruh wrote:
>
>> It seems that more and more people are posting as base64 encoded posts.
>> Presumably some idiotic reader is encoding news posts before posting.
>> slrn does not seem to translate these into something readable.
>> a) Is there some way of getting slrn to read these posts, other than to
>> save them unencode them and then read them? (Most of them turn out to be
>> not worth the effort)
>> b) if there is no way at present, could this feature be added to slrn?
>
> not a problem here...
>
> Welcome to the Emacs shell
>
> ~ $ slrn --version
> slrn 1.0.3
> S-Lang Library Version: 2.3.2
> Operating System: Linux
>
> COMPILE TIME OPTIONS:
> Backends: +nntp +slrnpull +spool
> External programs / libs: +canlock +inews +ssl +uudeview +iconv

These are the only differences with mine. -canlock, -ssl -uudeview
instead of your +s.

Not sure which of those three would make the differnce.

> Features: +decoding +emphasized_text +end_of_thread +fake_refs +gen_msgid
> -grouplens -msgid_cache +piping +rnlock +spoilers -strict_from
> Using 64 bit integers for article numbers.
>
> DEFAULTS:
> Default server object: nntp
> Default posting mechanism: nntp
> ~ $

Just to add definitelness here is the latest post of this type I ran
acress. But I have probably run across about 10 of them in the past few
months

-----------------------------------------
From: Paul Gevers <elbrus@debian.org>
Newsgroups: linux.debian.devel
Subject: Re: Change package source name

This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 4880 and 3156)
--------------ivJ0uN8IwroAb9Tu0kXpT6Oj
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="------------Xjo4mVW0tzEILe13PCf0AW5n";
protected-headers="v1"
From: Paul Gevers <elbrus@debian.org>
To: debian-devel@lists.debian.org
Message-ID: <ac094359-c89d-3188-1fc6-7b9e7b750373@debian.org>
Subject: Re: Change package source name
References: <ea3-62790f00-6df-13f67b40@93657717>
In-Reply-To: <ea3-62790f00-6df-13f67b40@93657717>

--------------Xjo4mVW0tzEILe13PCf0AW5n
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

-------------------------------------------
followed by a base64 endoded file

On 2022-05-09, William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> wrote:
> On 2022-05-09, issdr <p_u_n_k_i_n_d@yahoo.it> wrote:
>> William Unruh wrote:
>>
>>> It seems that more and more people are posting as base64 encoded posts.
>>> Presumably some idiotic reader is encoding news posts before posting.
>>> slrn does not seem to translate these into something readable.
>>> a) Is there some way of getting slrn to read these posts, other than to
>>> save them unencode them and then read them? (Most of them turn out to be
>>> not worth the effort)
>>> b) if there is no way at present, could this feature be added to slrn?
>>
>> not a problem here...
>>
>> Welcome to the Emacs shell
>>
>> ~ $ slrn --version
>> slrn 1.0.3
>> S-Lang Library Version: 2.3.2
>> Operating System: Linux
>>
>> COMPILE TIME OPTIONS:
>> Backends: +nntp +slrnpull +spool
>> External programs / libs: +canlock +inews +ssl +uudeview +iconv
>
> These are the only differences with mine. -canlock, -ssl -uudeview
> instead of your +s.
>
>
> Not sure which of those three would make the differnce.
>
>
>> Features: +decoding +emphasized_text +end_of_thread +fake_refs +gen_msgid
>> -grouplens -msgid_cache +piping +rnlock +spoilers -strict_from
>> Using 64 bit integers for article numbers.
>>
>> DEFAULTS:
>> Default server object: nntp
>> Default posting mechanism: nntp
>> ~ $

In message <t5c1h1$24m$1@dont-email.me> William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> wrote:
> It seems that more and more people are posting as base64 encoded posts.

Really? I do not see base64 posts. Where are these people posting?

> Presumably some idiotic reader is encoding news posts before posting.
> slrn does not seem to translate these into something readable.
> a) Is there some way of getting slrn to read these posts, other than to
> save them unencode them and then read them? (Most of them turn out to be
> not worth the effort)

Which probably indicates you can just ignore them, that's what I would
do.

> b) if there is no way at present, could this feature be added to slrn?

slrn has base64 decoding built-in, as I recall. Can you just pretend the post
is a binary?

--
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

In message <t5c76f$8u6$1@dont-email.me> William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> wrote:
> On 2022-05-09, issdr <p_u_n_k_i_n_d@yahoo.it> wrote:

>> External programs / libs: +canlock +inews +ssl +uudeview +iconv

> These are the only differences with mine. -canlock, -ssl -uudeview
> instead of your +s.

> Not sure which of those three would make the differnce.

uudeview probably does UUdecoding, so that one?

--
"Are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
Yeah, but I thought Madonna already had a steady bloke!"

Lewis:

> slrn has base64 decoding built-in, as I recall. Can you just pretend the post
> is a binary?

As the OP's slrn was compiled without the uudeview configure-option, it
is quite normal that slrn does not automatically decode the posts
concerned.
I just checked my own configure-option and can confirm that *+uudeview*
appears do be a default: I have not activated it explicitly. The only
available options in the configure script are anyway
------------
--with-uu=DIR Use DIR/lib and DIR/include for uu
--with-uulib=DIR uu library in DIR
--with-uuinc=DIR uu include files in DIR
------------

I venture, that either the OP's slrn is strange in some way or that
he compiled it himself without having development-versions of the named
libraries installed... or something else with the same effect.
Maybe a binary slrn will notice the absence of ordinary runtime versions
of the libraries and display -uudeview. But I know nothing about that.

My version decodes alright:
----------------
alucard@crypt:~$ slrn --version
slrn 1.0.3
Version der S-Lang-Bibliothek: 2.3.2
Betriebssystem: Linux

COMPILE TIME OPTIONS:
Backends: +nntp +slrnpull +spool
External programs / libs: +canlock +inews +ssl +uudeview +iconv
Features: +decoding +emphasized_text +end_of_thread +fake_refs +gen_msgid
-grouplens -msgid_cache +piping +rnlock +spoilers -strict_from
Using 64 bit integers for article numbers.
----------------

Cheerio

--
Le progrès, ce n'est pas l'acquisition de biens. C'est l'élévation de
l'individu, son émancipation, sa compréhension du monde. Et pour ça il
faut du temps pour lire, s'instruire, se consacrer aux autres.
(Christiane Taubira)

OK, I am simply using my distribution (Mageia 8) version of slrn.
So I guess I am going to have to recompile it for myself and put in a
bug report to the distribution.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Where do I find the uudeview library (if that is what it is called).
It seems that Mageia does not have them?

On 2022-05-10, Michael Uplawski <michael.uplawski@uplawski.eu> wrote:
> Lewis:
>
>> slrn has base64 decoding built-in, as I recall. Can you just pretend the post
>> is a binary?
>
> As the OP's slrn was compiled without the uudeview configure-option, it
> is quite normal that slrn does not automatically decode the posts
> concerned.
> I just checked my own configure-option and can confirm that *+uudeview*
> appears do be a default: I have not activated it explicitly. The only
> available options in the configure script are anyway
> ------------
> --with-uu=DIR Use DIR/lib and DIR/include for uu
> --with-uulib=DIR uu library in DIR
> --with-uuinc=DIR uu include files in DIR
> ------------
>
> I venture, that either the OP's slrn is strange in some way or that
> he compiled it himself without having development-versions of the named
> libraries installed... or something else with the same effect.
> Maybe a binary slrn will notice the absence of ordinary runtime versions
> of the libraries and display -uudeview. But I know nothing about that.
>
> My version decodes alright:
> ----------------
> alucard@crypt:~$ slrn --version
> slrn 1.0.3
> Version der S-Lang-Bibliothek: 2.3.2
> Betriebssystem: Linux
>
> COMPILE TIME OPTIONS:
> Backends: +nntp +slrnpull +spool
> External programs / libs: +canlock +inews +ssl +uudeview +iconv
> Features: +decoding +emphasized_text +end_of_thread +fake_refs +gen_msgid
> -grouplens -msgid_cache +piping +rnlock +spoilers -strict_from
> Using 64 bit integers for article numbers.
> ----------------
>
> Cheerio
>

William Unruh wrote:

> Just to add definitelness here is the latest post of this type I ran
> acress. But I have probably run across about 10 of them in the past few
> months

that's a multipart, gpg signed message, not simply a base64 encoded
post.

https://user.fm/files/v2-838561f84fe4c1c18c853f227cbe9255/Clipboard.png

this is how i got to view it properly in slrn, *almost* (bad, weird line
ends). there might be better, simpler ways, hope someone here knows how
to and is willing to share.

https://hg.guido-berhoerster.org/addons/slrn-macros/slrn-mime-support-macro/raw-file/tip/mime-support.sl

,----[ .slrnrc ]
| interpret "/usr/share/slsh/autoload.sl"
| interpret "/usr/share/slsh/require.sl"
| interpret "/usr/share/slsh/rand.sl"
| interpret "/usr/share/slrn/slang/mailcap.sl"
| interpret "mime-support.sl" %this is in my home
`----

had to install the slsh package on my debian.

had to replace the require("rand") call with file's absolute path and
full name. here:

-*- mode: grep; default-directory: "~/" -*-
Grep started at Tue May 10 13:29:59

grep -nH -i require.\*/ /usr/share/slsh/autoload.sl /usr/share/slsh/require.sl /usr/share/slsh/rand.sl /usr/share/slrn/slang/mailcap.sl mime-support.sl
/usr/share/slrn/slang/mailcap.sl:14:require ("/usr/share/slsh/rand.sl");
mime-support.sl:25:require("/usr/share/slsh/rand.sl");

Grep finished with matches found at Tue May 10 13:29:59

hth

In article <t5d76d$dur$1@dont-email.me>,
William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> wrote:
>Where do I find the uudeview library (if that is what it is called).

<URL:http://www.fpx.de/fp/Software/UUDeview/>

John
groenveld@acm.org

William Unruh:

> Where do I find the uudeview library (if that is what it is called).
> It seems that Mageia does not have them?

Here is one site proposing downloads:
https://pkgs.org/download/uudeview

But as this appears to be the same (quite old) version of uudeview, you
can also consult the uudeview homepage:
http://www.fpx.de/fp/Software/UUDeview/
and there the section about the library, further down.

If you find here or elsewhere the runtime-library or its source-code, do
not be surprised that it may be called libuu and that there is no
mention of uudeview, it is however the same family... I just read that
with the source-code of the library, simple frontends are provided which
are *not* called uudeview. They hate us.

Also.., before you recompile slrn, maybe try to just install the
runtime-version of the libuu library. In Debian it is called quite
simply libuu, but I would not promise that your package managers for
other distributions will locate it under that name (however probable).

Chances are, the runtime version is sufficient and your slrn will
recognize it.

If not.., yes. Go ahead and compile slrn, it is always good to try.

Good luck

Michael

--
Le progrès, ce n'est pas l'acquisition de biens. C'est l'élévation de
l'individu, son émancipation, sa compréhension du monde. Et pour ça il
faut du temps pour lire, s'instruire, se consacrer aux autres.
(Christiane Taubira)

In message <t5d76d$dur$1@dont-email.me> William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> wrote:
> OK, I am simply using my distribution (Mageia 8) version of slrn.
> So I guess I am going to have to recompile it for myself and put in a
> bug report to the distribution.

> Thanks for the suggestions.

> Where do I find the uudeview library (if that is what it is called).
> It seems that Mageia does not have them?

<http://www.fpx.de/fp/Software/UUDeview/>

I don't know that distro, but on my FreeBSD it is in ports.

/usr/ports/converters/uudeview

It is also in homebrew.

--
"Are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"I think so, Brain... but where would a yak put PVC tubing?"

issdr wrote:

> that's a multipart, gpg signed message, not simply a base64 encoded
> post.
>
> https://user.fm/files/v2-838561f84fe4c1c18c853f227cbe9255/Clipboard.png
>
> this is how i got to view it properly in slrn, *almost* (bad, weird line
> ends). there might be better, simpler ways, hope someone here knows how
> to and is willing to share.

simpler way for version 1.0.3 is mime.sl

not better though, same output.

i'm thinking about a macro to strreplace those line ends. any
suggestions?

On 2022-05-10, issdr wrote:
> this is how i got to view it properly in slrn, *almost* (bad, weird line
> ends). there might be better, simpler ways, hope someone here knows how
> to and is willing to share.
>

Hmm - it's not clear to me what mime-support.sl does that just the plain
mime.sl that comes with slrn doesn't do?

FWIW, I just have `interpret "mime.sl"` and I can read multipart
messages just fine, I've never noticed any line ending problems.

Tavis.

--
_o) $ lynx lock.cmpxchg8b.com
/\\ _o) _o) $ finger taviso@sdf.org
_\_V _( ) _( ) @taviso

Tavis Ormandy wrote:

> FWIW, I just have `interpret "mime.sl"` and I can read multipart
> messages just fine, I've never noticed any line ending problems.

i followed up to my own post. not a regular user here, i found that out
right after doing such a mess...

btw, could you check that message on linux.debian.devel and see whether
you get those nasty cr's too?

On 2022-05-12, issdr wrote:
> Tavis Ormandy wrote:
>
>> FWIW, I just have `interpret "mime.sl"` and I can read multipart
>> messages just fine, I've never noticed any line ending problems.
>
> i followed up to my own post. not a regular user here, i found that out
> right after doing such a mess...
>
> btw, could you check that message on linux.debian.devel and see whether
> you get those nasty cr's too?

Ahh - you're right, it seems like Thunderbird users are sending CRLF
line endings. That's weird. You could try a patch to mime.sl like this:

--- /usr/share/slrn/slang/mime.sl 2022-05-12 10:50:21.980521000 -0700
+++ /usr/share/slrn/slang/mime.sl 2022-05-12 10:50:15.503466000 -0700
@@ -368,6 +368,10 @@
{
str = charset_convert_string (str, charset, Mime_Save_Charset, 0);
}
+ + if (is_text(obj))
+ str = strreplace (str, "\r\n", "\n");
+ obj.converted = 1;
return str;
}

Tavis.

--
_o) $ lynx lock.cmpxchg8b.com
/\\ _o) _o) $ finger taviso@sdf.org
_\_V _( ) _( ) @taviso

Tavis Ormandy wrote:

> Ahh - you're right, it seems like Thunderbird users are sending CRLF
> line endings. That's weird.

actually it seems the way TB manages OpenPGP signed, base64ed articles.

> You could try a patch to mime.sl like this:

a charm Tavis, thank you very much

In message <je4l0oFrlldU1@mid.individual.net> Tavis Ormandy <taviso@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2022-05-10, issdr wrote:
>> this is how i got to view it properly in slrn, *almost* (bad, weird line
>> ends). there might be better, simpler ways, hope someone here knows how
>> to and is willing to share.
>>

> Hmm - it's not clear to me what mime-support.sl does that just the plain
> mime.sl that comes with slrn doesn't do?

Where is mime.sl and/or mime-support.sl?

A quick query on DDG did not help, but did turn up some useless mentions
about other decoders for slrn from 2005.

--
Evil is a little man afraid for his job.

Lewis wrote:

> Where is mime.sl

~ $ wget http://jedsoft.org/releases/slrn/slrn-1.0.3a.tar.bz2
--2022-05-13 23:13:13-- http://jedsoft.org/releases/slrn/slrn-1.0.3a.tar.bz2
Resolving jedsoft.org (jedsoft.org)... 199.180.249.46
Connecting to jedsoft.org (jedsoft.org)|199.180.249.46|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 997138 (974K) [application/x-gtar-compressed]
Saving to: ‘slrn-1.0.3a.tar.bz2’

slrn-1.0.3a.tar.bz2 100%[===================>] 973.77K 989KB/s in 1.0s

2022-05-13 23:13:14 (989 KB/s) - ‘slrn-1.0.3a.tar.bz2’ saved [997138/997138]

~ $ tar -tvf slrn-1.0.3a.tar.bz2 | grep mime\.sl
-rw-rw-r-- root/root 14440 2016-10-24 00:34 slrn-1.0.3/macros/mime.sl

In message <87czghjfsd.fsf@ID-313311.news.uni-berlin.de> issdr <p_u_n_k_i_n_d@yahoo.it> wrote:
> Lewis wrote:

>> Where is mime.sl

> ~ $ wget http://jedsoft.org/releases/slrn/slrn-1.0.3a.tar.bz2
> --2022-05-13 23:13:13-- http://jedsoft.org/releases/slrn/slrn-1.0.3a.tar.bz2
> Resolving jedsoft.org (jedsoft.org)... 199.180.249.46
> Connecting to jedsoft.org (jedsoft.org)|199.180.249.46|:80... connected.
> HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
> Length: 997138 (974K) [application/x-gtar-compressed]
> Saving to: ‘slrn-1.0.3a.tar.bz2’

> slrn-1.0.3a.tar.bz2 100%[===================>] 973.77K 989KB/s in 1.0s

> 2022-05-13 23:13:14 (989 KB/s) - ‘slrn-1.0.3a.tar.bz2’ saved [997138/997138]

> ~ $ tar -tvf slrn-1.0.3a.tar.bz2 | grep mime\.sl
> -rw-rw-r-- root/root 14440 2016-10-24 00:34 slrn-1.0.3/macros/mime.sl

Hmm.. I wonder why homebrew has elided that file then.

--
"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."
Winston Churchill

Lewis wrote:

>> ~ $ tar -tvf slrn-1.0.3a.tar.bz2 | grep mime\.sl
>> -rw-rw-r-- root/root 14440 2016-10-24 00:34 slrn-1.0.3/macros/mime.sl
>
> Hmm.. I wonder why homebrew has elided that file then.

~ % brew ls --verbose slrn | grep mime
/usr/local/Cellar/slrn/1.0.3a_1/share/slrn/slang/mime.sl

(or `locate mime.sl' in case you've trained it)

In message <875ym8xlr2.fsf@ID-313311.news.uni-berlin.de> issdr <p_u_n_k_i_n_d@yahoo.it> wrote:
> Lewis wrote:

>>> ~ $ tar -tvf slrn-1.0.3a.tar.bz2 | grep mime\.sl
>>> -rw-rw-r-- root/root 14440 2016-10-24 00:34 slrn-1.0.3/macros/mime.sl
>>
>> Hmm.. I wonder why homebrew has elided that file then.

> ~ % brew ls --verbose slrn | grep mime
> /usr/local/Cellar/slrn/1.0.3a_1/share/slrn/slang/mime.sl

Not there (well, in /opt/homebrew/... on an M1 machine.

> (or `locate mime.sl' in case you've trained it)

mdfind -name mime.sl on my mac, no results and locate mime.sl on
FreeBSD, no results.

However, I did find it in a backup of my FreeBSD 12.x install from
before I went to Freebsd 13. <shrug>

--
I'd rather have my mind opened by wonder than closed by belief