[pmmail-list] PMMAIL 2.20.2380 file corruption (forwards with attachments)

[Carl Gehr]

So, everyone should be WARNED!  LOUDLY!

Just because you click on an attachment because you want to LOOK AT
THAT ATTACHMENT, PMMail may open a DIFFERENT FILE and *NOT TELL YOU*
unless you have this box checked!!!!

I can see NO justification for EVER DOING THIS!

Frankly, I would prefer to see that TEMP directory CLEANED OUT WHENEVER
THE FILE THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE *TEMPORARILY* STORED THERE IS *CLOSED*.
 "Temporary" means it is *NOT* supposed to stay around.  But, the fact
is, the files stored there WILL STAY until you terminate PMMail.  

Not only is this dangerous [as illustrated by the fact that you may
send CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION from one message to some other recipient
and WILL NEVER KNOW IT HAPPENED!] but it also can eat up a lot of HD
space.  The files in that directory [d:\...\PMMAIL\TEMP] should NEVER
be reused.  They are essentially [and should be] hidden from the user.

The only rationale I can conceive of for this approach would be for the
slight performance benefit of not recreating a file.  It is NOT WORTH
the exposure!  It is a BAD design and should be fixed immediately. 
Data integrity should never be compromised for the sake of performance
or any other side benefit.

Sorry for the rant!  But I personally feel this is a serious problem.

Carl


On Tue, 18 Sep 2001 09:46:41 -0300, PMMail OS/2 Support wrote:

>On Sat, 15 Sep 2001 04:40:04 -0400 (EDT), Carl Gehr wrote:
>
>>I have the option checked, but to be honest, I have NO IDEA what
>>	"...Verify Attachment Decode..."
>>really means.  The Help text does not provide any interpretation.  To
>>me, 'verifications' are usually good.  So, I left it as it was.  What
>>have I requested?
>
>If you receive a message with an attachment named "file.txt" and you
>open it, it is saved in your TEMP folder. If you later receive
>another message with an attachment of identical name, PMMail will ask
>you if it should show you the previously saved file (in your TEMP
>folder) or if it should decode this (possibly new) attachment.