[Bug 580961] [NEW] unzip fails to deal correctly with filename encodings

Launchpad Bug Tracker 580961 at bugs.launchpad.net
Mon Aug 9 23:18:45 BST 2010


You have been subscribed to a public bug by Rolf Leggewie (r0lf):

Binary package hint: unzip

This is a fairly annoying bug that's been around and known at least
since 2005.  It's very visible as it will very often make exchange of
zip files with Windows users impossible, for example.  As such, it
gathered it's fair share of "me too" and "how dare you haven't fixed
this yet!!111!" comments.

Problem description:
zip/unzip and the specification fall short when dealing with non-ASCII filenames not encoded in UTF-8

test case:
do an "unzip -l" on the file http://tinyurl.com/2aofpxs and witness the question marks

affected programs:
the problem is in unzip itself, but affects GUI like xarchiver, file-roller, etc. that rely on unzip for the decompression

suggested solutions (most are workarounds, not proper fixes):
 a) reintroduce patch for codepage-based zip filenames: bug 477755, http://tinyurl.com/2aqdbqg (Ubuntu blueprint)
 b) unzip filename according to locale: bug 203609
 c) Ubuntu JP has a patch, probably not generally applicable, bug 269482
 d) Russian altlinux distro uses natspec lib and patched zip binary

natspec was mentioned in bug 477755 comment #2 and may indeed be a
proper fix, needs closer inspection (I haven't really looked, yet.  As
discussed in https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=306403 there is
no failsafe, straight-forward way to fix this in all cases.
Nonetheless, the current situation can and should be improved.  There's
some good ideas floating around.  It needs somebody to pull and wrap
them together.

It's unfortunate the FOSS community so far hasn't been able to fix this
rather visible problem.  I'm opening this ticket as a master bug and
clean slate to document the issue and current status.  Please don't ruin
it by making above-mentioned unhelpful comments, they actually slow
things down!  Please don't nominate for a release.

Unless you're a dev and can provide a patch, you should think VERY
carefully to do anything but

1) subscribe yourself to this ticket
2) mark this bug as affecting you
3) tell me via mail about other bugs you think are a duplicate of this one, discussing the same problem

1) to 3) will showcase to the devs how many people are affected and that
is the only real chance we have for somebody to take a serious look.
"Me too" comments do the opposite, so again, please don't do it.

** Affects: ubuntu-jp-improvement
     Importance: Undecided
     Assignee: Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)
         Status: Fix Committed

** Affects: unzip
     Importance: Unknown
         Status: Invalid

** Affects: unzip (Ubuntu)
     Importance: High
         Status: Confirmed

** Affects: unzip (Debian)
     Importance: Unknown
         Status: Confirmed

** Affects: gentoo
     Importance: Unknown
         Status: Fix Released

** Affects: unzip (Mandriva)
     Importance: Unknown
         Status: Confirmed


** Tags: needs-reassignment regression-update
-- 
unzip fails to deal correctly with filename encodings
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/580961
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