[Bug 1983060] [NEW] Unset EMAIL environment variable breaks preferences window

[Launchpad Bug Tracker]

You have been subscribed to a public bug by François Marier (fmarier):

[Impact]

email-reminder is unusable for new users who have the EMAIL environment
variable unset because the user's email address must be set in
preferences before any reminders will be sent out.

This is a severe regression from upstream's 0.7.8 and is fixed in
0.8.1-4.

The fix is trivial (checking for whether or not the envvar is set before
using it): https://salsa.debian.org/debian/email-
reminder/-/commit/421ecf6df3e1ddde5cb3aa2c804f687765ea250e

Since there are no other changes in version 0.8.1-4, the simplest fix
would be to **sync from Debian unstable**. I have attached a debdiff
showing the differences between them.

[Test plan]

1. Delete any existing ~/.email-reminders.
2. Run `unset EMAIL`.
3. Run `email-reminder-editor`.
4. In the menu, open "Edit | Preferences...".
5. (notice that nothing happens and the preferences window never shows up)

[Where problems could occur]

The only regression that this could cause is to prevent the preferences
dialog from opening for more users than just the ones that have EMAIL
unset.

[Original report]

Upgraded to Ubuntu MATE 22.04 and email-reminder 0.8.1.3.   Out of the
box and invoked in the Accessories menu item, email-reminder loads but
gives the error on exit:  "You will not receive an email because your
email address is not set."  (or similar words).  Attempts to load
preferences window fail (no window appears.)

Ran "email-reminder-editor" from a terminal, attempted to invoke the
preferences window, and received an error message from Python3 to the
terminal that suggested that the environment variable "EMAIL" was not
set.  I exported EMAIL=myemailaddress, reran email-reminder, and the
preferences window appeared with my email shown, and email alerts now
working as expected.

So, it appears that "EMAIL" must be set at least once in order for
email-reminder to add the user name and email address to $HOME/.email-
reminders.

Cheers, and thanks for a useful program.

** Affects: email-reminder
     Importance: High
     Assignee: François Marier (fmarier)
         Status: Fix Committed

** Affects: email-reminder (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
     Assignee: François Marier (fmarier)
         Status: Fix Released

** Affects: email-reminder (Debian)
     Importance: High
     Assignee: François Marier (fmarier)
         Status: Fix Released

-- 
Unset EMAIL environment variable breaks preferences window
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1983060
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