Hello all folks.
I have a strange trouble, i use a mail server qmail-vpopmail-sqwemail on a
RH 8 box.
Randomly when someone try to receive attachments via sqwebmail the
extension's attachment changes into a .dat file, and it cannot be used
anymore.
Does someone have some hints about this strange habit? Is this a sqwemail
bug or may I have to find it into other components eg vpopmail, qmail...?
Davide Salerno
The ".dat" extension is part of a default filename that's used whenever the attachment doesn't have a file name defined in the original message.
If that's the case (no filename was given), then you'd probably have had trouble opening the file anyway. Of course, you can simply change the extension on the downloaded file (to something appropriate -- .txt, .doc, .whateveryouthinkapplies), and the problem will be fixed.
I don't think SqWebMail is at fault. Basically, whoever sent the file didn't use a client that includes filename data with the attachment in the first place... or the mail client couldn't figure out a name to use.
Just so you know, I occasionally ran into this problem with messages which were forwarded as attached files. They wouldn't get a name defined by the sending email client, and so SqWebMail would name them "message.dat" when I tried to download and open them. *shrug* There's not really much to do about it.
If you happen to like the extension ".msg" better though, you could upgrade to the latest release. Sam changed it to be a little more obvious (msg == abbreviated word "message", vs. dat == abbreviated word "data") as to what type of data was *likely* (no guarantee of course) to be in the file. ... At least I believe he did. Now, I'm having trouble whether he actually made the change, or just that we talked about it. (*sigh* The memory is always the first thing to go. ;)
Anyway... HTH.
-jab
