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icon4.gif   text display of ascii files not a good idea, posted by Heiko Scheit on Mon Aug 23 13:43:58 2004 
    icon4.gif   Re: text display of ascii files not a good idea, posted by T. Ribbrock on Tue Sep 7 13:05:49 2004 
       icon4.gif   Re: text display of ascii files not a good idea, posted by Stefan Ritt on Wed Sep 8 13:46:56 2004 
          icon4.gif   Re: text display of ascii files not a good idea, posted by Heiko Scheit on Wed Sep 8 23:35:01 2004 
             icon2.gif   Re: text display of ascii files not a good idea, posted by Stefan Ritt on Wed Sep 15 04:08:46 2004 
Message ID: 698     Entry time: Wed Sep 8 23:35:01 2004     In reply to: 691     Reply to this: 702
Icon: Warning  Author: Heiko Scheit  Author Email: h.scheit@mpi-hd.mpg.de 
Category: Bug fix  OS: Linux  ELOG Version: 2.5.4 
Subject: Re: text display of ascii files not a good idea 
> > [...]
> > > Probably it is fine to display only files ending in '.txt' per default.
> > > In addition a file that has more than say 1000 lines should probably 
> > > also not be displayed (as default, optional OK).  
> > 
> > No, '.txt' would definitely not be enough for me. I'm using elog to log all
> > administration of our network. In many cases, I simply attach a configuration
> > file. All those files are plain ASCII and none of them end in '.txt' - and I
> > would most definitely like them to be displayed inline like they are now. In
> > fact, this change was the main reason for me to upgrade to 2.5.4
> > 
> > Maybe a configuration option or a "display attachment" button would be the
> > best solution, then?
> > 
> > Cheerio,
> > 
> > Thomas
> 
> So to make everybody happy, it would probably be enough not to display inline any
> *.ps file, is that right? 

I think there should be size limit.  Imagine a multi MB text file (whatever it is;
elogd.c is already more than 1/2 MB and is likely to increase due to your
excellent support).  A client on an ISDN line would have to wait
several minutes and during this time elogd is busy and no other client can connect
(correct?).  Of course, if somebody really wants to see this file then there is
nothing to be done, but likely someone is flipping throught the messages using
to arrows on top to find the right entry....
So a configurable size limit seems appropriate, from which on 
only 'Display attachment' is displayed.  And/Or, for files
exceeding this limit, the first N (new config option) lines could be displayed.

But this should only influence ASCII files.  E.g. the behaviour for jpeg files
should not change, which is controlled by 'Hide default'.  Maybe a 'Display/Hide
defaut extension' option, where the extensions are listed that are to be displayed
is another idea, in addition to a 'Max Display ASCII inline size' option,
which can be set to zero to disable it altogether.

In any case, whatever you think is best.

Cheers, Heiko

> Is there any other ASCII format, which should not be
> displayed? PDF is binary, so it won't be displayed. What about long C files? Most
> people want to see them. In the recent version there is the "Hide attachment"
> link which can be clicked to not display an attachment inline. Mabe there should
> be a "Hide default = 0|1" config option...
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