Troubles with emailed PDF attachments -- largely from Macs to Linux
Folks, Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but it seemed like a logical place to start. I'm using SuSE 9.1, T-bird for email, and the email is arriving from my ISP (Comcast) via fetchmail. It seems that often, when I get a pdf attachment from someone using a Mac, pdf attachments come through corrupted. I try opening them with Acroread (7.0) and Ghostview; neither works. My email comes goes into Yahoo and Comcast accounts via an alias. I thought that one of the servers along the way might be doing the files dirt. So I sent a pdf from my own machine to each account directly, then via the alias into each account. Attachments sent directly to Yahoo account opened just fine. Attachments sent to my Yahoo account via the alias opened, though I still got a corrupt-file error from Acroread. But no file coming through my second (and "default") email address at Comcast could be opened, even after downloading and trying to open (or print) from the downloaded file. Before I harumph at Comcast, I wanted to be sure the fault doesn't lie with me in some way. For *doc attachments from Macs, I recall reading somewhere that the file needed some sort of decoding before OpenOffice for Linux would read it. Would the same hold true for pdfs? Thanks for any light anyone can shed on this... With best regards, Pete -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Peter N. Spotts | Science Correspondent The Christian Science Monitor One Norway Street, Boston MA 02115 Office: 617-450-2449 | Office in home: 508-520-3139 Email: pspotts@alum.mit.edu | www.csmonitor.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peter N. Spotts wrote: <snip>
the email is arriving from my ISP (Comcast) via fetchmail. It seems that often, when I get a pdf attachment from someone using a Mac, pdf attachments come through corrupted. I try opening them with Acroread (7.0) and Ghostview; neither works. <snip> no file coming through my second (and "default") email address at Comcast could be opened, even after downloading and trying to open (or print) from the downloaded file.
Before I harumph at Comcast, I wanted to be sure the fault doesn't lie with me in some way. For *doc attachments from Macs, I recall reading somewhere that the file needed some sort of decoding before OpenOffice for Linux would read it. Would the same hold true for pdfs?
What does the 'file' command say? ('file yourfile.pdf' -- it won't be deceived by the .pdf extension) If it mentions the word 'Apple' (e.g. 'AppleSingle encoded Macintosh file') then it looks like it's the sender's fault that the encoding is set to AppleSingle. If sent to non-Mac users, this should have been Base64 a.k.a. mime encoding. However, it is possible to decode this file yourself using the Stuffit program, which I once described here: http://lists.suse.com/archive/suse-linux-e/2003-Oct/2463.html BTW, also note the interesting info about mac files from one of the respondants at http://lists.suse.com/archive/suse-linux-e/2003-Oct/2549.html . On the other hand, if there is no indication that the file has anything to do with Apple, then it looks like there's reason to 'harumph' at Comcast. SH
Many thanks, I'll give those a try. Best, Pete -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Peter N. Spotts | Science Correspondent The Christian Science Monitor One Norway Street, Boston MA 02115 Office: 617-450-2449 | Office in home: 508-520-3139 Email: pspotts@alum.mit.edu | www.csmonitor.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Peter N. Spotts -
Sjoerd Hiemstra