LookupError: unknown encoding: processing email

The email parser chokes trying to use the encoding specified in the message, x-unknown. That's not really a bug, and it's probably not worth setting up better error message. If this is common behaviour for mail clients, we might want to coerce x-unknown to None (which will cause the parser to try latin-1).

b.t.w Derek, what mail client did you use to send your message? Is there anything noteworthy about the setup?

Pine 4.64 - have used pine for 15 years. Convenient under SSH and I'm familiar with it.
From original e-mail:
Message-ID: <email address hidden>

;)

If I send myself an e-mail:
==============================================
Return-Path: <email address hidden>
X-Original-To: <email address hidden>
Delivered-To: <email address hidden>
Received: by mail.m8y.org (Postfix, from userid 1000)
    id 757EE108034; Thu, 2 Jul 2009 14:57:08 -0400 (EDT)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 14:57:08 -0400 (EDT)
From: <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: test
Message-ID: <email address hidden>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed

test
==============================================
I see the charset is set to US-ASCII.

I suspect Pine might be setting this due to the UTF-8 in the original e-mail I was replying to.

If I add a UTF-8 char to my test, I get:
Return-Path: <email address hidden>
X-Original-To: <email address hidden>
Delivered-To: <email address hidden>
Received: by mail.m8y.org (Postfix, from userid 1000)
    id BCD66108034; Thu, 2 Jul 2009 15:01:35 -0400 (EDT)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 15:01:35 -0400 (EDT)
From: <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: french test
Message-ID: <email address hidden>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: MULTIPART/MIXED; BOUNDARY="8323328-353165740-1246561295=:1927"

  This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text,
  while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools.

--8323328-353165740-1246561295=:1927
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=X-UNKNOWN; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE

fran=C3=A7ais
--8323328-353165740-1246561295=:1927--

http://trac.roundcube.net/ticket/1484565

Googling, it appears this is a common pine issue.

Looking to see if I can find a workaround on my system, but seems you guys could encounter it again.

Yes, it's definitely worth fixing. The proposed solution is to check for x-unknown and treat it like we do messages with no encoding specified. We can extend how those are treated by trying more than just latin-1, until we get a match.

FWIW, based on googling and finding stuff like:
http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=29093#c11

I switched to "alpine".

Result of resending e-mail above, is below. Here's hoping my fairly lengthy .pinerc still works.

Return-Path: <email address hidden>
X-Original-To: <email address hidden>
Delivered-To: <email address hidden>
Received: by mail.m8y.org (Postfix, from userid 1000)
    id F0559108034; Thu, 2 Jul 2009 15:26:39 -0400 (EDT)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 15:26:39 -0400 (EDT)
From: <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: french test
Message-ID: <email address hidden>
User-Agent: Alpine 2.00 (LNX 1167 2008-08-23)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: MULTIPART/MIXED; BOUNDARY="8323328-780074171-1246562799=:12971"

  This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text,
  while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools.

--8323328-780074171-1246562799=:12971
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; format=flowed; charset=ISO-8859-15
Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE

fran=E7ais
--8323328-780074171-1246562799=:12971--

Fixed in devel r8777

Derek, it would be great if you could help testing this by sending a similar email from Pine to bugs.staging.launchpad.net (the fix won't make it to the main servers until the next release, but it will be available staging after the next nightly update, so at some point during the weekend). You won't be able to receive a reply from the server if anything goes wrong but you can ping me here or on IRC and I'll arrange to check it (if everything works ok, though, you should be able to see the comment appear in the bug).

On Fri, 3 Jul 2009, Tom Berger wrote:

> Derek, it would be great if you could help testing this by sending a
> similar email from Pine to bugs.staging.launchpad.net (the fix won't
> make it to the main servers until the next release, but it will be
> available staging after the next nightly update, so at some point during
> the weekend). You won't be able to receive a reply from the server if
> anything goes wrong but you can ping me here or on IRC and I'll arrange
> to check it (if everything works ok, though, you should be able to see
> the comment appear in the bug).

Um. Sure. I can reinstall pine no problem.
One question though, e-mail address to send to for bugs.staging.launchpad.net ?

Just repeat original e-mail I'd run into problems with, only that server?

Yes, repeating the same email but adding staging to the server will be the best test (after the next nightly update of the staging server). Thanks!

Well, I waited 'till about half an hour ago, figuring that would give the change time to propagate as you'd requested.

Haven't gotten back any errors yet, although when I tried to reply to your request in this bug (was still in pine) I got the following bounce. BTW, the e-mail itself was noting I'd had issues seeing if my test e-mail had gotten through to anything. :)

ate: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:03:07 -0000
From: <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: Submit Request Failure
Parts/Attachments:
   1 Shown ~20 lines Text
   2 Shown 1.8 KB Message, "Re: [Bug 394560] Re: LookupError: unknown encoding: processing email"
   2.1 Shown ~18 lines Text (charset: x-unknown)
----------------------------------------

An error occurred while processing a mail you sent to Launchpad's email
interface.

Error message:

Sorry, something went wrong when Launchpad tried processing your mail.
We've recorded what happened, and we'll fix it as soon as possible.
Apologies for the inconvenience.

If this is blocking your work, please file a question at
https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/launchpad/+addquestion
and include the error ID OOPS-1281CEMAIL4 in the description.

--
For more information about using Launchpad by e-mail, see
https://help.launchpad.net/EmailInterface
or send an email to <email address hidden>

    [ Part 2: "Included Message" ]

Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 17:01:18 -0400 (EDT)
From: <email address hidden>
To: Bug 394560 <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: [Bug 394560] Re: LookupError: unknown encoding: processing email

On Fri, 3 Jul 2009, Tom Berger wrote:

> Yes, repeating the same email but adding staging to the server will be
> the best test (after the next nightly update of the staging server).
> Thanks!

Did so, about half an hour ago. Thought I'd check:
https://bugs.staging.launchpad.net/bugs/123064

But all I got was:
Oops!

Sorry, something just went wrong in Launchpad.

We???ve recorded what happened, and we???ll fix it as soon as possible. Apologies for the inconvenience.

(Error ID: OOPS-1281S5239)