icecat "mailto" handler does not work - and cannot be reconfigured by user

Whoops. I should have read the page better.

However, clicking on that button in icecat does not send E-Mail for me.

Monitoring the network interface I can see that it redirects to a mailto: URL. So that's nice.

Checking the application preferences of icecat, it only gives "always ask" (note: it doesn't ask) and not an application for "mailto". (in GuixSD)

Creating my own HTML page with a mailto link doesn't work either.

Therefore, I reported a bug to Guix too.

Bug report follows:

"mailto:" links don't work in icecat.

Checking the icecat source code, there are several ways to handle E-Mail. One of them is as "external helper app". One of those (not sure whether it's the correct one) uses gio's g_app_info_launch_default_for_uri in order to launch helper applications.

There is a test icecat-38.8.0/uriloader/exthandler/tests/unit/test_handlerService.js that does:

let isLinux = ("@mozilla.org/gio-service;1" in Components.classes);

if (isLinux) {

// Check mailto handler from GIO

// If there isn't one, then we have no mailto handler

let gIOSvc = Cc["@mozilla.org/gio-service;1"].

createInstance(Ci.nsIGIOService);

try {

gIOSvc.getAppForURIScheme("mailto");

noMailto = false;

} catch (ex) {

noMailto = true;

}

}

And this ./toolkit/system/gnome/nsGIOService.cpp uses g_app_info_launch_default_for_uri .

Therefore, I tried it out:

#include <glib.h>

#include <gio/gio.h>

#include <stdlib.h>

int main() {

GError* error;

g_app_info_launch_default_for_uri("mailto:foo@example.com", NULL, &error);

// g_app_info_launch_default_for_uri("http://www.google.at/",NULL, &error);

if (error) {

g_warning("err %s", error->message);

g_error_free(error);

return 1;

} else

return 0;

}

I get:

** (process:12464): WARNING **: err Operation not supported

If I debug it some more I get:

$ strace -f ./g 2>&1 |grep open |grep -v ENOENT

open("/home/dannym/.local/share//mime/mime.cache", O_RDONLY) = 3

open("/home/dannym/.guix-profile/share/mime/mime.cache", O_RDONLY) = 3

open("/run/current-system/profile/share/mime/mime.cache", O_RDONLY) = 3

open("/home/dannym/.guix-profile/share/mime/mime.cache", O_RDONLY) = 3

open("/run/current-system/profile/share/mime/mime.cache", O_RDONLY) = 3

open("/home/dannym/.guix-profile/lib/gio/modules", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_DIRECTORY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3

open("/home/dannym/.guix-profile/lib/gio/modules/giomodule.cache", O_RDONLY) = 4

open("/home/dannym/.guix-profile/lib/gio/modules/libdconfsettings.so", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 4

open("/run/current-system/profile/lib/gio/modules", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_DIRECTORY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3

open("/run/current-system/profile/lib/gio/modules/giomodule.cache", O_RDONLY) = 4

open("/gnu/store/6qrijb6cfyvs8svacr0l9a75vcpypr5f-glib-2.48.0/lib/gio/modules", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_DIRECTORY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3

open("/gnu/store/4lbgxvsk8xl75hlkjqgrqvmpq74app73-dconf-0.26.0/lib/gio/modules", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_DIRECTORY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3

open("/gnu/store/4lbgxvsk8xl75hlkjqgrqvmpq74app73-dconf-0.26.0/lib/gio/modules/giomodule.cache", O_RDONLY) = 4

open("/home/dannym/.guix-profile/lib/gio/modules", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_DIRECTORY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3

open("/home/dannym/.guix-profile/lib/gio/modules/giomodule.cache", O_RDONLY) = 4

open("/run/current-system/profile/lib/gio/modules", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_DIRECTORY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3

open("/run/current-system/profile/lib/gio/modules/giomodule.cache", O_RDONLY) = 4

open("/gnu/store/m3py3rk71ihlfgvj2kss7054hwfqwkpq-glib-2.48.0/lib/gio/modules", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_DIRECTORY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3

[pid 12632] open("/usr/share/locale/locale.alias", O_RDONLY <unfinished ...>

[pid 12632] open("/home/dannym/.config/mimeapps.list", O_RDONLY) = 5

[pid 12632] open("/gnu/store/8m00x5x8ykmar27s9248cmhnkdb2n54a-glibc-2.22/lib/gconv/gconv-modules", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 5

[pid 12632] open("/home/dannym/.local/share/applications", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_DIRECTORY|O_CLOEXEC) = 5

[pid 12632] open("/home/dannym/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list", O_RDONLY) = 5

[pid 12632] open("/home/dannym/.local/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache", O_RDONLY) = 5

[pid 12632] open("/home/dannym/.guix-profile/share/applications", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_DIRECTORY|O_CLOEXEC) = 5

[pid 12632] open("/run/current-system/profile/share/applications", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_DIRECTORY|O_CLOEXEC) = 5

[pid 12632] open("/run/current-system/profile/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache", O_RDONLY) = 5

[pid 12632] open("/home/dannym/.guix-profile/share/applications", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_DIRECTORY|O_CLOEXEC) = 5

[pid 12632] open("/run/current-system/profile/share/applications", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_DIRECTORY|O_CLOEXEC) = 5

[pid 12632] open("/run/current-system/profile/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache", O_RDONLY) = 5

There would be g_app_info_set_as_default_for_type () to set a new default application in nsGIOService - which is exposed and used by ./browser/components/shell/nsGNOMEShellService.cpp on setting icecat up as default browser (so not always).

I'm using Fluxbox.

Hello Danny,

Danny Milosavljevic <dannym@scratchpost.org> writes:

[...]

Testing in latest IceCat, there's a 'Use other...' entry in the mailto

applications configuration. I also saw 'Emacs' in the list of potential

applications to open mailto URIs, tried it and it opened Emacs.

Does that work for you?

To get the applications recognized as supporting this URI scheme, they

must provide a .desktop file which mentions support for it, for example

via a MimeType=x-scheme-handler entry:

$ grep 'x-scheme-handler/ircs' ~/.guix-profile/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache

x-scheme-handler/ircs=weechat.desktop;

If I click the reply via email button in Icecat, it switches to icedove

but does not open a reply email at all.

In ungoogled-chromium, it opens up a blank reply email, failing to fill

the To, CC, Subject with anything.

If I click the equivalent mailto link on the issues page in Icecat, its

the same

If I click the equivalent mailto link...., but in chromium, it opens a

new email, but only the Subject is filled out. No To or CC.

I've always thus replied to the mailing list by manually copy-pasting

the the Subject, adding Re:, and trying to find the posters email

address, and bug address to add in To/CC. Is this related to your bug?

This issue annoys me, so I searched for a workaround which I found :)

In Icecat go to about:preferences -> General -> Applications (only a

header): Set mailto to `Use other` and set it to

`/run/current-system/profile/bin/icedove`.

$ grep mailto

/gnu/store/3zxx08qfl9q6d9s80p58521y9x3ni3p1-icedove-78.3.3/share/applications/icedove.desktop

MimeType=x-scheme-handler/mailto;

That seems correct. xdg-open mailto:foo@gnu.org works for me always, so

it really seems a Icecat/Firefox thing...