Where to file the "file" bug

[Glenn Steen]

On 16/11/2007, Andreas Kasenides <Andreas.Kasenides at cs.ucy.ac.cy> wrote:
> Is there a place where I can report a bug?
> I have the same problem, reported ages ago, with the "file" command
> where MailScanner
> believes that a message is an MS-DOG executable (.exe, .com) while it is
> apparently only
> a .txt attachment or a forward which is sent as "inline" text.
> Apparently this happens very often
> with MS-Outlook mailers and with messages that contain characters other
> than the standard
> West European sets. Yes I have read a lot about this on this list.
> The problem has been placed on the shoulders of the "file" command
> erroneously reporting an
> executable file when it is not.
> Apparently this is not always true. In my case I have several messages
> which the file command
> reports as "RFC 822 mail text" yet MailScanner will not pass through.
> I am using CentOS 5 and MailScanner 4.63.8.
> Any help? since the only other alternative(??) is to completely disable
> the FileType detection?

If you save only the body part and do a file on that (I imagine you
might have a few in your quarantine, if you have things set up to
quarantine infections), file WILL tell you another story.
That it say the above on the "message" file is quite correct, but it
wasn't that that it logged/reacted on;-).

As to the proper place to report bugs in the file command, chack your
package management system.... One can usually find relevant
information there.
But remember that if your distro/OS isn't extremely new, with very
aggressive package selections, the file command you use is not the
latest from the developer... So then the proper place to file a bug
might be with the creator of said distro/OS.
Since that route might lead to nothing in the short term, most people
affected by this either "update" file to a newer version (perhaps even
from source), or just edit/compile the magic file(s).

> Thanks
> Andreas

Cheers
-- 
-- Glenn
email: glenn < dot > steen < at > gmail < dot > com
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