Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 50336
Cannot use character '?' in naming file to save with OOo own dialogs
Last modified: 2013-02-07 22:43:24 UTC
I am running the 104 pre-2.0 beta release on linux and don't know whether this issue exists in the other platform releases; however, it does exist in earlier betas as well. I often create "template" documents with names such as (for example) donation_????????_2005-06-?? (with correct extension of course) This is for either a writer doc or a spreadsheet. When I try to do this (Save As>enter file name> hit save), the popup window ignores my input until I select a filename it likes. Unless this is an "undocumented feature", the programs should allow me to enter any legal unix/linux filename. Instead (after going through some of the code) it fails to match any existing filename and won't let me save under a name containing the questionmark characters. (Haven't tried this with asterisks. Hmmm.) If I save the file under an "acceptable" file name, go to the shell prompt (xterm, etc.) and rename it to the above name, then I can open it, work with it, and save it normally, just as I would expect. If there is a reason to limit savable file names like this, it needs to be documented - if not, then it is a bug. Otherwise, no real complaints at all :-) have used staroffice then openoffice ever since so6.0 and really like it on both linux and solaris (intel and sparc). Thanks. (I won't try to guess the priority on this since a workaround exists. Sorry.)
confirming with m104 - You can type them into the dialog, but OOo doesn't save, it treats it like a search-statement. Works with GTK-load/save dialog.
Under windows there are some characters (\ / : * ? " < > |) which are not allowed in filenames. I don't know, how this is in Linux.
FWIW, after posting this issue, I tried it with an asterisk ('*') - and got the same behavior (i.e., refuse to save, ignoring attempt). The other "special windows/dos" characters (<>|\) don't seem to mess things up, although the colon (":") character save attempt resulted in a "file not found" message, leading me to assume it was treating the name as <host>:<filename> or some such - not a problem on this one, however. Thanks
Framework issue.
Hi waustin, thanks for using and supportingh OpenOffice.org... ? is used as a wildcard... ?.odt shows you all odt-files with exactly one character (a.odt, x.odt, 3.odt) ??.odt shows you all files with exactly two characters (aa.odt, xx.odt,ab.odt) *.odt shows you all odt-files (a.odt, x.odt, 3.odt, aa.odt, xx.odt,ab.odt, theNameIsMuchTooLongToRemember.odt,...) This is the same in the Bash: % ls ./ ../ a.odt ab.odt abc.odt % ls ?.odt a.odt % ls ??.odt ab.odt % ls ???.odt abc.odt % ls *.odt a.odt ab.odt abc.odt As discussed with ES and US: set to won't fix
I'll resist the urge to say something to the affect that everyone knows what the unix regular expressions do (wildcards, patterns, etc.); however there are many other unix/linux programs/utilities which - when presented with a pathname containing wildcards which does NOT match any existing pathname - treat the filename as a literal filename and create it. (For instance go to an empty directory. type "> x.???.y" . Bingo - you have a file named "x.???.y") The point which I thought I made to begin with is that if this is the behaviour of OOo, then it should be documented somewhere. Otherwise it becomes by default a bug. If it is documented and I missed it, then shame on me; but having read most of the docs for both OOo and staroffice, I haven't seen it yet... :-( (sorry). This is not a gripe - and to leave it "as is" is OK (since a workaround exists) - but it should be PREOPERLY DOCUMENTED in that case since the behaviour differs from - and is therefore inconsistant with - that of many other common utilities.
This one is not a defect but might be somehow a wish for an enhancement for future OOo versions.
Using OOo 2.3.0 on Ubuntu Linux, I tried to save a new file with a colon (":") in filename. An error message appeared three times that said something like (translated from German by me): "Error when saving the document Unnamed1: the internet connection to service not accessible could not be established." As ":" is a valid character in Unix filenames, OOo should allow to choose names with ":" in it. I understand that ":" refers to <host>:<port> at the moment. However, I'd put this requirement for a future OOo version thus: Create a clear separation between saving to local filesystem and saving to network hosts, so that both methods offer full capabilities (like using all allowed characters). Also, to the same effect, create a clear separation between searching for existing file names and entering new file names, perhaps by using another text box. Best wishes for all future OOo devs!!
Created attachment 74155