[Gaim-patches] [ gaim-Patches-1175520 ] autoaccept file transfers

Patches item #1175520, was opened at 2005-04-02 14:57
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by rlaager
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Category: None
Group: None
>Status: Closed
>Resolution: Rejected
Priority: 5
Submitted By: dennisne (dennisne)
Assigned to: Sean Egan (seanegan)
Summary: autoaccept file transfers

Initial Comment:
This patch (against gaim 2.0.0cvs-2005-04-02) adds an
option to autoaccept file transfers, in Preferences >
Conversations tab > File Transfers. gaim 2.0.0 has
preferences listed in tabs, instead of in a list like
the 1.x series ... and I didn't want to make the window
wider =| ... although i did have doubts about bunching
it in with the Conversation preferences.

The gaim preference for this feature is:
/gaim/gtk/conversations/autoaccept_transfers
it is disabled by default.

In Preferences, the download directory can also be
specified. For this i added gaim_request_folder(),
which adds support for gtk's folder-selection dialog.

The default download folder, should one not be
specified, is the user's home directory.

All in all, autoaccepting of file transfers should be a
part of gaim.

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>Comment By: Richard Laager (rlaager)
Date: 2006-01-18 18:57

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I'm closing this. Write a patch to add a signal as I've
described (which is trivial, really, and I'll help you if
you need) and then you can create a plugin to do this
(again, really trivially).

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Comment By: Markus Knittig (mknittig)
Date: 2005-12-24 18:48

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I miss the autoaccept files option too. I hope this patch
will be applied soon or it will be available as plugins.

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Comment By: Ben XO (ben-xo)
Date: 2005-10-26 06:09

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@rlaager:

a plugin would suit me fine :)

@lschiere:

my system will accept email as large as you care to send,
also... But it can take more than twice as long to arrive at
the destination. Consider sending 100Mb to someone if both
you and the receiver are on 33kbps modem (an outside
scenario, these days, but bear with me). Via direct IM
transfer, it will take 8.6 hours. By email, it would take
8.6 hours to upload to the mail server, a few minutes to
transfer to the recipients mail server, and then a further
8.6 hours to download: more than twice as long, in real
time, than the file send. The equivalent scenario with UK
DSL providers (which typically sell at 2Mbit download and
256kbit upload) would be: 56mins over IM, or 56mins to
upload to email, a few minutes to transfer from mail to
mail, and then 8 and a half minutes to download. More
palateable but still an unnecessary slowdown.

People have expectations of an IM system that generally hold
up, including their expectations about file transfer. People
also have expectations about email - i.e. that in general it
sucks for file sending, even if that's not ALWAYS the case
(but it is still OFTEN the case. There's nothing worse than
getting a 100Mb bounce! especially if it took you 8.6 hours
to upload it! I think this would probably reduce some people
to tears.)

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Comment By: Luke Schierer (lschiere)
Date: 2005-10-25 22:17

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you could send me 100Mb+ files by email and it would work
just fine.  don't blame the suckitude of your system on
email in general.

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Comment By: Richard Laager (rlaager)
Date: 2005-10-25 20:29

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You make some good points as to why this is a useful
feature to some. I still disagree about e-mail. There
are free providers that offer 2+ GB, but that's really
irrelevant to this discussion, I suppose.
 
I'd rather this was done as a plugin. I have nothing
against having a signal in the core that allows a plugin
three actions on a file transfer: ACCEPT, REJECT, NULL
 
I even seem to remember a signal like this, but maybe I'm
thinking of something else, or I'm dreaming or something.
 
There would also have to be a signal (or this could be part
of the previous signal) that would allow the plugin to
specify a download directory.
 
Then, a fairly trivial plugin could be made to auto-accept
all file transfers, except possibly (depending on a plugin
pref) those with certain filenames. It could specify
directories, based again, on a plugin pref.
 
I still support putting a gaim_request_folder() function
in the core. This would undoubtedly be used by an
auto-accept plugin as well as others (such as log_reader).
 
I also personally wouldn't mind having the auto-accept
plugin shipped with Gaim and built by default. This is
almost the same as having the preferences there, but it
allows more options for those that would be using this
feature, without cluttering the interface for the rest of
us that wouldn't.
 
Anyway, that's probably enough of my talk for now. :)

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Comment By: Ben XO (ben-xo)
Date: 2005-10-25 20:00

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Here are the considerations for whether or not this is a
"bad idea", and in summary I will show why it's a GOOD idea.

"Potential Security flaws:"
it opens up a potential window for DoS attack under the
following conditions: a malicious user sends you a file so
large it fills up your hard disk; OR a malicious user sends
you a file that uses all your bandwidth.

IMHO these are NOT valid reason to deny the inclusion of
this feature, but as long as the user is made aware of the
possibility. Every other AIM compatible client (including
the AOL one) allows this feature, with the following extra
features:

a) ability to have downloads sorted by the name of the user
who sent them; so two people can send a file with the same
name and they will not conflict. (at least Trillian and MSN
have this feature).
b) ability to restrict the accepting of files to only people
on a trusted list, which may be your buddy list or a subset
of that. (AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo and Trillian both have this
feature).
c) the ability to block received files by their type, e.g no
.exe, or only .jpg,.mp3 (Trillian and MIRC have this).

obviously this auto-accept is off by default.

"it's unecessary because you can use email":
this is IMPOSSIBLE when you are regularly receiving files
that are 100Mb+, such as content source files for audio or
video, which i receive in my line of work regularly. These
just cannot be emailed. I currently have to leave AOL AIM
open in addition to Gaim just so that i can receive files
and do my job. This is a real hinderance for me!

"people can send you viruses"
they can do this anyway. as long as you know who something
came from, you can make the judgement call. (Actually i
think there is a security risk here in the way that AOL AIM
dumps all received files into 1 folder. I prefer the way
that Trillian and MIRC seperates them out by nickname).
Having a file-type filter reduces this risk.

and now for more reasons why it is a USEFUL feature (and not
just counter-arguments for it to be not-included):

*) it is a time saving feature
*) it allows unattended file transfer. this is how many
people use AIM, even if some do not.
*) it allows you to set up a "drop box" AIM name, which is
how many of my colleagues use AIM.
*) it reduces needless interaction and streamlines your work
flow. Just as you deal with an email when you pick it up:
you don't want to deal with a file transfer both BEFORE it's
started and AFTER it's completed (just "after it's
completed" is fine, thankyou).
*) It means that the sender does not have to "handshake"
with you before sending you files, which means they're using
their time better, and so therefore it's a courtesy feature
for other users.

all in all - this 1 missing feature is the reason i'm about
to downgrade back to Trillian. So i am a strong proponent of
this and will do anything i can to help!

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Comment By: dennisne (dennisne)
Date: 2005-10-25 16:12

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It was originally intended to make file transferring easier
(by avoiding the 3+ clicks and dialogues, etc, etc, etc).
But, as ben-xo mentions, it is also useful for accepting
files while people are away. Email may not be the best
option, as you suggest, especially if the files are large.
It would be a far better idea, in my opinion, to transfer
them directly (via gaim, should this feature be implemented).

I don't see how this can possibly be a bad idea.

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Comment By: Richard Laager (rlaager)
Date: 2005-10-25 14:39

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I think this is a bad idea. I can't see a valid use
for this. Either you're there to accept the FT, or
people can use e-mail.
 
While I haven't looked at this patch's
implementation, I do need a way to add plugin
prefs that map to folders (for the log_reader
plugin).
 

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Comment By: Ben XO (ben-xo)
Date: 2005-05-21 15:10

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Auto accepting files is something that I absolutely require
from an instant messaging client - my business model relies
on it! I'm a DJ and a webmaster, and people need to send me
their music, logos, banners etc. on a daily basis. It's
actually handy-cap not having auto-accept: people often
don't bother to send me exclusive stuff because i'm not
there to accept it (i leave my screen names logged in
permanently and use remote desktop to access my messages
when i'm travelling abroad).

Right now i'm forced to run both (win)Gaim and the official
client simultaneously - and personally i think that's even
more of a security risk than having auto-accept built in to
Gaim in the same manner that it's built in to, say, Trillian.

Trillian and the official client both allow you to choose if
you wish to accept files automatically from nobody, only
trusted buddies, or anyone. Personally I would definitely
leave it on "anyone". I understand the risks and my
messaging-PC is fairly well sandboxed - but this missing
feature is actually one of the reasons why I was reluctant
to switch to Gaim, and reluctant to try Linux as my desktop
- it seems like a feature that ought to be easy to add, yet
nobody has yet: i got to this mailing list entry through a
google search on "gaim autoaccept" (hoping to find a plugin)
and i'm very happy that it may finally make its way into
version 2! :)

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Comment By: Phil Hannent (monkey77)
Date: 2005-05-12 04:36

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I have to add here that I created a RFE regarding this,
thanks for writing it.

While auto-accepting files might be a security issue I think
it would be an idea to allow accepting files from trusted
buddies.

Any files that are sent to you would be put into a folder of
your choosing and therefore you know what level of trust you
should have on files in that folder.

Is there a chance this patch could be back ported to the
oldstatus since 2.0.0 is still an unknown at this time?

Many thanks
Phil

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Comment By: Mark Doliner (thekingant)
Date: 2005-04-25 20:49

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I guess that's a valid reason.  I still don't really like
this, though.  I think auto-accepting files from other
people is a really bad idea.  And we're trying to move away
from having preferences for everything.

Some of the changes in your patch are nice, though.  The
last_save_folder change in ft.c isn't a bad idea.  And the
gaim_request_folder addition to the request API looks pretty
well done (I guess we don't really need it anywhere else,
though).

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Comment By: dennisne (dennisne)
Date: 2005-04-25 17:30

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people constantly send me small files ... text files, images
... they are small, and numerous, and it takes a lot of time
to manually accept and choose download location for each file

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Comment By: Mark Doliner (thekingant)
Date: 2005-04-25 13:43

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Why do you feel autoaccepting of file transfers should be a
part of Gaim?

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You can respond by visiting:
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=300235&aid=1175520&group_id=235


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