A problem with mime-types and viewers

[Jim Mayer <jmayer rochester rr com>]

I'm seeing some odd behavior with 1.2.2 apparently incorrectly
associating mime types and viewer.  I'll start by listing my
configuration, then some of the things I've looked at.

I'm running Redhat 7.2 with the 2.4.9-7 kernel.  I compiled balsa 1.2.2 
with the default "configure" options and used whatever version of Gnome 
Redhat is shipping along with the "gnome-doc-tools-2-0.noarch.rpm" file 
that was mentioned in thearchives a few days back.

I see two forms of odd behavior:

(1) I have a message with an attached ".rtf" file.  Balsa gives me the
message:

      No open or view action defined in GNOME MIME for this content 
type.
      Content Type: application/rtf
      Filename: school clos reminder.rtf

The odd thing is that "File Types and Programs" GNOME configuration
tool lists application/rtf and associates it with abiword.  The 
association of application/rtf to abiword is part of the default GNOME 
configuration on my machine (i.e. I didn't set the mapping up myself).

(2) I also have a message with an attached ".doc" file.  Balsa 
recognizes the association and offers to open it with abiword.  This is 
correct according to the "File Types and Programs" configuration tool.  
On the other hand, if I CHANGE that association to use staroffice, 
Nautilis correctly opens the file with openoffice, however Balsa 
continues to use abiword.

I've looked into the problem a little bit, and went as far as running 
balsa under gdb with the "application/rtf" message.  I found the 
relevant code ("part_info_init_unknown" in "balsa-mesage.c") and it 
looks entirely straitforward.  I set a breakpoint and verified that the 
correct "content_type" is being passed to the "gnome_mime_get_value" 
routines... they just aren't returning the right values.

I did take a look in the archives, and noticed that several people have 
reported the same or similar problems.

I'm new to Linux, Gnome, and Balsa (though I have a lot of Unix 
experience from a few years back).  In fact, I just converted my home 
system over from that other OS vendor and am simultaneously 
appreciative of the availablity of source code and amused by the site 
of myself running gdb on my email client.  Life is strange.

-- Jim