When I turn on the nsString illegal usage detection code (see 28424) and open my mailbox (IMAP4), I hit the following problme. the nsMsgDatabase::YarnTonsString passing char* to nsString in a illegal way. The nsString can only handle ASCII value in char* but not other data from 0x80-0xFF without proper conversion. Here is the stack trace ... NTDLL! 77f662ac() nsDebug::Assertion(const char * 0x100a71bc, const char * 0x100a71ac, const char * 0x100a7184, int 0x0000013a) line 189 + 13 bytes CopyChars2To1(char * 0x00129a5c, int 0x00000000, const char * 0x00129c58, unsigned int 0x00000000, unsigned int 0x0000003c) line 314 + 31 bytes nsStr::Append(nsStr & {...}, const nsStr & {...}, unsigned int 0x00000000, int 0x0000003c) line 171 + 50 bytes nsCString::Append(const nsStr & {...}, int 0x0000003c) line 906 + 43 bytes nsCAutoString::nsCAutoString(const nsStr & {...}) line 1801 nsMimeConverter::DecodeMimePartIIStr(nsMimeConverter * const 0x0766d5a0, const nsString & {...}, nsString & {...}, nsString & {...}, int 0x00000001) line 65 nsMsgDatabase::RowCellColumnToMime2DecodedString(nsIMdbRow * 0x066152f8, unsigned long 0x00000081, nsString & {...}) line 2389 + 58 bytes nsMsgHdr::GetMime2DecodedSubject(nsMsgHdr * const 0x06616b10, nsString * 0x00129dc0) line 595 nsMessage::GetMime2DecodedSubject(nsMessage * const 0x076146c4, nsString * 0x00129dc0) line 273 + 33 bytes nsMsgMessageDataSource::createMessageNameNode(nsIMessage * 0x076146c4, int 0x00000000, nsIRDFNode * * 0x00129f0c) line 912 + 22 bytes nsMsgMessageDataSource::createMessageNode(nsIMessage * 0x076146c4, nsIRDFResource * 0x03680080, nsIRDFNode * * 0x00129f0c) line 868 + 18 bytes nsMsgMessageDataSource::GetTarget(nsMsgMessageDataSource * const 0x03680100, nsIRDFResource * 0x076146b0, nsIRDFResource * 0x03680080, int 0x00000001, nsIRDFNode * * 0x00129f0c) line 291 + 25 bytes CompositeDataSourceImpl::GetTarget(CompositeDataSourceImpl * const 0x0353e490, nsIRDFResource * 0x076146b0, nsIRDFResource * 0x03680080, int 0x00000001, nsIRDFNode * * 0x00129f0c) line 708 + 28 bytes ... The problem is MIME_DecodeMimePartIIStr is expecting nsString as charsetCstr but it is an nsCAutoString. It will automatically convert it into nsString when it should not. I think we need ot chagne the interface of MIME_DecodeMimePartIIStr to make it take nsCString for the 2nd argument. nsCAutoString encodedStr(header); // apply MIME decode. decodedCstr = MIME_DecodeMimePartIIStr(encodedStr, charsetCstr, eatContinuations); - encodedStr {...} + nsCString {...} + mBuffer 0x00129a5c "?o??????l???????????i??????,?]?A???N,?@???????g??????^_^??." This is a memory usage effectiency issue.

sorry, I copy the first paragph from some other bug but forget to change it- Ignore the "nsMsgDatabase::YarnTonsString" part, it is really in MIME_DecodeMimePartIIStr

Current interface takes input header as nsString. Since the input header is expected to be MIME encoded (i.e. us-ascii), it should be nsCString instead. I think nsCString was not available at the time this interface was written. Also I think there is no data loss here because the input is always us-ascii but we want to avoid the constructor of nsCAutoString to be generated. // Decode routine (also converts output to unicode) NS_IMETHOD DecodeMimePartIIStr(const nsString& header, nsString& charset, nsString& decodedString, PRBool eatContinuations = PR_TRUE) = 0;

Do we call this for all headers? If so, what happens if the header is not MIME-compliant and contains non-ASCII?

Implementation handles the non MIME encoded case. It uses the input charset (folder charset) and apply charset conversion (to unicode). Not just assign to nsString. http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/mailnews/mime/src/nsMimeConverter.cpp#64

I checked in a new member to nsIMimeConverter which takes nsCString for inputs (encoded header string and charset name) and returns nsString. I didn't removed the old one and didn't change clients of the interfaces. list of clients msgdb - filed as a bug 32012 nsMsgHeaderParser and emitter - mscott, could you take care of this? nsMsgI18N - I am going to do this

** Checked on 6/5/2000 ** A new member of nsIMimeConverter is in mailnews/mime/public/nsIMimeConverter.h. Have the clients nhotta mentions in his 3/17/2000 comments been take care of? I see Bug 32012 is stil open. How about nsMsgHeaderParser and nsMsgI18N? Is this issue still relevant? In any case, the new method is there and so I will mark this fix verified.