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Al Bundy
Asked: 2015-03-27 13:23:54 +0800 CST

Can't download from launchpad

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When I try to download some files from launchpad.net my browser displays page full of different strange characters. I can see that last download was today but I am not able to download it. I am able to download files from different projects but not that one. Here is the link: gcc-arm-embedded-misc

Thats what I see when I want to download

launchpad

2 Answers

  1. The server reports MIME type text/plain in the HTTP Content-Type header field and Firefox diligently interprets and displays the file content as such. The server behaviour is a known bug in Launchpad itself.

    You can circumvent the issue

    • with the entries "Save as…" or "Copy link address"¹ in the context menu of the download link,
    • by dragging the link text to a writeable directory in a file manager, that supports HTTP resources, like Nautilus.

    A side note concerning the reported behaviour of Chrome/Chromium: web browsers shouldn't care about file extensions to determine file types according to RFC 1341. They should only care about the MIME string sent in the HTTP response header. If a browser disregards that string in favour of file extensions or content type sniffing, they may be doing something useful for the user in most situations, but they're violating RFC 1341 in the process.

    ¹ Plus an HTTP client, that doesn't try to display file content, like wget, curl, or DownThemAll!.

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  2. The easiest way to fix this would simply be to right click the link and click on "Save Link As".

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