[support] Bizarre behavior with uploaded PDF files

[Peter Horn]

Bob Smither wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I have a D5 site with a page of uploaded PDF files.  The files are
> listed Drupal style on the page (http://lrcf.org/Spotlight).  Up until
> recently when I double clicked a page the pdf would open in acroread as
> expected.
>
> Recently double clicking a linked pdf results in one of three results:
>
> 1.  Displays as expected (example - the January 2010 issue)
>
> 2.  Firefox window opens offering to save the pdf file (it is not opened
> as expected) (example - December 2009 issue).
>
> 3.  Firefox window opens stating Download Error:
> "/tmp/Spotlight-2009-11-3.pdf could not be opened, because the
> associated helper application does not exist. Change the association in
> your preferences." (example - November 2009 issue).
>
> I am viewing all this on Firefox from an updated CentOS 5 Linux box.
>
> Does anyone have any idea what is going on here?  All of the files
> appear to be normal pdf files and open as expected when they are local
> files.
>
> Thanks!
>
>   
Hi,
I don't know what causes it, but I can tell you what's happening, thanks 
to that wondeful Firefox addon 'httpfox'.
It's all in the content-type response header, as follows:
January: application/pdf
December: binary/octet-stream
November: unknown/unknown

As a guess, I'd say that the "what kind of file" decision was made at 
the time it was uploaded to Drupal, and has "stuck" with the file ever 
since. The data is good in all cases, which is why you can open it 
locally, and the downloaded December is readable.

Cheers,
Peter
(not much experienced in Drupal but I do know my way around http)