Created attachment 619213 [details] screenshot of the problem Description of problem: I have a .xls file from a Russian Windows system but libreoffice can't open it :( The filename could be In [43]: f1 = '\xd1%88\xd0\xba.2.xls' In [44]: open('/tmp/'+f1, 'w') Out[44]: <open file '/tmp/�%88к.2.xls', mode 'w' at 0x1112c00> Opening with LibreOffice fails: $ libreoffice *2.xls produces an error message, that the file could not be opened. Turns out, that the \xd1 is the minimal test case. Opening '\xd1.4.xls' fails. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): How reproducible: Steps to Reproduce: 1. 2. 3. Actual results: Expected results: I expected it to open the file. Despite the fact that the filename is not proper utf-8 but probably windows-1252 or so. Additional info:
This is an unfortunate consequence of a long-standing internal design decision in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org, namely to internally represent all pathnames as file URLs with UTF-8 encoded payload. In a locale like UTF-8, where \xD1 does not represent a valid character, there is currently no way for LibreOffice to transport the pathname intact from the user to the system interface. Due to the massive impact any changes to this would have, a fix in the foreseeable future is unlikely. As a workaround, you can rename the file before opening, or try to start soffice from a locale where \xD1 /is/ a valid character, like LC_ALL=C soffice ...