This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Why are some files when opened -1 bytes?

Scott M. Sanders
Scott M. Sanders
more options

This is the byte count reported in the "opening" dialog.

In particular, I see it with a PHP script that dynamically generates files, and yes, these files contain data.

I see this a lot now in Firefox 8 but do not recall such in earlier versions.

This is the byte count reported in the "opening" dialog. In particular, I see it with a PHP script that dynamically generates files, and yes, these files contain data. I see this a lot now in Firefox 8 but do not recall such in earlier versions.

Modified by Scott M. Sanders

All Replies (2)

Maxim
Maxim
more options

It happens when server response with no Content-Length: field. "Transfer-Encoding: chunked" provides option to download a attached file without known file size.

POST /tmp/Control/form HTTP/1.1
Host: 192.168.0.1

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2011 10:21:21 GMT
Set-Cookie: fileDownloadToken=done; Path=/; Secure
Content-disposition: attachment; filename=ClientFile.exe
:
Content-Type: application/binary
Keep-Alive: timeout=4, max=100
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Connection: Keep-Alive

It is known problem. See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=683258

Modified by cor-el

Scott M. Sanders
Scott M. Sanders Question owner
more options

Thank you for the info, especially the bug report. It seems to be more or less fixed in Firefox 9 (beta). It simply doesn't show any size now if unknown.