Version: (using KDE KDE 3.4.0) Installed from: Unlisted Binary Package OS: Linux Hello, tar:// rely on extension to determine the file's content. If a file (containing text )inside foo.tar is named file.txt, konqueror tar://foo.tar recognize it as a text file, but if the file is named file (without extension), the file is recognized as unknown type. how to reproduce : -echo "blababla" > file.txt -echo "blablabla" > file -tar cvf foo.tar * -browse foo.tar with tar:// ->file is unknown file, file.txt is a text file It also works with others type, like graphics, html, ... files.
That's because kio doesn't guess the file type by its contents unless it can read the file. And it won't extract each and every file from the tarball just to determine the file type, as that can be a lengthy operation. I believe this is WONTFIX.
I agree with Thiago, this would most likely require a non-trivial amount of resources spent whenever you open a .tar file and might then cause more bugs so it's not really worth the effort.