>>> m = message_from_string("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename*0*="can't decode this filename")
>>> m.get_filename()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/home/rdmurray/python/p32/Lib/email/message.py", line 752, in get_filename
    return utils.collapse_rfc2231_value(filename).strip()
  File "/home/rdmurray/python/p32/Lib/email/utils.py", line 303, in collapse_rfc2231_value
    return str(rawbytes, charset, errors)
TypeError: str() argument 2 must be str, not None

r.david.murray,

how did you enter the first without a syntax error?

>>> import email.message
>>> m = message_from_string("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename*0*="can't decode this filename")
  File "<stdin>", line 1
    m = message_from_string("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename*0*="can't decode this filename")
                                                                             ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Heh.  I used """ in the original, and edited it when I posted it "for conciseness".  Sigh.  My apologies.

Here's a patch.  Note that this fixes a regression relative to Python2, where fallback_charset was used in this case.

It turns out the new header parsing code also missed this error recovery.  Or, rather, it recovers from it by completely ignoring the parameter with the bad syntax. 

I haven't worked out a solution that does more useful error recovery yet, but I'm posting an updated patch with tests for the new parser and something that may (or may not!) be heading in the direction of a fix, in case anyone else wants to work on it before I get back to it.

New changeset 63f8ea0eeb6d by R David Murray in branch '3.3':
#17369: Improve handling of broken RFC2231 values in get_filename.
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/63f8ea0eeb6d

New changeset e0a90b1c4cdf by R David Murray in branch 'default':
Merge: #17369: Improve handling of broken RFC2231 values in get_filename.
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/e0a90b1c4cdf

I've applied the first fix.  I'll leave the issue open until I make the equivalent fix for the new header parsing code.

This issue is not newcomer friendly, I remove the easy keyword.