Firefox 67, multiple user profiles, FF 66 behaviour required

[therube]

"Quagmire of illogicality"

[willi uebelherr]

Dear Brummelchen (every time i write your name I'm laughing)

What you propose? I don't understand it.

I see only one way. The management with profiles.ini. This is for me the selection point inside of firefox. Then, we use one static installed firefox with the newest version as default and this instance give the control to the targeted instance, based on the profile directory.

And if you select an portable firefox, and this device not exist in this time, he fall back to the system default.

Now, the management of the profiles.ini come to the foreground. How easy we can do it, that all people can use it.

[willi uebelherr]

Dear therube, i see, you use firefox 69.0? What is that?

[katoda]

After some tries here and there I come to a working solution, however it is far from being the optimal one, like it was before.
In profiles.ini I had to change the option "StartWithLastProfile" from 1 to 0. Assuming that I already launched Firefox with a parameter -P "profile name", any command launching Firefox without parameters (e.g. link from Thunderbird, from IM client etc) launches Firefox tabs or new Firefox windows using currently working profile, which is what I wanted to achieve.
There are however some unwanted side effects, though: sometimes I see the Profile Manager window instead a new Firefox windows and there I have to choose my profile - subsequent launches works correctly, so it is probably linked to change the profile for the current session) and the user of the other profile (marked as "default" in profiles.ini see the Profile Manager every time he wants to use his profile.
So it is more or less usable now, but I consistently claim that the change in profile service was badly designed, badly implemented and made more harm than anybody expected.

[therube]

I don't "use" FF - at all.
I use SeaMonkey.
Otherwise, I "dabble" with browsers.
FF 69 (Nightly) fixes a feature that I rely upon, long broken by Quantum, Allow Violentmonkey scripts.

the change in profile service was badly designed, badly implemented and made more harm than anybody expected

Agreed.

[therube]

Another one to keep an eye on:

Bug 1553767 Command line doesn't respect "--profile" flag

Not clear if this is a bug or intended behavior (but considering no one knows what intended behavior is...).
And may only affect OSX?
(Looks that way. The bug that brought this to light, Bug 469990, is marked as macOS.)
(A quick look in Windows says Windows in not affected.)


(In OSX, unbeknownst to me, seemingly -no-remote was not required, as it is in Windows, to open multiple, simultaneous instances of FF.)

[Brummelchen]

seriously!? because -- never existed!?
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/doc ... ne_Options

[therube]

Not sure what you're saying?
Or do you literally mean the "--".

"--" may be needed (required) on Linux/Mac?
Window works either way, a single "-" or double "--".

Code: Select all

seamonkey -profilemanager -no-remote
seamonkey --profilemanager --no-remote

[Brummelchen]

as you can read yourself the documents at mozilla are really clear: no "--", only "-"
"--" is chrome related but this is firefox. but/and chrome wont/dont accept "-"
even ghacks would be idiots, but they are not,
https://www.ghacks.net/2017/10/08/the-m ... e-options/

comparison to chrome
https://peter.sh/experiments/chromium-c ... -switches/

[therube]

From within Windows... firefox.exe /?

Code: Select all

Usage: firefox [ options ... ] [URL]
       where options include:

  -h or --help       Print this message.
  -v or --version    Print Firefox version.
  -P <profile>       Start with <profile>.
  --profile <path>   Start with profile at <path>.
  --migration        Start with migration wizard.
  --ProfileManager   Start with ProfileManager.
  --no-remote        Do not accept or send remote commands; implies
                     --new-instance.
  --new-instance     Open new instance, not a new window in running instance.
  --UILocale <locale> Start with <locale> resources as UI Locale.
  --safe-mode        Disables extensions and themes for this session.
  --allow-downgrade  Allows downgrading a profile.
  --MOZ_LOG=<modules> Treated as MOZ_LOG=<modules> environment variable,
                     overrides it.
  --MOZ_LOG_FILE=<file> Treated as MOZ_LOG_FILE=<file> environment variable,
                     overrides it. If MOZ_LOG_FILE is not specified as an
                     argument or as an environment variable, logging will be
                     written to stdout.
  --console          Start Firefox with a debugging console.
  --headless         Run without a GUI.
  --save-recordings  Save recordings for all content processes to a directory.
  --browser          Open a browser window.
  --new-window <url> Open <url> in a new window.
  --new-tab <url>    Open <url> in a new tab.
  --private-window <url> Open <url> in a new private window.
  --preferences      Open Options dialog.
  --screenshot [<path>] Save screenshot to <path> or in working directory.
  --window-size width[,height] Width and optionally height of screenshot.
  --search <term>    Search <term> with your default search engine.
  --setDefaultBrowser Set this app as the default browser.
  --jsconsole        Open the Browser Console.
  --jsdebugger       Open the Browser Toolbox.
  --wait-for-jsdebugger Spin event loop until JS debugger connects.
                     Enables debugging (some) application startup code paths.
                     Only has an effect when `--jsdebugger` is also supplied.
  --devtools         Open DevTools on initial load.
  --start-debugger-server [ws:][ <port> | <path> ] Start the debugger server on
                     a TCP port or Unix domain socket path. Defaults to TCP port
                     6000. Use WebSocket protocol if ws: prefix is specified.
  --recording <file> Record drawing for a given URL.
  --recording-output <file> Specify destination file for a drawing recording.
  --remote-debugger [<host>][:<port>]
  --remote-debugging-port <port> Start the Firefox remote agent, which is 
                     a low-level debugging interface based on the CDP protocol.
                     Defaults to listen on localhost:9222.

What's the difference betwen the single dash and double dash flags on shell commands?

I'm new to working in the shell and the usage of these commands seems arbitrary. Is there a reason one flag has a single dash and another might have a double dash?

> A single hyphen can be followed by multiple single-character flags. A double hyphen prefixes a single, multicharacter option.
>
> Consider this example:
>
> tar -czf
>
> In this example, -czf specifies three single-character flags: c, z, and f.
>
> Now consider another example:
>
> tar --exclude
>
> In this case, --exclude specifies a single, multicharacter option named exclude. The double hyphen disambiguates the command-line argument, ensuring that tar interprets it as exclude rather than a combination of e, x, c, l, u, d, and e.

https://serverfault.com/questions/38793 ... shell-comm

Now, if that's the reason that Mozilla shows it like that in FF's (command-line) "help", or if -- are required on Linux/Mac... ?
Also note that some of the switches on the DMO page do show, specifically, --.

[Brummelchen]

That page has no official status, please forget that crap.

[therube]

Bug 1535021 Check if a remote instance is using the default profile before showing the profile manager
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1535021

[katoda]

I'm sorry for reviving this old topic, but there is a RFE logged in Bugzilla to have the old behaviour of Firefox restored in a customisable way, so both types of users (those wanted Firefox to use the already running instance and those perfectly happy with current situation) will be happy. Feel free to go there, vote, discuss and show to Mozilla devs that the way THEY think is not what Mozilla COMMUNITY needs.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1601351

[James]

Feel free to go there, vote, discuss and show to Mozilla devs that the way THEY think is not what Mozilla COMMUNITY needs

Bugzilla is not a discussion forum like here or at SUMO nor is it a forum for advocacy, Also https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html

[malliz]

Yep good way to lose your Bugzilla account and annoy the hell out of the devs. Way to go katoda