244016 - Mozilla does not pick up user-specified "applications.tmp_dir" property

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: Preferences, defect)

Description

[George Beckett]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; SunOS sun4u; en-GB; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040116
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; SunOS sun4u; en-GB; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040116

I have attempted to change the default location to which data files are
downloaded for use with Helper Applications. This I have done through the
"about:config" browser window. Within this window, I select the attribute
"applications.tmp_dir" and edit this entry, replacing the content with
"/home/george/temp/mozilla". I have previously confirmed that this directory
exists and that I have read/write permission on this directory. 

Having made the change, I exit Mozilla and confirm that my profile's "prefs.js"
file has been updated to contain the line:

  user_pref("applications.tmp_dir", "/home/george/temp/mozilla");

I then restart Mozilla and confirm that the user-specified attribute value is
present in the "about:config" screen. This reports the correct directory.

Unfortunately, if I attempt to access a document to be viewed with a helper
application (in this case, a MS Word document that is launched with the Sun
Microsystems helper application "sdtpcaction"), the document is downloaded to
the default "/tmp" directory, not my user-specified alternative. It appears that
Mozilla is ignoring the change to the preferences.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Access "about:config" screen and select "applications.tmp_dir" attribute.
2. Set value to a directory to which you have read/write access (not /tmp which
is default).
3. Exit and restart Mozilla (this step may not be necessary).
4. Try to launch a helper application.

Actual Results:  
...
5. List content of user-specified directory (in 2). The file does not appear here.
6. List content of default "/tmp" directory. File does appear here.


Expected Results:  
(I believe) that the file should have been downloaded to the user-specified
location, not /tmp.

I am using the Sun Microsystems compiled version of Mozilla 1.6. Unfortunately,
I cannot use the Mozilla.org contributed version, since this only supports
XPrint. XPrint is not used on our systems.

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

This preference doesn't actually exist (outside all.js).  There is no code that
ever looks at the preference (nor should there be, in my opinion).  It being in
all.js looks like a carryover from long ago and should be removed.

You can set the temp dir by setting TMP, TEMP, or TMPDIR environment variables
to point to it.

Leaving this bug open to remove the garbage in all.js, I guess...

Comment 2

[Christian :Biesinger (don't email me, ping me on IRC)]

Attachment: remove tmp_dir from all.js

yep, I came to the same conclusion as bz

Comment 3

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Comment on attachment 148889 [details] [diff] [review]
remove tmp_dir from all.js

r+sr=bzbarsky

Comment 4

[Christian :Biesinger (don't email me, ping me on IRC)]

Comment on attachment 148889 [details] [diff] [review]
remove tmp_dir from all.js

this just removes an unused preference from all.js, to avoid confusing users
who think it actually does something

Comment 5

[Christian :Biesinger (don't email me, ping me on IRC)]

checked in