1246142 - The --pref command line parameter goes silently ignored in some cases

Status: NEW

(Testing :: mozregression, defect)

Description

[Jukka Jylänki]

Try running any of 

a) mozregression --good=2015-01-01 --pref "browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2:false browser.tabs.remote.autostart.1:false browser.tabs.remote.autostart:false"

b) mozregression --good=2015-01-01 --pref "browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2;false browser.tabs.remote.autostart.1;false browser.tabs.remote.autostart;false"

or 

c) mozregression --good=2015-01-01 --pref browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2;false

In each case, the --pref parameter is silently ignored, i.e. the prefs are not applied, but neither is there an error message reported.

Looking at mozregression --help:

  --pref [PREFS [PREFS ...]]
                        A preference to set. Must be a key-value pair
                        separated by a ':'. Note that if your preference is of
                        type float, you should pass it as a string, e.g.:
                        --pref "layers.low-precision-opacity:'0.0'"

it suggests that a) should work(?), and for good measure, b) and c) should cause an error. Note that the semicolon comes somewhat naturally to command line when one navigates to about:config, right-clicks on a pref and selects copy on it to copy it to clipboard.

Comment 1

[Jukka Jylänki]

Also looks like

mozregression --good=2015-01-01 --pref browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2:false --pref browser.tabs.remote.autostart.1:false --pref browser.tabs.remote.autostart:false 

will not stack the prefs, but silently takes the last one?

Comment 2

[Jukka Jylänki]

Looks like

mozregression --good=2015-01-01 --pref browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2:false browser.tabs.remote.autostart.1:false browser.tabs.remote.autostart:false 

works the way I wanted!

Comment 3

[Julien Pagès (:parkouss)]

Yeah, This is different from the usage of --arg, where we need to repeat --arg.

>  -a ARG1, --arg ARG1   a command-line argument to pass to the application;
>                        repeat for multiple arguments.
>  --pref [PREFS [PREFS ...]]
>  --preferences [PREFS_FILES [PREFS_FILES ...]]

Maybe we should harmonize all this ? (I'm in favor of repeating the argument, like we do for --arg).

(In reply to Jukka Jylänki from comment #0)

> it suggests that a) should work(?), and for good measure, b) and c) should
> cause an error. Note that the semicolon comes somewhat naturally to command
> line when one navigates to about:config, right-clicks on a pref and selects
> copy on it to copy it to clipboard.

works for me - I think this should be the responsibility of the underlying usage of mozprofile, I'll check this.