Open Bug 1343669 (update-agent) Opened 7 years ago Updated 21 days ago

[meta] Background Update Agent tracking bug

Categories

(Toolkit :: Application Update, enhancement, P2)

Unspecified
Windows
enhancement

Tracking

()

Tracking Status
relnote-firefox --- 90+

People

(Reporter: molly, Unassigned)

References

(Depends on 10 open bugs, )

Details

(Keywords: meta, Whiteboard: [iu_tracking])

Attachments

(1 obsolete file)

The Update Agent is being planned as a background process which will remain running after the browser is closed to download and apply updates. This should make updating more convenient for everyone and reduce the time to get new updates for users who aren't well supported by the current update process because they don't run Firefox very much and/or they have slow Internet connections.

This is a large project with a bunch of sub-tasks, so it needs a tracking bug.
Depends on: 1343670
Depends on: 1343671
Depends on: 1343672
Depends on: 1343673
Depends on: 1343674
Depends on: 1343675
Depends on: 1343676
QA Contact: amasresha
Priority: -- → P3
Keywords: meta
Depends on: 1410021
Assignee: nobody → robert.strong.bugs
Priority: P3 → P2
Depends on: 1447790
OS: Unspecified → Windows
Just wondering, is this generally windows-only, or planned to role out for other platforms later?
We are currently working on this feature for Windows only. There has been some interest in having a Background Update Agent for MacOS as well, but we don't have any immediate plans to implement it. It does not sound like we will be rolling this out to Linux, however.
No longer depends on: 1458314
Summary: Update Agent tracking bug → [meta] Update Agent tracking bug
No longer depends on: 1520321
No longer depends on: 1540191
Depends on: 1528278
Depends on: 1553977
Assignee: robert.strong.bugs → nobody
Depends on: 1558070

(In reply to Kirk Steuber (he/him) [:bytesized] from comment #2)

We are currently working on this feature for Windows only. There has been
some interest in having a Background Update Agent for MacOS as well, but we
don't have any immediate plans to implement it. It does not sound like we
will be rolling this out to Linux, however.

Thank You This Will Protect User in an Online World!

Will this feature be optional like the current Mozilla Maintenance Service is? I really appreciate how easy it is to not install that when it is undesired. :)

Doug- It will be a little different from the Maintenance Service, but you will be able to turn it off. There will be a setting to turn it off in Firefox's existing options menu (about:preferences).

Super! Just thought I'd check, thanks 👍

Evem After added this function, not work i also check windows BITS Enabled!

Javad- The update agent does not work because we have not yet finished implementing it.

(In reply to Kirk Steuber (he/him) [:bytesized] from comment #9)

Javad- The update agent does not work because we have not yet finished implementing it.

Why you not implementing in other services like firefox own update services instead using BITS Service?
Also please add this option to firedoz esr.

Depends on: 1269390
Priority: P2 → P3
Assignee: nobody → mhowell
Priority: P3 → P2
Summary: [meta] Update Agent tracking bug → [meta] Background Update Agent tracking bug
Depends on: 1627028
Depends on: 1634133
See Also: → 1640921
Depends on: 1641613
Depends on: 1649183
Whiteboard: [iu_tracking]

Just including a note to myself: the BUA needs to have the hardening of Firefox/the installer/etc, including fixes like https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1361326.

No longer depends on: 1624973
No longer depends on: 1343671
No longer depends on: 1269390
No longer depends on: 1343672
No longer depends on: 1649183
No longer depends on: 1447790
No longer depends on: 1343670
Depends on: 1675329
Depends on: 1675829
Depends on: 1684961
No longer depends on: 1687781
Depends on: 1705726

Is this something we want to call out in the 90 release notes? If yes please set the relnote-firefox flag to ? when you get a chance, with suggested text if possible.

Flags: needinfo?(nalexander)

I've started driving this project so that Nick can work on some other stuff. I'm actually not 100% sure about the answer to this. The feature is going to start being enabled on 90, but we are rolling it out slowly through Normandy. And the release schedule is slow enough, that it will not be enabled for most users during 90. If you know how the release notes usually handle slow rollouts, let me know. Otherwise, I'll talk to some people to figure out what the right thing to do here is.

I'm going to leave needinfo on myself until I answer this question.

Flags: needinfo?(nalexander) → needinfo?(ksteuber)

I believe that we would like this to be called out in the 90 release notes. I was hoping to be able to link to a SUMO article about the feature in the notes, but I'm currently unsure of whether the SUMO article will be ready in time. Could you tell me what the timeline/deadline for this is, so that I can figure out whether I should just write a version without a link, or wait for the article to be ready?

Flags: needinfo?(jcristau)

Oh, I think that :jcristau is out.

@RyanVM - Can you help me answer my question from Comment 15?

Flags: needinfo?(ryanvm)
Flags: needinfo?(ksteuber)
Flags: needinfo?(jcristau)

Whoops. I wanted to leave my needinfo.

Flags: needinfo?(ksteuber)

I'd vote for having a note ready by the end of the week whether the SUMO article is ready or not. We can always update it later when the article is ready.

Flags: needinfo?(ryanvm)

I'm pretty sure that the article is not going to be done by the end of the week. So I'll provide a release note now, to hopefully be updated later.

Release Note Request
[Why is this notable]:
Until now, Firefox has only downloaded and installed updates when the user runs it. This means that users that use Firefox infrequently are often out-of-date. It also means that if they open Firefox again in response to a marketing campaign, they may not immediately get the features advertised. Background Update aims to address this problem by allowing updates to be downloaded and installed, even when the user doesn't run Firefox.

[Affects Firefox for Android]:
This does not affect Firefox for Android because it uses a completely different update mechanism.

[Suggested wording]:
Background Update is now available on Windows. This feature will allow Firefox to update, even if it is not running. It will be slowly rolled out to all Windows users over the next few months.

[Links (documentation, blog post, etc)]:
We currently do not have documentation or a blog post on this exact feature. A SUMO article is in the works, but is not yet ready. The closest thing is the documentation for Background Tasks, which are the underlying mechanism behind Background Update.

relnote-firefox: --- → ?
Flags: needinfo?(ksteuber)

I initially wrote "On Windows, updates can now be applied in the background while Firefox is not running, ensuring it’s kept up-to-date and secure", now updated to your version in the 90.0beta notes. Thanks!

Depends on: 1720993
Severity: normal → S3
Depends on: 1876302
Assignee: molly → nobody
Attachment #9386520 - Attachment is obsolete: true
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