140537 - Installing mozilla over an existing installation should not cause problems

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(SeaMonkey :: Installer, enhancement)

Description

[Sitsofe Wheeler]

Despite instructions to the contrary, people will continue to install Mozilla
over an existing installation which causes things to break in an unexpected way.
Such breakages will be seen as a defect in Mozilla and cause awkward bug reports
to be filed.

Here are some suggested workarounds:
If the user is using an installer, the installer should notice that there is an
existing installtion and take appropriate action:
a) Back up existing installation, remove all dangerous files and install (this
is what IE tries to do)
b) Ask the user to uninstall the existing installation and try again
c) Ask user whether it is OK to delete existing installation
d) Ask user to install to a different directory

Whatever is done mozilla should not let the user install over an existing
installation.

If the user unpacks mozilla from an archive (e.g. a zip or a tar.gz) I don't see
that there is all that much that can be done other than making sure that each
version unpacks to a different directory name (perhaps based on build number).

Comment 1

[John Levon]

This is one of *the* most contributing factors to making triage miserable.

Comment 2

[Sitsofe Wheeler]

I left out another solution - change things so installing over an existing
installation simply doesn't cause problems :). 

From bug 130892:
With all due respect, it is a big deficiency that the user has to install to a
fresh directory. All the applications around they always install to the same
directory. And what will happen to the old directory? Can it be safely deleted?
Does it need to uninstalled using Windows Uninstall?

When you install to a fresh directory, you generally loose your plugins and
stuff. It is not very user friendly at all. Instead of trying to put effort to
keep something deficient, efforts should be put to fix the problem, i.e. let the
user install to the same directory.
--
cced Allen Castaban to this bug

Comment 3

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Um... except we already do item (a) from that list.  The bugs you see are from
cases when new "dangerous" files need to be added to the list and the installer
team is not told about them (except via bug reports)...

Comment 4

[Sitsofe Wheeler]

bz: what happens in the unpacking archive case?

Comment 5

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

In the unpacking archive case the assumption is that this is not a normal user
and thus knows what he's doing.  This assumption is essentially correct -- I
have seen very few bugs where a user unzipped or untarred over an existing
install... Unpacking to a different dirname would sorta work, but be a major
annoyance, imo...

Comment 6

[Henrik Gemal]

v invalid!

Comment 7

[Henrik Gemal]

*** Bug 165604 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 8

[David A. Cobb]

INVALID?  On what the *&^% basis?

I guess this means the "powers that be" don't intend that this be fixed.  The
comments here suggest they are out of step!

Comment 9

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

> On what the *&^% basis?

On the basis of being useless.  In the installer case, there are bugs on the
installer on specific issues.  Everyone agrees that the installer should deal. 
Adding a bug that says this but does not cover any particular technical issues
is pretty useless (it would be slightly less useless if it were made a tracker
for installer bugs that affect this issue; feel free to reopen it and do that;
assign to yourself).  In the zip file case, all bets are off and people who use
it should RTFM or something.

Comment 10

[Robert Ginda]

*** Bug 179790 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 11

[Max]

No Specific issues? OK Here we go. And I am very angry about you saying you wont
mark bugs as invalid if they're on specific issues regarding this so here we go
with the cap locks:

I FILED BUG #179790 AND IT STATES A PROBLEM WHEN INSTALLING OVER AN EXISTING
MOZILLA INSTALLATION - YOU CAN'T USE IRC. THAT BUG HAS BEEN MARKED AS INVALID.
SO WHAT ARE YOU ON ABOUT?????? AND WHY SHOULD WE RTFM? BECAUSE I REALLY CAN'T BE
BOTHERED - I'D RATHER JUST BROWSE THE WEB LIKE MOST PEOPLE INSTEAD.