1418473 - "Restart to update" and "Help -> Restart with Add-ons Disabled..." does not restart the same profile if there is another profile open

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, defect)

Description

[Botond Ballo [:botond]]

STR:
  1. Open one profile in Nightly
  2. Open another profile in any Firefox version
  3. When there is a Nightly update, "Restart to update"
     in the first profile

Expected results:

  Nightly updates and reopens the same profile.

Actual results:

  Nightly closes and a new window opens in the *other* instance
  that's running the other profile.

This is a recent regression; it wasn't happening a few days ago.

Comment 1

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

This has been working for quite a long time so I suspect this mat be due to a change in the startup code. Which OS are you using?

Comment 2

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Does this also happen if you select Help -> Restart with Add-ons Disabled...?

Comment 3

[Botond Ballo [:botond]]

I'm running on Linux (Debian 9).

Comment 4

[Botond Ballo [:botond]]

(In reply to Robert Strong [:rstrong] (use needinfo to contact me) from comment #2)
> Does this also happen if you select Help -> Restart with Add-ons Disabled...?

Yes, it does!

Comment 5

[Botond Ballo [:botond]]

I tried to get a regression range for the "Restart with Add-ons Disabled" STR, but curiously the issue does not reproduce in mozregression. 

That is, the same Nightly build (the latest one), when run directly from the command line, reproduces the issue, but when run as the "bad" build of mozregression, does not.

Comment 6

[Botond Ballo [:botond]]

Is there anything I can do to help get this diagnosed and fixed? This is a very frustrating regression for people who are running multiple profiles at once.

Comment 7

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Jim, heads up that this regression may be due to a change made by your team.

Comment 8

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

We really need some sort of a regression ranger here. I can't think of anything sandboxing that might have impacted this.

Comment 9

[Stephan Sokolow]

This also appears to affect the "Restart normally..." button in the top-right corner of about:profiles.

Here's my reproducer:

1. On Kubuntu Linux 14.04.5 LTS (64-bit) with 64-bit Mozilla builds of Developer Edition and Nightly...
2. Open Firefox Developer Edition on my "quantum" profile with "Use the selected profile without asking at startup" checked.
3. Open Nightly on a fresh "nightly" profile and ignore the (checked) state of "Use the selected profile without asking at startup".
4. Open about:profiles in Developer Edition
5. Click "Restart normally..."

Developer Edition will fail to restart after shutting down because "the profile is in use".

Comment 10

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

Firefox 67 has changed a lot about how profile selection and remoting works. Is this still an issue in Firefox 67?

Comment 11

[Botond Ballo [:botond]]

Testing with Nightly (68), I can confirm that this issue is now resolved! (I tested with "Restart with add-ons disabled". I don't have an update queued up right now to test "Restart to update", but I assume they share the same mechanism so that should be fixed too.)

Comment 12

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

I'm going to optimistically assume that the Mossop's work landed during the 67 cycle is what fixed this.