1510993 - FIrefox GPO doesn't watch for file changes

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1495749

(Firefox :: Enterprise Policies, defect)

Description

[NN]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:63.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/63.0

Steps to reproduce:

Configure GPO with extension placed in local drive.
( https://github.com/mozilla/policy-templates/blob/master/README.md )

Start FF.
Validate the extension is installed
Replace XPI file with a newer version.
Close FF
Start FF
The extension is not updated.


Actual results:

Firefox doesn't check for file change and doesn't update the extension.


Expected results:

Extension should be updated when local XPI file is changed to a newer version.

Comment 1

[NN]

Another scenario:

Configure GPO with extension placed in local drive.
( https://github.com/mozilla/policy-templates/blob/master/README.md )

Don't add the file to the local drive
Start FF.
Validate the extension is not installed
Close FF
Put a extension XPI file to the correct location.
Start FF
The extension is not installed.

Comment 2

[laszlo.bialis]

I am assigning a component to this issue in order to involve the development team and get an opinion on this.

Comment 3

[:Felipe Gomes (needinfo for replies!)]

The existing policy is what we consider an "Install" policy, meaning that the behavior reported is intentional (i.e, it just tells it to install the file, and not watch it later for changes).

However, there are several ways around that:

• If you list the extension ID in the uninstall section and the new XPI in the install section, then that extension will be uninstalled and installed, effectively updating (this support was introduced in bug 1495749).

• If you really need file system watching of the files, the add-ons manager provides different ways to install and distribute extensions. Take a look here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/Distribution_options/Sideloading_add-ons#Installation_using_the_standard_extension_folders