1580630 - -no-remote looses 'default' session

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, defect)

Description

[bugra]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:69.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/69.0

Steps to reproduce:

reproducible on FF 68 & 69 on Linux and Windows:

1. open firefox '$ firefox'
2. open a link from another application will kick in the default url handler and firefox will open the link
3. open another firefox profile '$ firefox -P -no-remote'
4. try to open a link from another application will kick the default url handler, firefox profile dialog will popup

Actual results:

on step 4 above up incl firefox 67 the result was that all links are opened with the profile of the 'default' session.
it seems firefox is not recognizing that there is already a default session running and asks to open a new firefox session.

Expected results:

it should recognize the still open default firefox session and open it.

Comment 1

[Aleksandar Stojsavljevic]

I have similar usecase. It doesn't involve -no-remote argument but root cause might be the same.
I will report new bug if it's unrelated.

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:69.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/69.0
I also reproduced it on Win 10, 64bit.

Steps to reproduce:

1. create new non-default profile e.g. myprofile
2. make sure that Use the selected profile without asking at startup is selected for default profile in firefox profile dialog
3. start ff with firefox -P myprofile
4. open a link from another application and new firefox instance will start with default profile

In case that Use the selected profile without asking at startup is not selected, firefox profile dialog would popup.

While this all might sound like expected behavior, few months ago (I'm not sure was it prior to v67) link would be opened with current profile.
In a nutshell, what I would like to achieve (again) is not to bother with firefox profile dialog and have externals links opened with current profile.

The issue is discussed here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1259689

Comment 2

[jscher2000]

(In reply to bugra from comment #0)

1. open firefox '$ firefox'
2. open a link from another application will kick in the default url handler and firefox will open the link
3. open another firefox profile '$ firefox -P -no-remote'
4. try to open a link from another application will kick the default url handler, firefox profile dialog will popup

At least on Windows, historically unless something changed, external links cannot open in a -no-remote instance of Firefox.

on step 4 above up incl firefox 67 the result was that all links are opened with the profile of the 'default' session.
it seems firefox is not recognizing that there is already a default session running and asks to open a new firefox session.

Yes, prior to Firefox 67, links would open in the running Firefox, regardless of profile (as long as it was not started with -no-remote). Now, Firefox wants to open external links in the currently defined default profile.

In your step 3, Firefox updated the default profile to the profile you selected in the profile manager. As far as I know, there isn't a command-line switch like

-P -one-time

to override the usual Profile Manager behavior and avoid updating the default profile for that invocation of Firefox.

Comment 3

[bugra]

(In reply to jscher2000 from comment #2)

(In reply to bugra from comment #0)

1. open firefox '$ firefox'
2. open a link from another application will kick in the default url handler and firefox will open the link
3. open another firefox profile '$ firefox -P -no-remote'
4. try to open a link from another application will kick the default url handler, firefox profile dialog will popup

At least on Windows, historically unless something changed, external links cannot open in a -no-remote instance of Firefox.

Correct.

on step 4 above up incl firefox 67 the result was that all links are opened with the profile of the 'default' session.
it seems firefox is not recognizing that there is already a default session running and asks to open a new firefox session.

Yes, prior to Firefox 67, links would open in the running Firefox, regardless of profile (as long as it was not started with -no-remote). Now, Firefox wants to open external links in the currently defined default profile.

Yes, this is still what I expect from the help:

$ firefox --help
...
  --no-remote        Do not accept or send remote commands; implies
                     --new-instance.
...

In your step 3, Firefox updated the default profile to the profile you selected in the profile manager. As far as I know, there isn't a command-line switch like

-P -one-time

to override the usual Profile Manager behavior and avoid updating the default profile for that invocation of Firefox.

So, this confirms that this is not a feature change.

Comment 4

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The priority flag is not set for this bug.
:mossop, could you have a look please?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 5

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

(In reply to bugra from comment #0)

1. open firefox '$ firefox'
2. open a link from another application will kick in the default url handler and firefox will open the link
3. open another firefox profile '$ firefox -P -no-remote'

At this point you are changing the default profile for Firefox, and making it so future instances of Firefox will not be able to see the one you start here.

4. try to open a link from another application will kick the default url handler, firefox profile dialog will popup

In the profile manager was the checkbox for "always use this profile on startup" checked or unchecked. If unchecked then this is the expected behaviour, if checked then I'd expect Firefox to complain about not being able to open the profile here.

it should recognize the still open default firefox session and open it.

It cannot recognise the still open firefox running the current default profile as you opened it with -no-remote.

Comment 6

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The priority flag is not set for this bug.
:mossop, could you have a look please?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 7

[bugra]

(In reply to Dave Townsend [:mossop] (he/him) from comment #5)

(In reply to bugra from comment #0)

1. open firefox '$ firefox'
2. open a link from another application will kick in the default url handler and firefox will open the link
3. open another firefox profile '$ firefox -P -no-remote'

At this point you are changing the default profile for Firefox, and making it so future instances of Firefox will not be able to see the one you start here.

This was previously not the case, prior FF67. So how can i keep the already opened profile as the default profile with newer FF releases?

4. try to open a link from another application will kick the default url handler, firefox profile dialog will popup

In the profile manager was the checkbox for "always use this profile on startup" checked or unchecked. If unchecked then this is the expected behaviour, if checked then I'd expect Firefox to complain about not being able to open the profile here.

No, the box is unchecked. I don't use a default profile, i always pick which profile i want to start.

it should recognize the still open default firefox session and open it.

It cannot recognise the still open firefox running the current default profile as you opened it with -no-remote.

So, again, how can i keep the already opened profile as the default profile?
At some point i will close the new profile, and want all url-handler requests go to the old/original profile.

Comment 8

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

(In reply to bugra from comment #7)

(In reply to Dave Townsend [:mossop] (he/him) from comment #5)

(In reply to bugra from comment #0)

1. open firefox '$ firefox'
2. open a link from another application will kick in the default url handler and firefox will open the link
3. open another firefox profile '$ firefox -P -no-remote'

At this point you are changing the default profile for Firefox, and making it so future instances of Firefox will not be able to see the one you start here.

This was previously not the case, prior FF67. So how can i keep the already opened profile as the default profile with newer FF releases?

Selected a profile through the profile manager has always made that the default profile.

4. try to open a link from another application will kick the default url handler, firefox profile dialog will popup

In the profile manager was the checkbox for "always use this profile on startup" checked or unchecked. If unchecked then this is the expected behaviour, if checked then I'd expect Firefox to complain about not being able to open the profile here.

No, the box is unchecked. I don't use a default profile, i always pick which profile i want to start.

Then this is working as expected.

it should recognize the still open default firefox session and open it.

It cannot recognise the still open firefox running the current default profile as you opened it with -no-remote.

So, again, how can i keep the already opened profile as the default profile?
At some point i will close the new profile, and want all url-handler requests go to the old/original profile.

Running firefox -P <profile name> will launch Firefox using that named profile without making it the default.

Comment 9

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The priority flag is not set for this bug.
:mossop, could you have a look please?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 10

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

As far as I can see everything is working as intended here.