1753110 - Lingering tmpaddon files in the OS temporary folder when an add-on has an update

Status: NEW

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, defect, P3)

Description

[Rob Wu [:robwu]]

When an add-on has an update, it is downloaded to a temporary location, and the update may automatically be installed, or cancelled/not processed (if it has a permission prompt).

The tmpaddon* file is created at https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/b70bc09685763c44a8e56e4e04cb741fa020701a/toolkit/mozapps/extensions/internal/XPIInstall.jsm#4055-4061

And the file should ultimately be deleted after the update notification has been handled by https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/b70bc09685763c44a8e56e4e04cb741fa020701a/toolkit/mozapps/extensions/internal/XPIInstall.jsm#2978-2979, specifically by an onUpdateAvailable listener (called from here).

Because this file is not explicitly deleted, tmpaddon files may accumulate in the tmp dir.

Comment 1

[mmortal03]

See my screenshot for clarity: https://i.imgur.com/0cZ40G0.png

As I mentioned elsewhere, a bug has been occurring where, after Firefox has been open for a long time, an extension (in this case, Dark Reader) gets an automated, possibly deferred, update attempt that maybe fails (not sure), but then the xpi is not deleted afterwards from the trash folder.

This blocks further automated (and manual) update attempts of that extension, unless the browser is restarted. Additionally, every time Firefox subsequently checks for updates in the background for this extension, it tries and fails to extract the newly downloaded xpi to update it, because that trash folder xpi remains in the way. Further bugginess occurs following this, where the extension gets removed from the address bar, similar to discussion in Bug 1937098, which deactivates the extension, but where it still shows up as enabled under "Manage your extensions".

To get around this annoyance, I tried disabling the automatic updates of this extension, such that it no longer gets automatically disabled on each automated update try, however, the about:addons page then gets a curious result of "Available Updates: 2", but only one update is listed! (See screenshot.)