181157 - news://site.org will loop spawn windows if miss-configured in Windows file types

Status: NEW

(MailNews Core :: Networking, defect)

Description

[Tig]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.1) Gecko/20020826
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.1) Gecko/20020826

(This is a user error, however the loop should not happen)
If the default file type for 'URL:News Protocol' is changed to Mozilla AND the
news component of Mozilla is not installed Mozilla will go into a loop opening
windows.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install only the web browser (and security part) of Mozilla (do NOT install
the news reader
2. Change the URL:News Protocol file type to use Mozilla (See NOTES on how to do
this below)
3. Open Task Manager and find Mozilla in the list (you will need this in a
second :])
4. Enter news://somesite.org in the location bar and hit enter.
5. Right click on Mozilla in the Task Manager and kill it.

NOTES: 
To change file types, open Explorer -> Tools -> Folder Options -> File Types.
Find 'URL:News Protocol' in the list, then press Advance -> Edit -> Browse. Now
browse to Mozilla and un-tick 'Use DDE'


Actual Results:  
A new Mozilla window will open about every 1/2 to 2 seconds and continue to open
news windows

Expected Results:  
Some error message about 'News service not installed'

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

To docshell.

Comment 2

[Adam Lock]

I would guess this is a shortcircuit where Mozilla is launching Mozilla to
handle news and gets stuck in a vicious loop because it doesn't handle news, so
it keeps opening new windows to handle it. I don't believe this is docshell
related, more likely to be something to do with configuration or DDE.

If Mozilla is offering itself as a handler for news: when it doesn't then it
looks like an installer issue so I'm reassigning on that basis.

Comment 3

[Tig]

I do not think you read, or tried to replicate the issue. The 'USER' has
changed the 'URL:News Protocol' themself, not the installer script.
Therefore the installer is doing its job correctly. The 'USER' is the
one causing the problem, however Mozilla should not loop with spawning
new windows.

-Tig

Comment 4

[Henrik Gemal]

not installer

Comment 5

[Henrik Gemal]

really go away...:)

Comment 6

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Tig: If you are still seeing this symptom, please check in to Bug 198547 and
supply responses to the questions posted there (comments 4 & 7).

Comment 7

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Tig: what are your settings for the following preferences?  see:  about:config

   network.protocol-handler.external.news  (may not be present)
   network.protocols.useSystemDefaults

Comment 8

[Tig]

>    network.protocol-handler.external.news  (may not be present)

Not present

>    network.protocols.useSystemDefaults
 
684    network.protocols.useSystemDefaults	default bool false


Below are my registry settings. (I do NOT have the mozilla news componet
installed btw). Copy it all, change the path to mozilla.exe, save the file as
something.reg, double click and you should have looping windows when you type
news://somesite.org in the location bar.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\news]
@="URL:News Protocol"
"EditFlags"=dword:00000002
"URL Protocol"=""
"BrowserFlags"=dword:00000008

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\news\DefaultIcon]
@=hex(2):25,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,\
  00,73,00,25,00,5c,00,4f,00,75,00,74,00,6c,00,6f,00,6f,00,6b,00,20,00,45,00,\
  78,00,70,00,72,00,65,00,73,00,73,00,5c,00,6d,00,73,00,69,00,6d,00,6e,00,2e,\
  00,65,00,78,00,65,00,2c,00,2d,00,33,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\news\shell]
@=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\news\shell\open]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\news\shell\open\command]
@="F:\\mozilla.org\\Mozilla\\mozilla.exe \"%1\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\news\shell\open\ddeexec]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\news\shell\open\ddeexec\Application]
@="mozilla"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\news\shell\open\ddeexec\Topic]
@="System"

Comment 9

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

OK!  I have reproduced your results.  Definitely a different problem than the
other, but the same symptom.

Doesn't make a difference whether DDE is enabled or not.

If the command in the HKCR\news\shell\open\command is set to the (more sensible)
"mozilla -news %1", there is much less of an issue: a regular Mozilla window
opens, but doesn't say anything about now there's no 'news' capability.

Confirmed with
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4b) Gecko/20030408