196119 - [meta] other files (besides prefs.js) that store absolute file paths (panacea.dat, filter files, downloads.rdf, secmod.db) which makes moving profiles problematic

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(MailNews Core :: Backend, defect)

Description

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

in addition to bug #137006, we should look into other places where we store
absolute paths that would make moving profiles problematic.

other files (besides prefs.js) that we store absolute file paths (panacea.dat,
filter files, downloads.rdf, secmod.db)

Comment 1

[Henrik Gemal]

*** Bug 186530 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 2

[Simon Fraser [no longer active]]

My compref.dat in an opt, objdir build contains all full paths:

[COMPONENTS]
abs:/Volumes/Vertigo/Projects/macho_objs/opt/dist/Mozilla.app/Contents/MacOS/components/venkman-service.js,1044408375000
abs:/Volumes/Vertigo/Projects/macho_objs/opt/dist/Mozilla.app/Contents/MacOS/components/libpippki.dylib,1050106921000

this cannot be good. What if I rename my disk?

Comment 3

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

how were this files registered?

Comment 4

[Simon Fraser [no longer active]]

Just by running the build. Every xpcom component has a full path. (Note that
they are symlinks to libs in the tree, but that the paths in the file are paths
into components/).

Comment 5

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

assign the bug over to me and I will take a look.  I don't see this on either
linux or windows.

Comment 6

[Conrad Carlen (not reading bugmail)]

They contain full paths in builds where the components are symlinks. This is
because the component mgr checks the parent of each found component and, only if
it is the components dir, is the path relative. In a build with symlinks, the
parent of the component file itself is not the components dir - it is only for
the link which pointed to it. This doesn't happen
(1) in release builds because the items in the components dir are not symlinks
(2) with my patch for bug 164396 because, like the other platforms, the parent
is determined just from the path, not the actual file object.

Comment 7

[Raul Dias]

In Linux the appreg file in the $HOME/.mozilla has absolute filenames.

This is really a pain in the ass as when the user's home is moved, the profiles
are unusable.

Comment 8

[Nickolay_Ponomarev]

[profile]\chrome\chrome.rdf contains absolute paths to extensions' jars. If
there is a bug for this already, it should be added to dependancies.

Comment 9

[Nickolay_Ponomarev]

Adding a firefox-only bug 280199 (profile's compreg.dat), hope you don't mind.

Comment 10

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

No comment in 3 years - resetting A+QA: takers welcome

Comment 11

[Richard Neill]

Unfortunately, this is *still* a valid bug affecting thunderbird.

An easy way to check is:
  cd .thunderbird
  grep -r --exclude="Mail/*" "/home/USERNAME" * 
(where USERNAME is your username).

Comment 12

[Tuukka Tolvanen (sp3000)]

note that, as shown by e.g. serverN.directory in prefs.js and bug 280199, the presence  of absolute paths in files is not a sufficient condition for there being problems arising from such paths being stored.

Comment 14

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

For people who have to restore profiles due to disaster results - they really don't need more problems added to the process of restoring and getting their system running again.  

Also problematic for testers who copy profiles to accomplish testing.

If anyone believes this to be datalossy, please change accordingly

Comment 15

[Richard Neill]

Fortunately, on Linux/Mac, it's easy to workaround - though the pain on XP must be awful. The workaround is just to manually create a symlink from where thunderbird insists that the profile is, to where thunderbird actually put the profile last time.

It's trivial to fix, but most users won't discover the workaround.

Incidentally, this bug is well over half a *decade* old, but would take hardly any time to fix. Any chance of some of these "old-faithful" bugs getting some love sometime?

Comment 16

[Nikolay Shopik]

On windows you could create symlink too but this only available to hard core admins ;) who get real dzen of Windows

Comment 18

[Benjamin Smedberg]

As a metabug, I don't think this is being tracked by anyone in particular, so I'm just going to close it.

Comment 19

[Ulf Zibis]

See also:
Bug 929406 - Inbox etc. not translated to locale after switch to Ubuntu
Bug 888371 - Windows paths in prefs.js should be updated after moving profile to Linux OR "mail.server.serverX.directory" property should be removed completely