206567 - if bookmarks.html is a symbolic link, the link is destroyed after running firebird

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect, P2)

Description

[Andy Parkins]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.3a) Gecko/20030117 Phoenix/0.5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.3a) Gecko/20030117 Phoenix/0.5

bookmarks.html as a symbolic link is converted to a real file after running
firebird.  This didn't happen in Phoenix 0.5.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Create a symbolically linked bookmarks.html (e.g. ln -sf
../../../.mozilla/default/uncrrzhv.slt/bookmarks.html)
2.Run firebird


Actual Results:  
bookmarks.html has not lost the contents, but it is now a real file.

Expected Results:  
Leave bookmarks.html symbolically linked, and alter the destination file.

Comment 1

[Benjamin Smedberg]

This is the same as bug 198138, but I heard that the bookmarks service had been
forked for Phoenix. If so, this bug should remain.

Comment 2

[Jan Varga [:janv]]

yes, it's been forked

Comment 3

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

taking QA contact, sorry about the bugspam

Comment 4

[Adam Roben]

Confirming bug still present on Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.5b)
Gecko/20030804 Mozilla Firebird/0.6.1

Comment 5

[Wong, Paul]

This bug still exists on Firebid 0.7 and Firebird 0.7+(Oct 24 build).

It's quite inconvinence for users who switch between Linux and Windows etc. I
really hope it can be fixed fast.

I haven't program for Mozilla before..
but.. is there anyone who know what may be the problem?
May be I can take a look into it.

Thanks.

Comment 6

[Beat Kappert]

This bug existed earlier and was fixed before (#156814).
The comments for that bug explain what it is all about:

  http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=156814

Please vote for this bug if you feel it should be fixed!

I find it very inconvenient, too. The main reason I am
using Mozilla and Mozilla Mail is that I can share mails
and bookmarks between Linux and W2K on my dual boot
system. Here is what I do:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&threadm=ad16e28.0108290524.4fddb1f7%40posting.google.com&rnum=12&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dkappert%2540hotmail.com%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26safe%3Doff%26start%3D10%26sa%3DN

Comment 7

[Beat Kappert]

WORKAROUND EXISTS! (or better said: a superior solution)

A comment to bug 178005
  http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=178005
says:
"Most (if not all) apps in Linux will replace a symlinked file with a regular
one;"
And as far as I can remember from other comments solving this link issue depends
on some incomplete features of a library used by Mozilla. So it is essentially
out of reach for the Mozilla developers or they do something ugly. Sorry, can't
find these comments anymore.

But the above comment also points to a perfect solution:
http://texturizer.net/phoenix/tips.html#beh_bookmarks

... just specify the location of the bookmarks by creating "user.js" and add a
line like this:
user_pref("browser.bookmarks.file", "/somewhere/else/bookmarks.html");
  or on Windows:
user_pref("browser.bookmarks.file", "C:\\Somewhere\\Else\\bookmarks.html");

(Beware, there is some automatism which copies parts of user.js to prefs.js.
This can get in the way when you want to get rid of an entry in user.js).

Defining the location in user.js is the better solution than having a link.
Given this perfect solution I would say it is enough to advertise this approach
and close this class of bugs. It would be cool if the location of the bookmarks
could be specified in the GUI.

Comment 8

[Jan Varga [:janv]]

It's already in the GUI
Bookmark Manager -> Tools -> Open Bookmark File
Anyway, it will be moved to File menu IIRC

Comment 9

[Wong, Paul]

This function is not in Firebird however.
It is only in Mozilla Suite.

This bug is a Firebird specific bug, I think?

Comment 10

[Henrik Lynggaard Hansen]

Even if the gui was there, the bookmarks file should not behave differently than
other files in the profile dir. and you should really be able to use links.

Would like to suggest 0.8 blocking, but I think we should get that out the door
and let this block 0.9.

Comment 11

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

bug 198138 is OS X only
bug 225055 is cross-platform, which fallout from the fix for 200498 which landed
eight days before bookmarks actually forked for Firebird (although the directory
was created earlier).

adding 225055 as a dep to track if/when that gets fixed, and we can port the fix
over.

Comment 12

[Paul Grayson]

This is important to me as I am trying to keep my bookmarks in CVS.  The
suggested fix works fine, but destroying symbolic links that the user wants is
always bad.  Why can't mozilla identify symbolic links and apply the fix
automatically?

Comment 13

[Brendan Eich [:brendan]]

Can we get the fix for this checked in before tomorrow night's freeze?  The fix
for the xpfe tine of the fork is already in (see bug 225055).

/be

Comment 14

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

man, everyone forgot about this bug.  Will get to this tonight/tomorrow, hopefully.

-> me for port'n'fix fun

Comment 15

[Kevin Cozens]

Rather than mess around with symbolic links, the Firefox browser code should be
changed so as to allow a user to provide the name (including directory path) of
the bookmark file via the about:config GUI. Older copies of Netscape allowed the
setting of the bookmark file via one of the preferences files. It would be nice
to have this feature in Firefox. I tried the change to user.js in Firefox 0.8
and it didn't work for me. I haven't tried it again yet in the 0.9 version.

Comment 16

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

http://texturizer.net/firefox/tips.html#beh_bookmarks should still work.  If it
doesn't, please file an appropriate bug.  However, we should still fix this bug,
which I intend to do ASAP, too many irons in too many fires lately.

Comment 17

[[e-mail]]

fixed by proxy of bug 252053 and bug 252050. symlinks are now respected.

Comment 18

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

sorry for bugspam, long-overdue mass reassign of ancient QA contact bugs, filter on "beltznerLovesGoats" to get rid of this mass change