208794 - Launching second instance should automatically reuse first instance

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 122698

(SeaMonkey :: Startup & Profiles, defect)

Description

[Max Polk]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030529
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030529

Launching a second instance of the browser should automatically reuse the first
instance of the browser.  Instead by default launching a second instance of
mozilla from the command line "mozilla" or from the start menu in GNOME, I get a
refusal indicating that the profile is already in use.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Launch mozilla
2. Launch mozilla again

Actual Results:  
Second instance refuses to start, profile already in use.

Expected Results:  
Second instance should use the first instance.

My suggested solution is that during the install, the link /usr/bin/mozilla
should be the following short script:

#! /bin/sh

# The installed version of mozilla we are using
mozbin=/usr/lib/mozilla-1.4rc1/mozilla
 
# Ensure we have only zero or one argument
if [ $# -gt 1 ]; then
    echo Usage: mozilla [URL]
    exit 1
fi
 
# See if instance is running
if ! $mozbin -remote 'ping()' 2>/dev/null; then
    # It is not running, start a new instance
    $mozbin "$1"
else
    # It is running, tell it to open the url in a new window
    $mozbin -remote "openurl($1,new-window)"
fi

Comment 1

[Max Polk]

Ever since I changed /usr/bin/mozilla to be that short script, right-clicking on
a link in gnome-terminal and saying "Open Link" reuses the first instance and
opens the link in a new window.  Seems like this is a system-wide solution.

Comment 2

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 122698 ***

Comment 3

[Grace Bush]

v