253681 - Install a read-only extension fails and subsequent extension installations of any kind fail, requiring reinstallation of Thunderbird.

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 248137

(Thunderbird :: General, defect)

Description

[Nick Lee]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8a3) Gecko/20040718 Firefox/0.9.1+
Build Identifier: Thunderbird 0.7.2 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8a3) 20040707 Thunderbird/0.7.2

Although a similar bug has been reported already, this one is sufficiently
different to warrant another bug report.  If you install a read-only extension,
the extension manager reports that it will be reinstalled after restarting
Thunderbird.  This message remains even after restarting Thunderbird and
rebooting the machine, and the extension still does not work.  Furthermore,
attempting to install any other extension (not read-only), even after
uninstalling the 'rogue' one will fail.  The only solution (other than hacking
the profiles, presumably), is to reinstall Thunderbird.

This is actually a bit of a problem for people who develop extensions under
source control software, which sets the read-only flag of files checked in.  The
fact that you need to reinstall Thunderbird is the real annoying issue, not the
fact that it doesn't work.  If simply marking the extension as writeable would
fix it, it wouldn't be that much of a problem.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Download an extension to your local drive and mark it as read-only.
2. Install the extension through the Extension Manager.
3. Restart Thunderbird.

Actual Results:  
After restarting Thunderbird, the Extension Manager will still report the
extension as not installed (i.e. will be installed after restarting
Thunderbird), and the extension will not work.

Expected Results:  
The extension should install, whether the file is read-only or not.  At the very
least, it should tell you that it won't install properly because it is
read-only.  It should certainly not require reinstallation of Thunderbird in
order to allow other extensions to be installed.

Mozilla Thunderbird version 0.7.2 (20040707).

Comment 1

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Please respond to the same questions in bug 248137 comment 1.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 248137 ***