285504 - XPCOM components in global extension aren't registered correctly [need to touch .autoreg]

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, defect)

Description

[Alex Sirota (iosart)]

If an extension installed with -install-global-extension flag has some XPCOM
components, the components are placed along with the extension under the
application directory as expected, but are registered in the xpti.dat and
compreg.dat files in the current user profile. As a result, the extension will
only be registered correctly for the current user.

Example - install FoxyTunes
(http://www.iosart.com/foxytunes/firefox/FoxyTunes_1.1.1.xpi) using
-install-global-extension under one user, then login as another user. The
extension components aren't available.

Comment 1

[Darin Fisher]

Try touching "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\.autoreg" after running that
command.  Ideally, that command would do this for you, but give it a try
yourself.  It is meant as an indicator to all of the user profiles that their
compreg.dat and xpti.dat may be out of date.

This is actually a toolkit bug (since EM is part of toolkit), but we don't have
a bugzilla component over there for it.

Comment 2

[Alex Sirota (iosart)]

(In reply to comment #1)
> Try touching "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\.autoreg" after running that
> command.  Ideally, that command would do this for you, but give it a try
> yourself.  It is meant as an indicator to all of the user profiles that their
> compreg.dat and xpti.dat may be out of date.

As far as I can see, this just causes the component registry to be rebuilt on
the next browser startup in any profile. So, if I just restart Firefox twice in
the same profile this file will be gone. Or if I don't run Firefox under the
same user, and only run it the next time under another user, that user will get
the components, but the third one won't. There seems to be a bigger problem here. 

Comment 3

[Darin Fisher]

No, I believe that .autoreg is not deleted after being read once.  That was the
case in older versions of XPCOM, but the version that ships with Firefox only
tests the last-modified timestamp on .autoreg.

Comment 4

[Alex Sirota (iosart)]

Sorry, you are right.
It appeared that the .autoreg file was removed, when in fact it wasn't. 

Comment 5

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

This is WFM on the current trunk and MOZILLA_1_8_BRANCH. Note: there is bug
305361 for a problem with the -install-global commands on branch. Alex, can you
confirm that the components do get registered properly for all profiles (e.g.
when the profile is next used) after installing an extension in the app's
extensions dir?

Comment 6

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Resolving -> WFM