288783 - When inserting an URL without the protocol ("http:","ftp:") Firefox only defaults to http in Windows

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Andrés G. Aragoneses]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050225 Firefox/1.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050225 Firefox/1.0.1

I think this is a regression, or a behaviour that only has Firefox on Windows,
because I think this has always worked.

If I insert an URL like //bugzilla.mozilla.org/, Firefox should redirect to
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/, don't you think?

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Go to the URL bar and type an http URL without the protocol characters ("http:").
2.Press enter.

Actual Results:  
The firefox thinks I want to access a file: "The file ... cannot be found.
Please check the location and try again."

Expected Results:  
Insert the default protocol ("http:") to the URL and open the web page.

If the thing is that we have a different behaviour with FF in Linux than in
Windows, why? shouldn't we try to get things easier and the same for all
platforms/OS's?

Comment 1

[Thomas Bertels]

WFM on Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; fr-FR; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050511
Firefox/1.0.4
Reporter seems to be under Linux but tell about Windows ?

Comment 2

[Andrés G. Aragoneses]

Thomas, thanks for your interest.

Let me explain it again: this bug only affects to Linux. Windows has a normal
behaviour.

The reason for me to submit this bug was this thinking: "this method works on
Windows, why not in Linux?".

Comment 3

[Tim De Pauw]

Because a //host/path location is a Samba share most of the time. You can get
the same result on Windows by typing \\bugzilla.mozilla.org\. Firefox will then
try to find the computer "bugzilla.mozilla.org" on your LAN. If the host and
share are found, it will give you the index of file:////host/path/. If you want
bugzilla.mozilla.org to be translated to a HTTP URL, leave out the leading slashes.

Comment 4

[Tim De Pauw]

Incidentally, strictly speaking, the protocol doesn't include the colon. If you
enter ://bugzilla.mozilla.org, it might even work; I can't test since I'm on
Windows.

Comment 5

[Andrés G. Aragoneses]

Thanks for your comments Tim.

>Because a //host/path location is a Samba share most of the time. You can get

AFAIK, this syntax *is not* a Samba location. You have to use the other slash:
"\\computer\resource\".

>the same result on Windows by typing \\bugzilla.mozilla.org\. Firefox will then

I am using Linux now, and if you type "\\anything\" it doesn't work. It even
doesn't work using the name of a computer that it actually exists on my LAN. In
fact, I think this syntax only works on Windows because it's a feature (not a
bug on Linux).

>Incidentally, strictly speaking, the protocol doesn't include the colon. If 
>you enter ://bugzilla.mozilla.org, it might even work; I can't test since I'm 
>on Windows.

I agree with this, because typing "://bugzilla.mozilla.org/" on Linux works
perfectly. However, I still think that if "//bugzilla.mozilla.org/" works on
Windows (and it is not using NetBIOS at all with this syntax), why not on Linux?

Comment 6

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
Firefox:     http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/1.5beta1.html
Seamonkey:   http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Comment 7

[Andrés G. Aragoneses]

I keep thinking this is a bug in Firefox. Perhaps I should add the keyword
"qawanted"?

Comment 8

[Arthur]

Under Linux and unix variants this is by design. Starting with a / indicates you are working directly on the file system. Most modern file opening dialogs default to use this interpretation in absence of a scheme indicator. Windows uses backward slashes and usually has a drive letter in front of it, so behaviour is expected to be different. Just leave out the slashes for making it default to http://. Resolving as invalid, reopen if you disagree.