300600 - The 'cmessage.txt' is not required, and only causes overhead in installation code

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Installer, defect)

Description

[Alfred Kayser]

The one line message (restricted to 255 chars!) is redundant. The only function
seems to allow distributors to have another line of text overruling the default
text: 'A previous install did not complete correctly.  Finishing install.'
The cmessage.txt itself contains: 
'The program must close to allow a previous installation attempt to complete. 
Please restart.'
So remove the file '/res/cmessage.txt'  and the code to read it, and just stick
with the one liner hardcoded in the Apprunner code...

This makes the distribution smaller, reduces some code from apprunner, and makes
it less prone to misuse.

Comment 1

[Alfred Kayser]

lxr results:

cmessage.txt:
/embedding/config/basebrowser-installer-win.pkg, line 285 -- res\cmessage.txt
/xpinstall/cleanup/InstallCleanupDefines.h, line 46 -- #define
CLEANUP_MESSAGE_FILENAME NS_LITERAL_CSTRING("cmessage.txt")
/xpinstall/cleanup/Makefile.in, line 94 -- $(INSTALL) $(srcdir)/cmessage.txt
$(DIST)/bin/res
/xpinstall/cleanup/Makefile.in, line 97 -- $(SYSINSTALL) $(IFLAGS1)
$(srcdir)/cmessage.txt $(DESTDIR)$(mozappdir)/res
/xpinstall/packager/packages-os2, line 82 -- bin/res/cmessage.txt
/xpinstall/packager/packages-static-unix, line 71 -- bin/res/cmessage.txt
/xpinstall/packager/packages-unix, line 80 -- bin/res/cmessage.txt
/xpinstall/src/base.pkg, line 3 -- dist/bin/res/cmessage.txt
/calendar/installer/windows/packages-static, line 53 -- bin\res\cmessage.txt
/browser/installer/unix/packages-static, line 49 -- bin/res/cmessage.txt
/mail/installer/Makefile.in, line 74 -- res/cmessage.txt \

CLEANUP_MESSAGE_FILENAME
/xpinstall/cleanup/InstallCleanupDefines.h, line 46 -- #define
CLEANUP_MESSAGE_FILENAME NS_LITERAL_CSTRING("cmessage.txt")
/xpfe/bootstrap/nsAppRunner.cpp, line 963 -- ShowOSAlertFromFile(argc, argv,
CLEANUP_MESSAGE_FILENAME.get(), lastResortMessage);
/toolkit/xre/nsAppRunner.cpp, line 836 --
messageFile->AppendNative(CLEANUP_MESSAGE_FILENAME);

Darin, Benjamin, what do you think about this?
If it makes sense to remove cmessage.txt, than I can create a patch to do so...

Comment 2

[Alfred Kayser]

Attachment: Patch to show the cleanup of 'cmessage.txt'

Just some simple code removal for unused functionality...

Comment 3

[Christian :Biesinger (don't email me, ping me on IRC)]

but that makes this message nonlocalizable...

Comment 4

[Alfred Kayser]

Indeed, but:
a. it is really used for localisation? I can't find any occurrance of it.
b. can it may be replaced with some other means of localisation?

Right now the code, and especially the file handling (makefile, distribution,
cleanup, etc) seems a bit superfluous for just one message...

Comment 5

[Benjamin Smedberg]

It should be used for localization, the fact that we don't currently
notwithstanding.

Comment 6

[Alfred Kayser]

But the file is not utf8 or anything like that, just ascii (codepage dependent
on OS)... So not really suitable for localisation.
So, either remove it or make it better (by combining with/using other 'message'
localisation functionality, like 'updater.ini' (which also seems to be local
'hack' somewhere in the installer code?))