304106 - installer re-installs *.js leaving me no option to re-install my *.js and *.cfg files

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Installer, defect)

Description

[Jobst Schmalenbach]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050511 Firefox/1.0.4
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050511 Firefox/1.0.4

I am a sysadmin of a small company and doing this everytime to 30 computers is
annoying: When I install a new version of firefox it reinstalls all *.js files
and other files. 

I have appended to the greprefs/all.js file the following two lines:
  pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0);
  pref("general.config.filename","firefox.cfg");
so I can load my OWN setup for firefox (which is btw stored on a central
server). Now everytime I install a new version, this is gone, so I need to
append this to the end of the file again, so firefox LOADS my own configuration
file.

This wouldnt be annoying if you do that to ONE computer, but I need to do that
to 30 of them .... 

It would be good if there is a file located in one of the directories that is
read by firefox upon startup (the later the better) and is NOT touched when
firefox re-installs, say you make file "greprefs/user.js" that is not touched
but is called by firefox at startup. This way I never need to change MY setup.

Further it would be good if the LATEST occurence of a value, for example

  pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0);

would set the value. If I append this line to the script all.js, I still
need to delete the occurence of the line on top of the script or firefox will
not accept the new value. The reason why I do this I like to have
clean ascii text file, which I can edit easily, especially as it is stored on a
central (linux based) web server (i only have linux servers and windows clients)
for all clients.


thank you
jobst


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.reinstall firefox
2.i need to append my own stuff for my own cfg file
3.

Actual Results:  
all configuration files including *.js are the latest (which is ok) but that
does not help me as I need to rewrite (append) my stuff again.

Expected Results:  
Give me a js based file that will NO be changed by firefox installer.

When one set a value, eg pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0); then the
LAST occurence of the value should set it.

Comment 1

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

The better way to do this is to add your own pref file with these entries - there can be multiple. Also, the files I believe are read sequentially by the app and you should be able to override existing values in a separate file.

The installer needs to replace the files you wanted to keep since their contents can change and the proper way is as stated above.

resolving -> wontfix

Comment 2

[Jobst Schmalenbach]

A blast from the past, this is a looooooooong time ago.

Acutally, the better way to do this is to use winprefs.js which was added
as a feature just after I submitted this bug, but this too has a bug,
see https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=327083.

I understand that I should different methods but for a system administrator like me there wasnt much else around to be able to lock down the settings in firefox
OR to give a central method of updating ....