324084 - Compatability updates on startup always resets maxVersion

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, enhancement)

Description

[JConley]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060111 Firefox/1.5.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060111 Firefox/1.5.0.1

This is a usability request, mostly for Fx testers using multiple versions.

Currently, when lastRunVersion!=currentVersion, Fx auto-spawns the "Compatability updates" window before the browser shows up. In doing so, regardless of any available updates or actually pressing "Check Now", this process updates the extensions.rdf maxVersion to whatever is on the update server.
This makes swapping between versions of Fx very difficult when the tester has either manually set an extensions maxVersion higher (via editing) or using the Nightly Tester Tools extension.

This also is inconsistent with the extension manager behavior. If you open extension manager and click "Find Updates", maxVersion is not modified unless an update is available and installed.

I would propose any of the following:
1) Provide an about:config parameter to bypass the startup "Compatability updates" process (this also speeds startup when switching versions)
2) or provide an about:config parameter for testers to prevent downgrading of maxVersion
3) ???


Reproducible: Always




Obviously this is somewhat useless unless older versions also have this capability. I would love to see it backported at least 1 level, but it'd be hard to justify adding to the next dot-release (1502) if it's not security/bug related.

Either way, if to be added, need to start somewhere.

In the meantime, anyone know a manual mod that could facilitate this (disable the startup "Compatability updates" window altogether?) Preferably a mod that wouldn't complicate differential updates (since testing nightly builds)

Comment 1

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

Note: this was introduced by Bug 303718.

Comment 2

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

The compatibility check wizard is inconsistent when compared to find updates in the extension manager because they are different and serve different purposes.

I personally hate adding new prefs (e.g. the pref system is already bloated with prefs) and find it difficult to justify doing so just for the nightly build users that switch between trunk and branch with the same profile.

A couple of ways I can think of to work around this without modifying code so incrementals will always work is to disconnect from the net on restart. It may be possible to work offline to work around this as well but I haven't tested it and I believe that you may have to clear the cache as well. You can also increment the extension's version number so when it is checked in the update datasource a match is not found... I personally use this method when I have to repeatedly test an extension during upgrade. This can prevent finding updates if the next release has a version less than the one you change it to.

Comment 3

[JConley]

I added .0.0.1 to all extension versions and that is a very usable workaround since they don't change that often.
Thanks RS