341248 - don't show Confirm close tab dialog when restarting Firefox

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Description

[Steffen Wilberg]

Now that Session Restore kicks in after an app update (bug 335864, bug 311744) and restores the open tabs, we should remove the Confirm close tab dialog in that case because Session Restore makes accidental data loss a lot less likely.

Comment 1

[Benjamin Smedberg]

I think this should be WONTFIX. Session restore is not perfect: it can't restore lots of webapps that have "state".

Comment 2

[Simon Bünzli]

Indeed. And as it is currently configured, it won't even restore text for secure sites (such as this BugZilla).

I'd at most offer the option to not display this dialog when the session will be restored (as opposed to when it will be discarded).

Comment 3

[Will Rogers]

Sure, it can't restore what you have typed into a textbox, the current state of an AJAX-heavy application, etc.  But isn't the point of the dialog to warn you that, "hey, if you close this window, all your tabs will go away"?  Only they won't, because session restore will bring them back after Fx restarts.  So the dialog's warning doesn't apply.

My personal opinion is if you are already clicking through an update dialog by selecting a button that says "Restart Firefox," you are already aware that any un-submitted form data will be lost.

Comment 4

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

since the warning is new to ff2, I think this is a candidate for blocking.

Comment 5

[Daniel Lipsitt]

I think the dialog should be replaced rather than removed. See my bug 351022.

Comment 6

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

I thought mconnor or I already WONTFIXED a bug like this, based on rationale like bsmedberg's comment 1. Also, it's entirely possible that a user might want to repeal their decision to restart the browser once they see some of the tabs and windows that they had open.

The right solution is a combination of bug 351022 and a new set of functionality that checks to see if there are windows for which we cannot save state and alerts users that restarting will ditch the state of those windows. Without that information, the user really can't make an informed decision about restarting, and the best "do no harm" course of action is to warn and confirm.

Comment 7

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

> since the warning is new to ff2, I think this is a candidate for blocking.

oops, the warn on open is new to ff2, not the warn on close.  Sorry for the confusion.