347231 - "Clear Private Data" doesn't always clear Error Console even though configured to clear history

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect)

Description

[Bryan]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1b1) Gecko/20060803 BonEcho/2.0b1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1b1) Gecko/20060803 BonEcho/2.0b1

When attempting to find updates for Add-ons there usually are many messages logged in the Error Console regarding the attempt to find updates.  These messages are not cleared when using Clear Private Data even though CPD is configured to clear my history.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1) Launch FF
2) Launch Error Console and "Clear" contents
3) Launch Add-ons and click "Find Updates"
4) "Alt-tab" to Error Console and verify you have messages logged regarding the attempt to "Find Updates"
5) "Alt-tab to FF and "Clear Private Data"
6) Verify that the messages in the Error Console have not been cleared

Actual Results:  
Error console contained messages previously logged.

Expected Results:  
Error console should have been empty.

I've noticed that if there are errors (and I believe warnings) present then everything will be cleared.  If errors are not present and you attempt to reproduce the steps above then nothing will be cleared.

Comment 1

[Bryan]

CC'd Simon Bünzli as I believe he was the one who added the ability to clear the Error Console when using Clear Private Data.

~B

Comment 2

[Simon Bünzli]

Note that at step 5 "Browsing History" is grayed out.

This apparently prevents the history from being cleared and as a consequence the "browser:purge-session-history" notification isn't dispatched which is triggers data clean up in several places (among others the Error Console and the list of recently closed tabs).

The easiest fix for this would be to always call the history clearing code, even if there's (apparently) nothing to clear at all.

Comment 3

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

So, we have a number of things that aren't global history, but are tied to clearing global history now (session restore, error console, etc).  We should not do the special handling, and just always clear history, as Simon indicated.

Comment 4

[Michael Wu [:mwu]]

Attachment: Always allow history to be cleared

Comment 5

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Comment on attachment 232177 [details] [diff] [review]
Always allow history to be cleared

So, we need to get rid of the disabling/auto-checking in this case as well, since the user should have the choice again

Comment 6

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Comment on attachment 232177 [details] [diff] [review]
Always allow history to be cleared

note to self: no sleep deprived reviewing!

Comment 7

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

mozilla/browser/base/content/sanitize.js 	1.17

Comment 8

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Comment on attachment 232177 [details] [diff] [review]
Always allow history to be cleared

a=mconnor on behalf of drivers for checkin to 1.8 branch

Comment 9

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

mozilla/browser/base/content/sanitize.js 	1.5.2.13