348046 - No way to clear the Firefox update history

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Toolkit :: Application Update, enhancement)

Description

[Andrea Guglielmi]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1b1) Gecko/20060809 BonEcho/2.0b1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1b1) Gecko/20060809 BonEcho/2.0b1

As nightly tester I update FF almost every day and I noticed that the "Update History" window shows all of the applied updates. The problem is that it is going to grow indefinitely and there isn't a "clean" way to clear it.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Tools -> Options...
2. Advanced -> "Update" tab
3. Click on "Show Update HIstory"

Actual Results:  
An "Update History" window opens with all of the installed updates with just a "Close" button.

Expected Results:  
A new "Clear Update History" button to be introduced on the "Update History" window.

Just an enhancement but it looks like many nightly testers would love that.

Comment 1

[Nick Thomas [:nthomas] (UTC+12)]

Confirmed. This wasn't a problem until bug 331842 was fixed, but is an issue now. 

Perhaps just remember the last 10 updates. That should be enough for both nightly and release users.

Comment 2

[Michael Wu [:mwu]]

Attachment: Limit update history to 10 entries

This patch limits the number of entries in the update history to 10.

Comment 3

[Darin Fisher]

Comment on attachment 232930 [details] [diff] [review]
Limit update history to 10 entries

ok, r=darin

Comment 4

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

mozilla/toolkit/mozapps/update/src/nsUpdateService.js.in 	1.112

Comment 5

[Majken Connor [:Kensie]]

ack, wish I'd seen this sooner.  While it seems great for testers I'm not sure how I feel about this for users.  The update history is really only useful in a problem determination context and in that context it's really important to know that history.  While this is a win for testers, it can only be a lose for bug fixing.

It makes more sense to me to maybe restrict the number of entries that it remembers, or do something different on nightlies than on releases.

Comment 6

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

Comment on attachment 232930 [details] [diff] [review]
Limit update history to 10 entries

Majken's right; limiting the update history isn't the right approach. I'm assuming we didn't just add a "Clear" or "Clear History" button to avoid string changes? Could we not grab one from elsewhere?

Comment 7

[Majken Connor [:Kensie]]

so, wow, I totally read the comments and didn't look at the description of the patch.  Does the patch also include an about:config pref that'll change how many updates are saved in the history?

Comment 8

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

Yeah, thinking more about this, I don't understand why we made this change, and actually think it should be backed out of trunk until we figure out if it's the right thing to be doing.

What are the problems with an infinitely growing list, anyway?

Comment 9

[gabe]

i don't like this back this out

Comment 10

[u88484]

(In reply to comment #8)
> Yeah, thinking more about this, I don't understand why we made this change, and
> actually think it should be backed out of trunk until we figure out if it's the
> right thing to be doing.
> 
> What are the problems with an infinitely growing list, anyway?
> 

I guess 10 years down the line with same profile could cause a problem...would be about 100 entries that aren't need for any reason in there.

Comment 11

[Majken Connor [:Kensie]]

this is kept in the install folder, not the profile, yes?

also I like how this is marked fixed while there's still no way to *clear* the history ;)

Comment 12

[Andrea Guglielmi]

I read all of the comments...but I didn't understand where are we going!
I have to admit that my idea about a "Clear Update History" button isn't that good and I really liked the idea to limit the number of entries in the update history to a number that could be modified in the about:config panel, something like app.update.history_entries default to 10, 0 to let the list grow indefinitely or >0 to let user choose.
Can someone please explain "how this is marked fixed while there's still no way to *clear* the history" to me too? :)

Comment 13

[Majken Connor [:Kensie]]

Andrea - the bug report is that there is no way to *clear* the update history, so technically it is *not fixed* as the patch checked in *limits* the number of entries, it doesn't let the user clear them, as requested so the reported bug isn't fixed.  The bug where the update history grows indefinitely *is* fixed, which was the root issue which led the reporter to request a clear button.  It's just minutiae that amuses me.  In theory this request would have been wontfixed and a new one simply about the growing update history would have been filed.

Comment 14

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

robert caught this when comparing trunk v branch.

based on beltzner comment "Yeah, thinking more about this, I don't understand why we made this change, and actually think it should be backed out of trunk until we figure out if it's the right thing to be doing."

let's back this out (michael / darin, any objections?).

Comment 15

[Nick Thomas [:nthomas] (UTC+12)]

The fix does not appear to work anyway - I have 23 nightly updates listed in the history, running from 20060821 to today (didn't update every day). This is for Firefox 2 builds on Linux. I see similar on a windows box using the same branch.

Comment 16

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

(In reply to comment #15)
> for Firefox 2 builds on Linux. I see similar on a windows box using the same
> branch.
It never landed on branch so it was never included in Firefox 2 builds