357419 - don't restore a single blank tab when Firefox is started with URLs to load

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Session Restore, enhancement)

Description

[Silviu G]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0

well, the thing is that when u close firefox with one blank tab (with "alway show tab bar" active), if u click a link somewhere and firefox is launched, the blank tab remais there.

my suggestion: do not remember blank tabs, simply discard them on close, and when a link is passed on startup to firefox, automatically close the remaining blank tab (or open the link in that tab, for the user will be the same)

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.set "always show my tab bar" as checked in preferences
2.close all tabs (the last one will remain open, but blank)
3.with firefox set as default browser, click a link somewhere (or use run)

Actual Results:  
firefox will open with the link in a new tab, but also with the blank tab

Expected Results:  
firefox shoul open one tab only, containing the link, not a blank tab and my link

Comment 1

[Simon Bünzli]

I'd rather not generally discard blank tabs since the user might still need them after a restart. This behavior could easily be achieved by an extension, though.

OTOH reusing a single blank tab on startup sounds like a reasonable idea.

Comment 2

[Silviu G]

(In reply to comment #1)
> I'd rather not generally discard blank tabs since the user might still need
> them after a restart. This behavior could easily be achieved by an extension,
> though.
> 
> OTOH reusing a single blank tab on startup sounds like a reasonable idea.
> 

Well, you are somewhat right. Some users might wish that they always have a blank tab on startup, to type a new url, but I personally prefer to open a new tab when needed.

I'm not skilled into programming, so I cannot create an extension (be it easy or hard to do...), but the best solution, IMHO, is a check box on preferences: "Remember blank tabs on session restore" or "Always open a blank tab on session restore"

Hope someone could make my wish come true. After all, Christmas is not far, maybe I get a present :D

Comment 3

[Simon Bünzli]

Attachment: reuse a single blank tab on startup

This fixes the issue where you've set Firefox to always restore your tabs and windows, closed it with nothing but a blank tab visible and have relaunched it with at least one URL argument (e.g. from a mail client), leading to a slightly annoying blank tab _in front_ of the actually desired tab.

Comment 4

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

Comment on attachment 333806 [details] [diff] [review]
reuse a single blank tab on startup

r=me, thanks!

Comment 5

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

http://hg.mozilla.org/index.cgi/mozilla-central/rev/39ab740301f0

Comment 6

[Michael Kohler [:mkohler]]

Verified with Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.2a1pre) Gecko/20090618 Minefield/3.6a1pre ID:20090618031329

Comment 7

[u279076]

in-litmus+
https://litmus.mozilla.org/show_test.cgi?id=7793

Comment 8

[tabmix.onemen]

In Nightly 112.0a1, and maybe before it, SessionStore creates extra blank tab !

steps to reproduce:

• set Firefox to restore windows and tabs
• close Firefox
• click an external link

result:
Firefox opened:

• empty blank tab
• tabs from the previous session
• the external link