388683 - Need a way to specify "any version after X" for em:maxVersion in install manifest

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Extension Compatibility, defect)

Description

[danielle.pham]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.5) Gecko/20070713 Firefox/2.0.0.5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.5) Gecko/20070713 Firefox/2.0.0.5

Since Java 5.0, the Java Console is implemented as XUL extension in Firefox.
Per Mozilla's specification (http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/install.rdf), all extensions must specify its "maximum" Firefox version dependency in its install manifest.
As there's no way to specify "any version after X" number for this "maximum" value, as Firefox version progresses with times, it may cause older installed extension by vendor software to appear outdated.

Currently Java Console as of release 1.6.0_02 has max Firefox dependency set to 5.0+.
This will last for Java for a while until Firefox 6.

In the interim, since Java installation does not overrides its older installations (for many different reasons), if a system has multiple installations of Java including some version which holds "outdated dependency", since Firefox scans and inspects ALL extension during upgrade, Firefox will post an annoying warning of "incompatible" Java Console from older Java installation.

While we will work to remove "incompatible" extensions during Java installation, we NEED a way to specify "any version after X" for em:maxVersion.

I always thought the "+" sign after a number should do it. But it turns out that 5.0+ only means 5.0 or later updates of 5.0.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.
Actual Results:  
There's no document to be found on syntax for em:maxVersion.

Shouldn't 5.0+ mean any version after 5.0 (e.g, 5.0.0.1, 6.0, 7.0, etc.)?
and shouldn't 5.0* indicate any update version of 5.0 (e.g, 5.0.0.0, 5.0.0.1, 5.0.0.5, etc.)?

I always thought so, but it turns out that 5.0+ only means 5.0 or later updates of 5.0 (e.g, 5.0.0.0, 5.0.0.1, 5.0.0.5, etc.)

Comment 1

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

Syntax info is available at:
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Extension_Versioning,_Update_and_Compatibility#Add-on_Versioning

which links to detailed info at:
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Toolkit_version_format

This is by design. An extension author that wishes to go against the design can specify an inordinately high number for maxVersion as a workaround but we don't want to promote doing this in any way.