39783 - Installer should install seamonkey into a subfolder from chosen default path

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: Installer, defect, P3)

Description

[Sean Su]

The installer needs to install seamonkey into a subfolder from what the user has 
chosen as the destination path.  For example, if the user chooses:
  c:\Program Files\Netscape

The installer should install the product into:
  c:\Program Files\Netscape\Netscape 6

This is very important for the following scenario (given the current installer):
  1) user chooses c:\ as the destination path (users will do this.  I don't know 
why).
  2) installer installs into c:\, so that netscp6.exe's path is c:\netscp6.exe
  3) they now try to install a new version of seamonkey into the same path, 
being c:\.  The installer will detect that a previous version already exists, 
and suggest that the path be deleted due compatibility issues.  If they click 
Delete, the installer will delete all of c:\.

If we instead installed into c:\Netscape 6 (when the user chose c:\), we would 
only delete all of c:\Netscape 6.

This scenario is windows specific.  I'll talk to Samir about the  Mac and Linux 
installers.

Comment 1

[Sean Su]

nominating for nsbeta2

Comment 2

[leger]

Putting on [nsbeta2+] radar for beta2 fix. 

Comment 3

[Sean Su]

fixed.  should be in today's build.

Comment 4

[Grace Bush]

build 2000-05-25-09

Comment 5

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

I'm reopening this bug, because this new behaviour breaks my nicely organised QA 
system. I posted in n.p.m.builds about this, and was directed here.

Here follows my post, explaining why the old behaviour was useful:

<snip>
I've been working on Mozilla for several months now, and have built up a
collection of builds I use for tracking down regressions, and
reproducing old bugs. They are in my C:\Program Files\Mozilla\2000-XX-XX
directories. There is also a C:\Program Files\Mozilla\Users50 directory
which contains a profile which they all share. This is very useful, as
it means I can delete my profile and *.dat using a batch file, whenever
I want (for testing reasons) without having to worry about "which"
profile I'm deleting, because they all share one, and it's always in the
same place.

This was made possible by the fact that, up until the 22nd of this
month, if I told the installer to put Mozilla in "C:\Program
Files\Mozilla\2000-XX-XX", that's exactly where it put it. It also put
the Users50 directory at the same level as 2000-XX-XX.

Now, it seems to have been changed so that it doesn't put it where I ask
it to any more, but in a subdirectory of the one I request called
"Seamonkey", at the same level as a Users50 of its very own. This
obviously breaks the above very useful facility, and also means the
installer doesn't do what I tell it to, which is generally a bad thing.

Can anyone explain why the behaviour was changed? And can we please
change it back? :-)
<snip>

It seems what you are saying is that you are changing this behaviour to deal 
with clueless lusers (on Windows only) who accidentally install in C:\, then 
install a new version - the current installer would detect the old 
C:\netscp6.exe and nuke the entirety of C:\. I admit this is bad.

But why must everyone else have to put up with the installer not doing what is 
expected because a few people (on Windows) are so stupid? Surely we just need to 
cope with this one special case by making a subdirectory if the root is chosen 
as the install directory.

If Netscape wish to add this "feature" to their development tree, that's their 
business - it's their tree :-) But Mozilla is targeted at _developers_, and this 
change in functionality is _not_ required and also inconvenient for QA people 
like me who keep multiple builds.

Please consider changing it back, or having it as an installer config pref (off 
for Mozilla) or _something_.

<jumps up and down and tears out hair>

Gerv

Comment 6

[Simon Lucy]

Surely the fix is to detect installations that would be in stupid places and 
warn before deleting anything, adding superfluous levels of sub-directories is 
just irritating.  

All that needs to be done is to check for the path not ending in ':' or ':\' 
and if it does append something suitable, not 'Netscape 6' though, using 
embedded spaces in file systems even when the user understands them is asking 
for trouble.  

Comment 7

[Henrik Gemal]

I agree 150%, it's insane!

The uninstaller should uninstall the files installed by the installer and 
nuthing else!

An advanced feature could be that the uninstaller asked the user to delete the 
entire installation directory after deleting the known installed files 
(http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=40544)

Comment 8

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

[e-mail] - please could you back out the changes from this bug, and keep 
them in hand for applying to the nb2b tree, after the branch? That would be 
fantastic :-)

Gerv

Comment 9

[Sean Su]

I've opened a new bug for the request to undo this bug for the Mozilla 
installer: http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=40708

I've copied the relavent comments from here to there.  Please add your new 
comments there.  I'm closing this bug as fixed (for lack of a better 
resolution).

Comment 10

[Grace Bush]

build 2000053009