405621 - Download Manager unhelpfully maintains browser session if file download in progress

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Toolkit :: Downloads API, defect)

Description

[Allistair]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4

as a web developer i need to test often. this often involves requiring a new session in the browser. this is usually achieved by closing all instances of the browser down. 

if however a file download is in progress, whilst the browser instances appear to close down, the download manager remains open (good thing) but on reopening firefox, the session has been maintained preventing testing (bad thing) until the download is complete and a true new session can be created.

whilst there may be reasons for this, it's unhelpful and at the very least a way to circumvent this would be useful, i.e. Open new tab with new session.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. create a webpage that tests for a browser session, e.g. in PHP
<?php
session_start();
if (! isset($_SESSION['test'])) {
  $_SESSION['test'] = $_GET['test'];
}
print $_SESSION['test'];
?>
2. start a largish download a large file
3. call http://yourserver/test.php?test=123, 123 will be printed to the page
4. close all browser windows (not download manager) ensuring download still in progress
5. open new firefox, call http://yourserver/test.php
6. 123 will still be printed to the page indicating the session is intact.
7. close all windows AND download manager
8. open new browser
9. open new firefox, call http://yourserver/test.php
10. nothing will be printed, indicating the download manager was holding the session

Comment 2

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

Oops, wrong sort of session.

Comment 3

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

This is INVALID. The download manager is part of the same Firefox process, and there's no way to keep it open while also starting a new Firefox session using the same profile.

Comment 4

[Allistair]

It cannot be useful for this to be the case. I don't see why a download manager should maintain a session id *but* if it absolutely has to, then at the very least I should be able to spawn a new firefox instance. As it is, I just cannot get a new session until the download completes

Comment 5

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

I understand that you might not see it as ideal, but re-architecturing the Firefox profile system to support standalone Download Manager use isn't quite feasible. You can always launch separate instances using -no-remote and a separate profile.