428765 - 'about:' URL shows gecko version instead of Firefox version when built --with-libxul-sdk

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Toolkit :: General, defect)

Description

[Ani]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9b5) Gecko/2008040721 Fedora/3.0-0.53.beta5.fc9 Firefox/3.0b5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9b5) Gecko/2008040721 Fedora/3.0-0.53.beta5.fc9 Firefox/3.0b5

typing 'about:' in the URL field says "Firefox version 1.9b5". 1.9b5 is gecko version. Firefox version is 3.0b5.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. type 'about:' in the URL
Actual Results:  
"Firefox version 1.9b5"

Expected Results:  
"Firefox version 3.0b5"

Comment 1

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

You'll need to talk to the people who built Fedora/3.0-0.53.beta5.fc9 about that - mozilla.org builds do use Firefox version numbers there.

Comment 2

[Christopher Aillon (sabbatical, not receiving bugmail)]

Actually, this is not Invalid. 

about.xhtml is a part of toolkit which is built as part of XULRunner, so the version hardcoded into about.xhtml (http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/toolkit/content/about.xhtml#65) is actually getting the Gecko version, and not the version of the application which is built --with-libxul-sdk.

Comment 3

[Christopher Aillon (sabbatical, not receiving bugmail)]

To clarify this is a FF-on-XR bug because about.xhtml is built as part of XR in this case and the __MOZ_APP_VERSION__ is expanded at compile time hard coded into the file, which happens to be the XR/Gecko version, not the app version

Comment 4

[Ani]

Attachment: screenshot showing the bug

Comment 5

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

Gotcha. Bet I won't be the last person to not imagine that anyone's shipping Firefox-on-XULRunner.

So, does /other-licenses/branding/ know the app's _MOZ_APP_VERSION_, so it could have a preprocessed dtd in content/ to pull in the app version?

Comment 6

[Mark Finkle (:mfinkle) (use needinfo?)]

I don't think the XR and FF are built at the same time so preprocessing probably won't work.

Instead, we could pull the app version from nsIXULAppInfo, used in about.xhtml onload handler.

Comment 7

[Mark Finkle (:mfinkle) (use needinfo?)]

Ok, bug 349985 makes that impossible

Comment 8

[Christopher Aillon (sabbatical, not receiving bugmail)]

Also note that Help > About Firefox shows the correct version.  This bug is only present when explicitly visiting the about: URI

Comment 9

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

It doesn't matter to my scheme that they are built at different times: at the time that the Fx part builds its branding, it knows what version it wants to be, and it can preprocess branding/content/version.dtd, #expand <!ENTITY app.version "_MOZ_APP_VERSION_">, and then all about.xhtml has to know is include chrome://branding/content/version.dtd, and use &app.version; where it wants to put the app version number.

Comment 10

[Mike Hommey [:glandium]]

FWIW, Epiphany uses a brandVersion entity.

Comment 11

[Mike Hommey [:glandium]]

OTOH, about.xhtml (modulo bug 349985) already (indirectly) uses version information from nsIXULAppInfo through the url formatter component for the release notes.

Comment 12

[Mike Hommey [:glandium]]

Attachment: possible patch

This obviously needs bug 349985 to be fixed first. It abuses the url formatter to get the version, instead of requesting a nxIXULAppInfo.

It also avoids "version" to be shown alone if script is not allowed per bug 349985, which means it's safe to apply now. It will just remove the version text from the about: page (which is better than displaying the wrong version).

Comment 15

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Comment on attachment 322346 [details] [diff] [review]
possible patch

Ryan, can you take a look at this for me? thanks!

Comment 16

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

Comment on attachment 322346 [details] [diff] [review]
possible patch

(In reply to comment #12)
> This obviously needs bug 349985 to be fixed first. It abuses the url formatter
> to get the version, instead of requesting a nxIXULAppInfo.

That's pretty hacky, and doesn't really save you much. I'd just get it from nsIXULAppInfo directly.

Despite the fallback to not showing a version, I don't think we can take this patch until bug 349985 is fixed, since it will cause the version to disappear for everyone, which is a regression for non-libxul builds.

Comment 18

[Mark Finkle (:mfinkle) (use needinfo?)]

We need this for Fennec

Comment 19

[Micah Gersten]

Ubuntu Bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox-3.0/+bug/194894

Confirmed in 3.5b5pre as well.

Comment 21

[Ani]

this bug has been fixed in Firefox 3.6.3

Comment 22

[Reed Loden [:reed]]

(In reply to comment #21)
> this bug has been fixed in Firefox 3.6.3

Fixed by what patch? Not aware of a fix for this landing...

Comment 23

[Mike Hommey [:glandium]]

Attachment: Use nxIXULAppInfo to get application version number in about

Now that bug 349985 landed, this can be considered. Addressed concerns from comment 16.

Comment 24

[Mike Hommey [:glandium]]

http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/d253c44465ae