476326 - nsICommandLine::resolveFile doesn't resolve to absolute path for macOS

Status: NEW

(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, defect)

Description

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

Attachment: XULRunner app testcase demonstrating problem

According to its documentation <http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/toolkit/components/commandlines/public/nsICommandLine.idl?mark=159-166#160>, nsICommandLine::resolveFile "gracefully handles relative or absolute file paths, according to the working directory of this command line."

That's what happens on Windows and Linux, but on Mac OS X the method doesn't handle relative paths gracefully.  Instead, it returns an nsIFile whose path attribute is not resolved relative to the working directory (i.e. nsIFile::path is a relative path, not an absolute one, and calling nsIFile::exists() returns false even if the file exists).

I've attached a XULRunner app that demonstrates the problem.  It does this:

let cmdLine = window.arguments[0].QueryInterface(Components.interfaces.nsICommandLine);
let arg = cmdLine.handleFlagWithParam("f", false);
let file = cmdLine.resolveFile(arg);
dump("Resolved argument " + arg + " to nsIFile with path " + file.path + ", which does" + (file.exists() ? "" : " not") + " exist.\n");
goQuitApplication();

Steps to reproduce:
1. download and unzip testcase
2. touch foo
3. /Library/Frameworks/XUL.framework/xulrunner-bin -app /absolute/path/to/resolveFileTestcase/application.ini -f foo

Expected results: alert "Resolved argument foo to nsIFile with path /absolute/path/to/foo, which does exist."

Actual results: alert "Resolved argument foo to nsIFile with path foo, which does not exist."

Comment 1

[Dave Townsend [:mossop] (PTO until July 20)]

I see this too and I've been using the following to work around it for now:

file = commandLine.resolveURI(outfile)
                  .QueryInterface(Ci.nsIFileURL).file;