Closed Bug 492194 Opened 15 years ago Closed 1 year ago

There is no way to specify browser window geometry at run time

Categories

(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, defect)

Product:
Toolkit
Component:
Startup and Profile System
Platform:
All
Linux
Type:
defect

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED WORKSFORME

People

(Reporter: rees, Unassigned)

Details

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.10) Gecko/2009042523 Ubuntu/9.04 (jaunty) Firefox/3.0.10 Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.10) Gecko/2009042523 Ubuntu/9.04 (jaunty) Firefox/3.0.10 There is no way to specify browser window geometry at run time. This is contrary to X Window System standards. This is a major problem when the browser is being run on a system with a tiling window manager, no window manager, in kiosk mode, with multiple displays, with a single profile shared on multiple displays, and in many other scenarios that are impossible to anticipate. This is related to but not the same as bug #444496, bug #450852, bug #50201, and bug #20573. Those bugs have to do with specific mechanisms for setting the geometry, both the standard X Window System mechanisms (-geometry command line option, X geometry resource, etc) and compatibility with Netscape behavior (-width and -height command line options). I would prefer that Firefox adhered to the X Window System standards, but at this point I would settle for any way to set the geometry at run time, even if it is non-standard. Hence this bug. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Run "firefox -geometry 200x200" 2. Run "firefox -width 200 -height 200" 3. Run "echo 'Firefox*geometry: 200x200' |xrdb -override -; firefox" 4. Note that in none of these cases is the window geometry set to 200x200. Actual Results: Main browser window opens with geometry set to the same as last time, unless it won't fit on the display, in which case it gets shrunk to fit. Expected Results: Browser should open with the specified geometry. See related bugs. This bug is at least ten years old.
Note that although I have set the OS to "linux," this in fact affects all except Windows and Mac. There doesn't seem to be a "X Windows" platform option.
It should also be noted that there are two different behaviors that could be required. Per discussion in #20573, the -geometry command-line option only affected (and IIUC should only affect) the first main document window being created by that command, while the geometry X resource should affect all main browser document windows (unless overridden by -geometry). My need is for the latter behavior, control of all main browser document windows, which is what I have tried to implement in the proof-of-concept patch I attached to #20573 and #444496. I can't speak for whether others may need the other behavior.
This bug seems to affect Seamonkey as well. Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.19) Gecko/20081213 SUSE/1.1.14-1.1 SeaMonkey/1.1.14
This bug was reported using Firefox 3.0 or older, which is no longer supported. The bug has also not been changed in over 500 days and is still in UNCO. Reporter, please retest this bug in Firefox 3.6.10 or later using a fresh profile, http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/managing+profiles. If you still see this problem, please update the bug. If you no longer see the bug, please set the resolution to RESOLVED, WORKSFORME. This is a mass search of unconfirmed bugs that have no activity on them, so if you feel a bug was marked in error, just remove the CLOSEME comment in the whiteboard within the next month.
Whiteboard: [CLOSEME 2010-11-15]
Please do not close this as RESOLVED, WORKSFORME. The correct resolution is WONTFIX.
Whiteboard: [CLOSEME 2010-11-15]
So Jim, you still see this?
Still see what?
That the geometry is not set properly? you said wontfix, why?
The "-width" and "-height" options are working for me now. But I guess I don't understand whether this is officially supported or not, since a decision was made at some point in the past to remove these options from the documentation rather than fix them (see bug #444319). And all the other geometry related bugs are still open (bug #450852, bug #50201, bug #20573).
Component: General → Startup and Profile System
Product: Firefox → Toolkit
QA Contact: general → startup
Hello, if you wish to override default positioning of the windows, have a look at my hack below. Please note this is not a real solution, but a simple workaround. http://www.ipsec.info/w/t/override-gtk-geometry.c
Cool! Another workaround I have found fairly reasonable is to run a program called devilspie to detect new windows and move then where they should be. It's pretty configurable, and in some cases different geometries can be specified for different types of windows.

In the process of migrating remaining bugs to the new severity system, the severity for this bug cannot be automatically determined. Please retriage this bug using the new severity system.

Severity: major → --

The severity field is not set for this bug.
:mossop, could you have a look please?

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Flags: needinfo?(dtownsend)

Sounds like this is fixed.

Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 1 year ago
Flags: needinfo?(dtownsend)
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
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