515507 - No software updates offered when channel-prefs.js is busted

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Toolkit :: Application Update, defect)

Description

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2]]

Today while running the software update tests on release channel my whole box was frozen and I had to do a restart. Afterward I wanted to continue testing but for the build which was under test I didn't got any update offered. The same build from my backup folder works fine and was updated to 3.5.3.

Enabling logging showed the following URL:
https://aus2.mozilla.org/update/3/Firefox/3.5/20090624012820/Linux_x86-gcc3/de/default/Linux%202.6.28-14-generic%20%28GTK%202.16.1%29/default/default/update.xml?force=1

As Nick said there is no channel specified so no updates are returned.

Checking my channel-prefs.js file I noticed that random memory has been written into that file:

urn new placesCreateSeparatorTransactions(aContainer, aIndex);
  },

  createLivemark:
  function placesTxn_createLivemark(aFmozilla


Given that shouldn't we have a default for the channel if the pref cannot be read or is not available? Otherwise there is no update offered anymore.

Comment 1

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

That's a pretty freaky thing to happen. Can you provide details as to what you were doing that could have caused this so we can evaluate the likelihood of it happening to users?

Comment 2

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2]]

In short terms I ran my Mozmill software update tests in parallel on a Linux VM and a Vista VM. At some point my whole system (OS X) has been frozen. Sadly I cannot tell in which state both tests were exactly. The only place where I touch the channel-prefs.js is with Python before I start the test. I just replace the whole content of the file:

        try:
            file = open(self.__path, "r")
            content = file.read()
            file.close()

            result = re.sub(r"\"(" + '|'.join(channels) + ")\"", "\"" + value + "\"", content)
            outfile = open(self.__path, "w")
            outfile.write(result)
            outfile.close()
        except:
            file.close()
            raise LookupError

I don't believe that this snippet can cause such a hang. It was the first time under hundred tests I have already made. So it seems like that VMWare Fusion was kinda unstable at this point. As what I remember the system was really slow right before the freeze.

Comment 3

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

I highly suspect your script that modifies channel-prefs.js is what broke the channel-prefs.js since the updater, etc. don't modify channel-prefs.js. Since this is very unlikely to occur in the wild changing the importance to minor.

Comment 4

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Ya' know, this is no different than modifying any file in the app causing a breakage and reminds me of a bug I saw a long time ago where someone thought we should recover after they delete one of Firefox's dll's on Windows. Also, there is no way that we can know without that file if the user is on the nightly, beta, or release channel but there is a surefire way for the user not to bust the app which is to never write to this file.

Support for being able to change the channel on the fly is I believe already a reported bug.