531666 - Impossible to programatically open new window with chosen profile

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 491295

(Core Graveyard :: Profile: BackEnd, defect)

Description

[Loïc]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; fr; rv:1.9.0.14) Gecko/2009091008 Iceweasel/3.0.14 (Debian-3.0.14-1)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; fr; rv:1.9.0.14) Gecko/2009091008 Iceweasel/3.0.14 (Debian-3.0.14-1)

The problem is probably limited to Unix-like OSes with X window: *BSD, Linux.

Suppose you have two different firefoxes *already open* with two different profiles: prof1 and prof2.

I think it is impossible to open *from outside firefox* to open an URL with a predetermined profile.

If I do

firefox -P prof1 URL1
firefox -P prof2 URL2

then both URL1 and URL2 will be open by the same firefox (and I cannot tell beforehand whether it will be with profile prof1 or prof2).

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. firefox -P prof1
2. firefox -no-remote -P prof2
3. firefox -P prof1 http://www.mozilla.com/firefox
4. firefox -P prof2 http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird
Actual Results:  
Both urls are opened with the same profile

Expected Results:  
First url opened with profile prof1, second with profile prof2.

I am rather sure that whenever Firefox is launched under Linux (and probably other Unix-like with X-window), it scans the existing windows to find a window with a _MOZILLA_sth atom and then asks that window to honor the command line on behalf of the calling Firefox. As far as I can tell the profile that the user asked for is completely ignored in that process.

If this is indeed a bug (and not just an option that I don't know) it is probably easy to fix: the profile of each window is exported to the server (in _MOZILLA_PROFILE atom). The calling process should just parse its command line to see whether a specific profile has been asked for, otherwise choose the default one, and the check for that profile of the window it is connecting to.

I flag this problem as "Normal" (profile is not honored). I think this is a normal bug: the user asks for a specific profile and whenever a Firefox with any profile has already been launched, the request of the user is ignored. The problem is probably infrequent however...

Comment 1

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Same as repeatedly opened bugs, which were WONTFIXed. See Bug 491295 for similar request and see Bug 491295 Comment #12 for why WONTFIX.
See also Bug 459638 for improvement request of error or warning message.