544711 - Too long path and file names in add-ons can prevent update (or installation?)

Status: RESOLVED INACTIVE

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, defect)

Description

[Sebastian Hengst [:aryx] (needinfo me if it's about an intermittent or backout)]

This was sent to the amo editors mailing list two months ago:



I encountered the following problem when reviewing an add-on.

I had a previous version installed and upgraded to the version I was reviewing.
After a restart, the addon manager claimed the addon is not yet installed and
will be installed in the next restart… and so on.

Looking in the extensions.log file I figured that the problem is as follows:

- When firefox upgrades an addon it first backs up the old addon to another
directory called <extension-id>-trash

- Some of the target filenames (including path and drive) during this backup
are longer than 260 characters – which is the maximum Windows XP supports. The
backup therefore fails

- Since the backup fails, the new version never gets installed and remains in
the staged xpis directory.

The concern here is that any user with a long enough windows user name may
encounter this problem when upgrading this addon. The addon will never get
installed, and the addon manager will be in a constant annoying state.

Note, BTW, that if a user uninstalls the old version and installs the new one
everything will be fine – it’s the addition of the “-trash” to the name during
the upgrade process that causes the problems.

There’s not much the developers can do about it since the old version is
already out.  The previous version did indeed introduce some longer filenames
in the extension, but that can’t be changed now.

What’s our policy on this? It doesn’t feel right to deny the update because
this isn’t really an add-on specific problem. I can ask the developer to
shorten their filenames for the future but that won’t really help the current
upgrade.

Also, how is the author expected to deal with users that experience this
problem?

Comment 1

[BMO Automation]

Per policy at https://wiki.mozilla.org/Bug_Triage/Projects/Bug_Handling/Bug_Husbandry#Inactive_Bugs. If this bug is not an enhancement request or a bug not present in a supported release of Firefox, then it may be reopened.