618509 - Devices with duplicate client names collide in Reset Sync

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Sync, defect)

Description

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

STR:

* Create two profiles
* In Sync Prefs, give each the same name
* Verify that sync works
* In one profile, Prefs > Sync > Reset Sync > Replace all other…
* Observe that the list of other devices is empty.

If the name of the other device is changed, it will appear in the list.

Yes, it's an edge case, but given that the default name is "$User's Minefield on $Platform" it certainly occurs for many of us.

Comment 1

[Stefan Arentz | :st3fan | ⏰ EST | he/him]

Why don't we use a more unique name there? I understand that this is probably not portable across all platforms but for example OS X names computers like "$User's $ComputerType" like "Joe's iMac". That info is available through an API and more descriptive than the UNIX username and OS version.

Comment 2

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

(In reply to comment #1)

Well, it would be nice to do that, but it's also necessary to not suck on collision…

Might also be nice to show more info ("Stefan's MacBook Pro; last synced 3 days ago").

Comment 3

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

Relevant to Push to Device.

Comment 5

[Tracy Walker [:tracy]]

it appears to me that the device doing the reset does not always see the correct computer name of other devices. The following scenario has two "Nightly" builds each with a unique profile and an Aurora build, also with it's own profile.

scenario:
Client A Computer Name = tracy's Aurora on Intel Mac OS X 10.6
Client B Computer Name = tracy's Nightly on Intel Mac OS X 10.6
Client C Computer Name (manually added the "SC") = tracy's SCNightly on Intel Mac OS X 10.6

Below I describe what each client sees when doing a reset of other devices. And compare it to what is shown in Tabs from other computers. screen shots to follow.

Client A: 
- reset is: 
-- tracy's Nightly on Intel Mac OS X 10.6 (client B)
-- tracy's Nightly on Intel Mac OS X 10.6 (client C)

- Tfoc is:
-- tracy's Nightly on Intel Mac OS X 10.6 (client B)
-- tracy's SCNightly on Intel Mac OS X 10.6 (client C)

Client B: 
- reset is:
-- tracy's Aurora on Intel Mac OS X 10.6 (client A)

- Tfoc is:
-- tracy's Aurora on Intel Mac OS X 10.6 (client A)
-- tracy's SCNightly on Intel Mac OS X 10.6 (client C)

Client C: 
- reset is:
-- tracy's Aurora on Intel Mac OS X 10.6 (client A)
-- tracy's Nightly on Intel Mac OS X 10.6 (client B)
- Tfoc is:
-- tracy's Aurora on Intel Mac OS X 10.6 (client A)
-- tracy's Nightly on Intel Mac OS X 10.6 (client B)

Analysis: The computer names should be the same in both the reset confirm dialog and in the tabs from other computers list. As you can see, Client A reveals the underlying issue.  The name for client C in the reset dialog is incorrect.  In client B, reset thinks client C is named the same as itself, so doesn't list it. Client C sees everything correctly because it knows itself has been renamed.

Two issues here:
1) As reported
2) Renamed clients appear as default name in reset process. (even though Tabs From Other Computers has it correct)

Comment 6

[Tracy Walker [:tracy]]

Attachment: Client A screenshot

see above analysis

Comment 7

[Tracy Walker [:tracy]]

Attachment: Client B screenshot

see above analysis

Comment 8

[Tracy Walker [:tracy]]

Attachment: Client C screenshot

see above analysis

Comment 9

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

tracy: it looks like the updated client record perhaps isn't being propagated, which is Bug 646539.

This allows this bug to be visible, but it isn't the whole story; two clients with the same generated name (e.g., same username, platform, and OS) will still collide.

Comment 10

[Tracy Walker [:tracy]]

umm that bug is fixed on nightly,  it's just not instant synced at the moment of chage. it has a follow up for that.  In my testing, I made sure to sync all machines.  evidence of that is that the tabs from other computers have changed client name.

yeah, not sure the solution for collision of duplicate named clients.  (when the resetter is same as another). It doesn't seem to matter when a third, differently named, client sees two other clients with the same name. See Client A above.

I think these are all edge cases, but obviously will happen to cause collisions:
- syncing between clients (fx profiles) on the same computer.
- syncing between different computers (though same OS) with exact same user profile name.

workaround would be to give each Computer Name a unique name.  But we still need to fix issue 2 in comment 5 to make that apply

Comment 11

[Tracy Walker [:tracy]]

question is, why is tabs from other computers getting computer name changes, but the reset process doesn't?

Comment 12

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

(In reply to Tracy Walker from comment #11)
> question is, why is tabs from other computers getting computer name changes,
> but the reset process doesn't?

TabSetRecord includes the client name. Every time a client syncs up its tabs, the current name goes with it.

Comment 13

[Tracy Walker [:tracy]]

The reset process collects the other Computer Names from somewhere. What is the "somewhere" that needs to be updated when a user changes a Computer Name?

Comment 14

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

(In reply to Tracy Walker from comment #13)
> The reset process collects the other Computer Names from somewhere. What is
> the "somewhere" that needs to be updated when a user changes a Computer Name?

It asks the Clients engine:

        for each (let name in Weave.Clients.stats.names) {
          // Don't list the current client
          if (name == Weave.Clients.localName)
            continue;

          // Only show the first several client names
          if (++count <= 5)
            appendNode(name);

Instant Sync for Clients will solve the majority of the update problem.

Comment 15

[Lina Butler (ex-Mozilla)]

"Reset Sync" is no longer a thing. I think we can close this one out.