642567 - ctrl-a in tab modal dialog selects all but copying the contents doesn't seem to work

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Timothy Nikkel (:tnikkel)]

Have a page open an alert. Double click to select one word of the alert. Hit Ctrl-A to select the whole text of the alert. Ctrl-C to copy it. The copy doesn't seem to work, as trying to paste it doesn't seem to paste anything.

If you just double click on a word and try copying it then it works. Or if you select the words with your mouse by dragging it works.

Comment 1

[Thomas Ahlblom]

I've performed some tests on different platforms.

Bug does NOT exist:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.2.16) Gecko/20110319 Firefox/3.6.16
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686 (x86_64); en-US; rv:1.9.2.16) Gecko/20110319 Firefox/3.6.16
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.16) Gecko/20110319 Firefox/3.6.16

Bug does exist:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:2.2a1pre) Gecko/20110326 Firefox/4.2a1pre
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686 on x86_64; rv:2.2a1pre) Gecko/20110326 Firefox/4.2a1pre
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:2.2a1pre) Gecko/20110326 Firefox/4.2a1pre
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.2a1pre) Gecko/20110326 Firefox/4.2a1pre

Thus, the bug exists in 4.2a1pre but NOT in 3.6.16.

The following seems to be irrelevant:
 Windows vs Linux
 32 vs 64 bits operating system
 32 vs 64 bits browser

Observation 1:
When running 4.2a1pre on Windows and trying to copy/paste to notepad it seems like a get a bunch of white space.

Observation 2:
Even on 4.2a1pre I can successfully copy the text by clicking left of "this", then shift-right arrow until the whole text is marked, and then Ctrl-C.

Comment 2

[Thomas Ahlblom]

Here everything worked as expected:
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/2010/11/2010-11-19-03-mozilla-central-debug/firefox-4.0b8pre.en-US.debug-linux-x86_64.tar.bz2

Both mouse and Ctrl-A marking stopped working:
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/2010/11/2010-11-20-03-mozilla-central-debug/firefox-4.0b8pre.en-US.debug-linux-x86_64.tar.bz2

...

Still the same problem:
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/2010/12/2010-12-08-03-mozilla-central-debug/firefox-4.0b8pre.en-US.debug-linux-x86_64.tar.bz2

Now you can mark with the mouse again, but the text marked with Ctrl-A will still not get copied (like the situation today):
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/2010/12/2010-12-09-03-mozilla-central-debug/firefox-4.0b8pre.en-US.debug-linux-x86_64.tar.bz2

Comment 3

[Thomas Ahlblom]

I found that the same problem is handled for Windows in bug 644499.