68732 - [RFE] Allow Multiple Directories for NS600_PLUGIN_PATH

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(Core Graveyard :: Plug-ins, enhancement)

Description

[George Cross]

In Netscape4.x on unix platforms, you can export NPX_PLUGIN_PATH environment
variable, setting it to a list of colon (:) delimited paths.  The browser will
search each of the listed directories for plugin shared libraries.

In Mozilla, NS600_PLUGIN_PATH (see modules/plugin/nglsrc/nsPluginsDirUNIX.cpp)
only allows a single directory.  Not multiple.  In system-wide installations of
Netscape6, each user should be able to have their own plugins installed, across
various directories, and use NS600_PLUGIN_PATH to list all those directories.

Comment 1

[Keyser Sose]

Confirmed
Platform: PC
OS: Linux 2.2.16
Mozilla Build: 2001021408

Marking NEW.

Comment 2

[Peter Lubczynski]

Ahhh, I did this with Windows with a pref pointing to a registry key that had 
the list. It would be trivial to expand to UNIX platforms by simply checking 
for an environment variable instead of a registry key.

Any ideas for Mac?

Comment 3

[Peter Lubczynski]

Attachment: propsed patch (first try) to use environment var via pref on UNIX

Comment 4

[Peter Lubczynski]

First try at this patch. It changes the pref I created patch in bug 66549 to be 
more XP. Still needs testing and perhpas a Mac solution.

Comment 5

[karnaze (gone)]

Moving to mozilla0.8.1

Comment 6

[Peter Lubczynski]

Joe/Shrir,

Here's another Linux plugin bug I fixed but haven't had the chance to 
completely try it out. If you have a spare moment could you try it out/review? 

Thanks.

Comment 7

[Peter Lubczynski]

Or should it be NPX_PLUGIN_PATH? There was a user on #mozilla irc that wanted 
this feature. 

Andrei, historically, what is it?

Comment 8

[av (gone)]

It has been NPX_PLUGIN_PATH and allowed multiple dirs. I think it would make 
sense to allowing the same for NS600_PLUGIN_PATH, but not so sure about changing 
its name to the old one. 

Also in the old world plugins were user specific, i.e. were taken from ./home 
dir.

Comment 9

[Peter Lubczynski]

What I"m going to do is just let the pref browser.plugins.common_plugin_location 
control which environment variable has the list of paths.

I also think I need to fix this patch such that strtok looks for ":" instead of 
";" as is done on UNIX platforms.

Comment 10

[Peter Lubczynski]

Attachment: patch to incorporate UNIX (with : delimiters)

Comment 11

[Peter Lubczynski]

---> 0.9.1

Comment 12

[Peter Lubczynski]

Moving to FUTURE in favor of another plan.

Comment 13

[Peter Lubczynski]

cls: this bug may relate to bug 84427

Comment 14

[André Dahlqvist]

*** Bug 102329 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 15

[Frank Belew]

As an employee of a vendor, I have to say this is one of the most frequently
asked questions, apart from "why don't you ship java and flash".

(btw, the second patch doesn't apply cleanly to 0.9.4)

Comment 16

[Peter Lubczynski]

Marking WONTFIX. We don't support NS600_PLUGIN_PATH anymore. This has been
changed to MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH. 

With plugin scanning now beeing changed to support directory enummerators in bug
77231, both MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH and NPX_PLUGIN_PATH should be able to accept a list
of paths delimited by colons.

Comment 17

[shrirang khanzode]

v

Comment 18

[Brant Gurganus]

[RFE] is deprecated in favor of severity: enhancement.  They have the same meaning.