701322 - prefs.js comment points to obsolete location

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core :: Preferences: Backend, defect)

Description

[era+mozilla]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.2.23) Gecko/20110921 Ubuntu/10.04 (lucid) Firefox/3.6.23
Build ID: 20110921065755

Steps to reproduce:

In order to migrate some custom definitions from my old Thunderbird installation (2.x) to Thunderbird 8, I located and opened my prefs.js.


Actual results:

Right at the beginning, prefs.js contains a big C-style comment with a pointer to http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html#prefs

This page in turn contains a big disclaimer about the information there being mostly out of date, and you should go look elsewhere.

Here is the beginning of my old Thunderbird prefs.js; it is identical in Firefox 7, Thunderbird 8, and other older versions I have inspected.

# Mozilla User Preferences

/* Do not edit this file.
 *
 * If you make changes to this file while the application is running,
 * the changes will be overwritten when the application exits.
 *
 * To make a manual change to preferences, you can visit the URL about:config
 * For more information, see http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html#prefs
 */

user_pref("accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar", ......


Expected results:

It should point to a useful resource, on-line or e.g. in the program's help

Comment 1

[era+mozilla]

http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/modules/libpref/src/Preferences.cpp#719 has the hard-coded text.

Tangentially, see also bug #189404.

Comment 2

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html has been archived for a while now, and doesn't belong on www.mozilla.org. Also to reiterate what Asa said in bug 189404, users editing prefs.js is not recommended and should not be encouraged.

The link should be removed from prefs.js.

Comment 3

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

I'm trying this as my first Firefox patch ever!!

Comment 4

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Attachment: removed the line from Preferences.cpp and prefs.js

I assume from <https://wiki.mozilla.org/Modules/Core> that dwitte is the person to review this.

Comment 5

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/8c575ca19937

Chris: For future reference, it'd be great if you could be sure your patches include (a) you as the committer (with your preferred email address for commit-attribution) and (b) a checkin message. For info on how to embed these in the patch, see:
 https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Mercurial_FAQ#How_can_I_generate_a_patch_for_somebody_else_to_check-in_for_me.3f

Thanks!

Comment 6

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

(er sorry -- I somehow copypasted wrong URL, with a lowercase terminal "f" -- into prev comment. The correct URL is:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Mercurial_FAQ#How_can_I_generate_a_patch_for_somebody_else_to_check-in_for_me.3F
)

Comment 7

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/8c575ca19937

Comment 8

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

(In reply to Daniel Holbert [:dholbert] from comment #5)
> https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/8c575ca19937
> 
> Chris: For future reference, it'd be great if you could be sure your patches
> include (a) you as the committer (with your preferred email address for
> commit-attribution) and (b) a checkin message. For info on how to embed
> these in the patch, see:
>  https://developer.mozilla.org/en/
> Mercurial_FAQ#How_can_I_generate_a_patch_for_somebody_else_to_check-
> in_for_me.3f

Thanks Daniel. I'll make sure to do that next time. Especially when my name is spelled wrong in the changelog. :)

Comment 9

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

Oops, sorry about that!  It looks like I gave you an extra "l" in there.  I chalk it up to "I" and "l" looking nearly identical in the font that Bugzilla uses to display bugzilla user names on my system, so I read your name as having 2 l's in it.

Anyway -- yes, including author metadata in the patch is a good defense against the incompetence of patch-pushers like myself. ;)