76015 - an independent location for plugins

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Core Graveyard :: Plug-ins, enhancement)

Description

[Alvin Thompson]

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; 0.8.1)
BuildID:    all

it would be better if plugins were located in a directory independent of the
browser.  you could make an entry in whatever passes for the OS's registry that
points to it.  this way you to do not have to reinstall/copy plugins whenever
you install an updated version of the browser.  i have 4 versions of the browser
installed: one that doesn't crash as often when i read mail, one that doesn't
crash as often when i surf the web, one for checking out IRC, and the latest
build.  it would be nice if they all could share the same plugin directory.

also, it would be convenient if a user uninstalls the browser and then
reinstalls it.  they would not have spend time hunting for and reinstalling
plugins. (you could include the option to remove the plugins during uninstall).

in the future, other browsers which also use netscape-compatible plugins (such
as Opera) may include the option to use/install to this plugin directory, which
would help both parties.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.n/a
2.
3.

Actual Results:  n/a

Expected Results:  n/a

Comment 1

[timeless]

um. Apple already made their decision. Mac OS X does this.

We don't manufacture any os's, so this is not our call.

afaik on windows, mozilla and ie should use any plugins they like from your 
netscape2-4 plugins directory.

Comment 2

[Alvin Thompson]

i guess i didn't express myself clearly enough. what i am suggesting is that we
place plugins in a directory which is independent if all installs, for example,
on windows something like 'c:\netscape plugins' or 'c:\program files\netscape
plugins' (something INDEPENDENT of all browsers), then possibly add a registry
key under 'mozilla' to point to this directory. if OS X already does this, i say
we emulate this approach on the other operating systems.

it's nice that mozilla will look in your netscape 2-4 dir's, but this way you
would not have to have an install of netscape for this to work.  please reread
the above for reasons why we may wish to do things this way.

this is not an OS decision, this is a software design decision.

Comment 3

[Keyser Sose]

Marking NEW.

Comment 4

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

updating owners.

Comment 5

[Ayo]

Instead of a separate directory for plugins I nominate for there to be a plugins
directory inside the user preferences directory. ie in windows in Application
Data/Mozilla/plugins; in linux ~/.mozilla/plugins... this way if you use the
same prefernces for different browser you don't have to reinstall plugins. Just
my $0.02.

Comment 6

[Alvin Thompson]

sounds like a good idea. except to save space i'd still put the plugins in a
main directory accessible by everyone, then in the user-specific directories i'd
put links to the plugins in the main directory (default) or personal plugins. i
like this idea, because now you can have a 'configure plugins' dialog, which
lists all the available plugins in the main directory, then have the user check
off the ones that he wants to use. it should also have a 'download additional
plugins' button. when a plugin is downloaded, mozilla could prompt to make it
available to everyone (in this default case place it in the main directory) or
make it available only to the user (in this case place it in the user-specific
directory). this way there is a simple, centralized plugin directory which other
browsers can use/install to while maintaining user-to-user plugin security if so
desired.
i'd recommend adding the following setting to Edit|Preferences to facilitate this:

    configure plugins [button] (see above)

    when installing plugins [radio button group]
        install for all users (default, places plugin in the main directory)
        install for <username> only (places plugin in the user directory)
        ask me what to do

    use all available plugins [checkbox] (on by default; at startup create
 links to all plugins in main directory.)

in the future, if a plugin is on a list of certified 'safe plugins' (does not
send information, etc), it may by default go to the main plugin directory, and
if not certified safe go the the personal plugin directory...

Comment 7

[Morten Brix Pedersen]

You must remember that a normal user, won't be able to install plugins into the
'main' plugins folder, right?

At least when I have installed the mozilla package in Debian, root owns
/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins - so what should Mozilla do when the user tries to
download a plugin? Install it in the user directory, in my opinion.

Basically I just want the freedom to put all my plugins into ~/.mozilla/plugins/  :)

Comment 8

[Michael Cramer]

A search path sounds like the most reasonable solution: search the system wide
plugin directory first and then user-specific plugin directories.

Comment 9

[David Hallowell]

A few comments:
Storing plugins in the users profile directory is bug 45699 however this won't
solve the problem. Many Mozilla based apps don't use the Mozilla profile
directory, they use their own (Netscape 6.x shouldn't really use the mozilla one
either as sharing profiles sometimes causes problems).

Implementing this will be a great bonus to developers of Mozilla based browsers,
the current situation is crazy, you could have loads of copies of the same
mozilla plugin, one for each Mozilla based app (Mozilla, Netscape 6.x, K-Meleon,
Beonex, etc), Netscape 4.x (can't do much about this unless they release 4.8
with support for the global dir) and Opera.

So I think there should be a global plugins dir, but individual plugins should
be able to be disabled via the individual users preferences (bug 19118).

There should still be app specific plugin dirs and if possible user specific
plugin dirs (bug 45699) - user specific ones are vital on multi user systems.

Plugins should be loaded in the following priority:
Users plugins
App specific plugins
Global plugins

To make embedded Mozilla solutions a serious viability I think this is an
essential feature, otherwise users will have to manually copy plugins across all
the time they install a new Mozilla based app, this is beyond the scope of most
peoples knowledge.

Windows has an ideal location for this: C:\Program Files\Common Files
Mac OS X already has a common plugins location.
For Linux, the ideal location is debatable, but can be set with an environment
variable.

Comment 10

[Judson Valeski]

cc'ing some folks here for topembed+ consideration.

Comment 11

[Denis Antrushin]

BTW, you can set MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH env variable to point to any place you like to
contain plugins.
Just remember, it's can contain SINGLE directory name, not list of dirs

Comment 12

[Peter Lubczynski]

See bug 133282 which may be better for embedder with a patch for scanning most
popular plugin installation directories by locating them via the Windows registry.

Comment 13

[anthonyd]

this doesnt seem to be a bug at all, marking it as enhancement and future.

anthonyd

Comment 14

[gabriel]

See also bug 55756

Comment 15

[rubydoo123]

reassigning to arun, this is really an evang issue, in that we need to evang to
plug-in vendors that they install the .dll and .xpt files into a common location
within the Program Files directory on windows if nscp has never been installed
before, this will prevent users from having to do the dreaded reinstall of
plug-in. This also needs to be resolved for unix platforms.

Comment 16

[rubydoo123]

setting product

Comment 17

[rubydoo123]

*** Bug 140941 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 18

[David Hallowell]

> reassigning to arun, this is really an evang issue, in that we need to evang to
> plug-in vendors that they install the .dll and .xpt files into a common location
> within the Program Files directory on windows if nscp has never been installed
> before

Can you? What's this common directory?

Comment 19

[Bob Clary [:bc] (inactive)]

tech evang june 2003 reorg

Comment 20

[Bob Clary [:bc] (inactive)]

I don't see this as only Site based Tech Evangelism. First a consensus must be
achieved on what the directory should be, the browser should be updated to
support the directory and *then we can contact the vendors*.

Back to plugins

Comment 21

[Ayo]

My Suggestions for directories, following comment #9

User Plugins:
<windows> C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\<product string>\plugins
<unix> ~/<product string>/plugins

App Specific:
<windows> C:\Program Files\<product string>\Mozilla\Plugins
<unix> \usr\lib\<product string>\plugins\

Global Directory:
<windows> C:\Program Files\Common Files\Mozilla\Plugins
<unix> \usr\lib\Mozilla\plugins\

The order listed is the sensible search order. In this order a user that has
placed a specific plugin in thier profile directory will get used first rather
than the global plugin.

Comment 22

[Ali Ebrahim]

Reassign bug to owner and QA contact of selected component

Comment 23

[Josh Aas]

I don't think this is necessary.

Comment 24

[Alvin Thompson]

Let's not be too hasty!  We should consider this for another 11 years to ensure this is the right decision.

Comment 25

[Josh Aas]

If you disagree with me and you want this bug re-opened you are free to present your argument respectfully in a comment here.