916666 - Requesting a way to easily repack a stub installer

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: Installer, defect)

Description

[Nick Thomas [:nthomas] (UTC+12)]

Various marketing/web content/metrics initiatives have led us to create 'funnelcake' builds, which are just very simple partner distributions (different first run page, identify themselves as a customized build in update queries etc). In the new stub installer world it is non-trivial to deliver the funnelcake builds, so I'm requesting some way to modify the url that will be download by the stub. 

A rough outline of our current process
* we often want to leave the majority of downloads alone, we set up a different url on download.m.o for the new installer, eg 
 http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-latest-f23&os=win&lang=${AB_CD}
* we create modified stub installers by taking the appropriate release source, patching browser/branding/official/branding.nsi, and creating the installer. eg attachment 776927 [details] for some localised builds (using process extracted from usual release automation)
* serve the stub installers on another new product name, point the website at that

Ideally it would be possible to 'unpack' the stub installer, modify a text file that holds the URLs to use, then use 7z to recreate the stub and sign it. I don't know if this is plausible, but it's what we do to repack the full installers for customized builds.

Comment 1

[Molly Howell (she/her) (no longer active)]

This can be reopened if its still needed, but we usually get around this by just not using the stub installer for funnelcake builds; when we do need to use the stub, the process is a bit roundabout but entirely doable.