[gentoo-user] What's the use of mozilla-launcher?

[gentoo-user] What's the use of mozilla-launcher?

[Alexander Skwar]

Hello!

A while back, I discovered that mozilla-launcher is causing problems,
when the URL contains a "," (comma); eg. http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,447923,00.html

In Knode/KDE, I configured, that firefox is to be used as the browser,
so that when I click on a URL, it's loaded in firefox. I did this by
modifying .kde/share/config/kdeglobals and adding/changing:

[General]
BrowserApplication=!/usr/bin/firefox

That can also somehow be done with kcontrol.

This works well - when I click on a URL, /usr/bin/firefox is run
with one parameter, which is the URL. But if the URL contains
a comma (like the example URL further up), that site isn't correctly
loaded. Instead of http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,447923,00.html
it would load http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,447923. Reason is, that 
firefox executes mozilla-launcher which will eventually run 
"mozilla-xremote-client openURL($u)". The problem with that is,
that openURL accepts two parameters and they are seperated with
a ,. So it sees two parameters: http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,447923 and
00.html - 00.html is not a valid parameter, though. It should be
something like new-window.

When I use the "original" Firefox from mozilla.com, there's no such
problem. That is so, because the original firefox script doesn't
use openURL anymore.

I now changed the /usr/bin/firefox script so, that it doesn't
use mozilla-launcher anymore. Up to now, I can't find any problems.

What problems did I overlook? And what's actually the use of
mozilla-launcher with current firefoxes?

What would break, if mozilla-launcher is no longer used?

Cf. https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=150404

Or should I take this thread and purpose (ie. dump mozilla-launcher
for at least firefox) to the dev list?

Thanks,

Alexander Skwar
-- 
enhance, v.:
        To tamper with an image, usually to its detriment.


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Re: [gentoo-user] What's the use of mozilla-launcher?

[Richard Fish]

On 11/12/06, Alexander Skwar <listen@alexander.skwar.name> wrote:
> In Knode/KDE, I configured, that firefox is to be used as the browser,
> so that when I click on a URL, it's loaded in firefox. I did this by
> modifying .kde/share/config/kdeglobals and adding/changing:
>
> [General]
> BrowserApplication=!/usr/bin/firefox

You could also set this to /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/firefox to bypass
mozilla-launcher.

> I now changed the /usr/bin/firefox script so, that it doesn't
> use mozilla-launcher anymore. Up to now, I can't find any problems.
>
> What problems did I overlook? And what's actually the use of
> mozilla-launcher with current firefoxes?
>
> What would break, if mozilla-launcher is no longer used?

Nothing that I can tell....

It looks to me like the main purpose of Gentoo's mozilla-launcher was
to transparently support both firefox and firefox-bin (or mozilla and
mozilla-bin, or thunderbid and thunderbird-bin, etc), and to make sure
that new urls re-used an existing instance.  Current firefox versions
seem to support this internally, and you end up with firefox or
firefox-bin installed in /usr/bin depending upon which one you
install.  I don't see any reason why /usr/bin/firefox can't exec
/usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/firefox and /usr/bin/firefox-bin can't exec
/opt/firefox/firefox.

> Cf. https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=150404

As you have probably already seen, I added a small patch to the bug,
just in case the Gentoo devs want to keep it around.

> Or should I take this thread and purpose (ie. dump mozilla-launcher
> for at least firefox) to the dev list?

Yeah, -dev would be the appropriate place to bring up dumping mozilla-launcher.

-Richard
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[gentoo-user] Re: What's the use of mozilla-launcher?

[Alexander Skwar]

· Richard Fish <bigfish@asmallpond.org>:

> On 11/12/06, Alexander Skwar <listen@alexander.skwar.name> wrote:
>> In Knode/KDE, I configured, that firefox is to be used as the browser,
>> so that when I click on a URL, it's loaded in firefox. I did this by
>> modifying .kde/share/config/kdeglobals and adding/changing:
>>
>> [General]
>> BrowserApplication=!/usr/bin/firefox
> 
> You could also set this to /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/firefox to bypass
> mozilla-launcher.
> 
>> I now changed the /usr/bin/firefox script so, that it doesn't
>> use mozilla-launcher anymore. Up to now, I can't find any problems.
>>
>> What problems did I overlook? And what's actually the use of
>> mozilla-launcher with current firefoxes?
>>
>> What would break, if mozilla-launcher is no longer used?
> 
> Nothing that I can tell....

That's my impression as well.

> It looks to me like the main purpose of Gentoo's mozilla-launcher was
> to transparently support both firefox and firefox-bin (or mozilla and
> mozilla-bin, or thunderbid and thunderbird-bin, etc),

Hm, I don't understand. As it is right now, firefox-bin will install
/usr/bin/firefox-bin, won't it? Or will it also install /usr/bin/firefox?

> and to make sure 
> that new urls re-used an existing instance.

Yes, old versions of Mozilla & Firefox required this. But, just
like you say, current versions don't require this anymore.

> Current firefox versions 
> seem to support this internally, and you end up with firefox or
> firefox-bin installed in /usr/bin depending upon which one you
> install.

Yep.

> I don't see any reason why /usr/bin/firefox can't exec 
> /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/firefox and /usr/bin/firefox-bin can't exec
> /opt/firefox/firefox.
> 
>> Cf. https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=150404
> 
> As you have probably already seen, I added a small patch to the bug,
> just in case the Gentoo devs want to keep it around.

Thanks!

I was thinking about this at the weekend. Is it a *MUST* that a
server "understands" that %2c is a ,?

>> Or should I take this thread and purpose (ie. dump mozilla-launcher
>> for at least firefox) to the dev list?
> 
> Yeah, -dev would be the appropriate place to bring up dumping mozilla-launcher.

Thanks.

Alexander Skwar
-- 
Tussman's Law:
        Nothing is as inevitable as a mistake whose time has come.


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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: What's the use of mozilla-launcher?

[Drew]

> I was thinking about this at the weekend. Is it a *MUST* that a
> server "understands" that %2c is a ,?

AFAIK those codes are part of the url spec. Any server/client/program
that handles http must know about % codes. And given that ascii was
the basis for character<->hex mappings back then, one can reasonably
assume the server must understand that %2c == ",".

>>http://www.w3.org/Addressing/URL/4_Recommentations.html#z1
The last section deals with prohibited characters. All prohibited
characters 'shall' be encoded in the % form. Other characters may be
if one so chooses.

>>http://www.w3.org/Addressing/URL/5_BNF.html#z73
Defines what is/isn't allowed in a URL.


-Drew
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[gentoo-user] Re: What's the use of mozilla-launcher?

[Alexander Skwar]

Richard Fish <bigfish@asmallpond.org>:
> On 11/12/06, Alexander Skwar <listen@alexander.skwar.name> wrote:

>> Cf. https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=150404
> 
> As you have probably already seen, I added a small patch to the bug,
> just in case the Gentoo devs want to keep it around.

BTW: That won't work. Suppose a user knows, that mozilla-launcher
does a openURL remote command and because of that knowledge, he
makes use of it.

Ie. he calls "firefox http://site/,new-tab" to have http://site/
opened in a new tab. With your patch, this will no longer work.

Because of this, I hesitated to add such a patch myself. And IMO
it's extremely bad style to tamper with user specified parameters.

Alexander Skwar
-- 
Power corrupts.  Absolute power is kind of neat.
                -- John Lehman, Secretary of the Navy, 1981-1987


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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: What's the use of mozilla-launcher?

[Richard Fish]

On 11/13/06, Alexander Skwar <listen@alexander.skwar.name> wrote:
> BTW: That won't work. Suppose a user knows, that mozilla-launcher
> does a openURL remote command and because of that knowledge, he
> makes use of it.
>
> Ie. he calls "firefox http://site/,new-tab" to have http://site/
> opened in a new tab. With your patch, this will no longer work.

True, but you can't have it both ways.  Either ',' characters are a
part of the URL, or they are not.  And your idea of dumping
mozilla-launcher altogether will also break this case as well.

Besides which, I would say that any user doing that is relying on both
undefined and unexpected behavior.  The defined way of doing this
would be "MOZILLA_NEWTYPE=new-tab firefox http://site/".

-Richard
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[gentoo-user] Re: Re: What's the use of mozilla-launcher?

[Alexander Skwar]

Richard Fish <bigfish@asmallpond.org>:

> On 11/13/06, Alexander Skwar <listen@alexander.skwar.name> wrote:
>> BTW: That won't work. Suppose a user knows, that mozilla-launcher
>> does a openURL remote command and because of that knowledge, he
>> makes use of it.
>>
>> Ie. he calls "firefox http://site/,new-tab" to have http://site/
>> opened in a new tab. With your patch, this will no longer work.
> 
> True, but you can't have it both ways.

But I want to ;)

> Either ',' characters are a 
> part of the URL, or they are not.  And your idea of dumping
> mozilla-launcher altogether will also break this case as well.

This case: Yes, you're right.
But I see this as an advantage, as users would use the original
firefox script as shipped by mozilla.com and might find a lot
more documentation. For example, "-remote openURL()" would work
as documented on mozilla.com (or does it already work like
documented there, thanks to some "magic" in mozilla-launcher?).

> The defined way of doing this
> would be "MOZILLA_NEWTYPE=new-tab firefox http://site/".

That's a Gentoo-ism, isn't it?


Alexander Skwar
-- 
I'd put my money where my mouth is, but my mouth keeps moving.
             -- Larry Wall in <199704051723.JAA28035@wall.org>


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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Re: What's the use of mozilla-launcher?

[Richard Fish]

On 11/13/06, Alexander Skwar <listen@alexander.skwar.name> wrote:
> But I see this as an advantage, as users would use the original
> firefox script as shipped by mozilla.com and might find a lot
> more documentation. For example, "-remote openURL()" would work
> as documented on mozilla.com (or does it already work like
> documented there, thanks to some "magic" in mozilla-launcher?).

mozilla-launcher handles -remote by punting directly to the firefox
script.  So yes, -remote works as documented, even with
mozilla-launcher.

> > The defined way of doing this
> > would be "MOZILLA_NEWTYPE=new-tab firefox http://site/".
>
> That's a Gentoo-ism, isn't it?

True.

-Richard
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