[Bug 1226952] Re: Option -ProfileManager does not work without (bogus) -u

Wed Sep 18 07:18:07 UTC 2013

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On 2009-07-20T23:20:30+00:00 error10 wrote:

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.1) Gecko/20090630 Fedora/3.5-1.fc11 Firefox/3.5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686 (x86_64); en-US; rv:1.9.1.1) Gecko/20090715 Firefox/3.5.1

The -P (-ProfileManager) command line option to Firefox does not work on
Linux as expected if Firefox is already running. A workaround is
available.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Create two or more Firefox profiles and uncheck the "Don't ask at startup" option in Firefox Profile Manager.
2. Start a copy of Firefox with one profile.
3. Start a second copy of Firefox with "firefox -ProfileManager".
Actual Results:  
The running copy of Firefox opens a new window with the defined home page using the original profile.

Expected Results:  
A new copy of Firefox should start with the Profile Manager open, to choose or
create a new profile, or start with the profile specified on the command line,
if any.

Workaround: Using -no-remote along with -ProfileManager causes the Linux version to open Profile Manager; this is not necessary on Windows. The expected behavior is how Firefox already behaves on Windows. This issue seems specific to Linux. (Lacking a Mac, I was unable to test the Mac OS X build.)

Using -ProfileManager should start a new copy of Firefox regardless of
whether -no-remote is given, as it does on Windows, since this is the
behavior users will expect. Using -ProfileManager implies that the
Profile Manager will actually be opened; requiring a second command line
option to open it is confusing. At the very least, the Windows and Linux
builds should handle this command line option the same way, to reduce
user confusion.

For instance, it is possible for an unwary user to attempt to start a
second profile using, e.g. firefox -P SecondProfile and think that the
new profile is in use when the new window appears, when the new window
is part of the originally opened profile. The unwary user could
inadvertently compromise his own security if he wants to use multiple
profiles to segregate his browsing activities, as many people do.

Reply at:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/1226952/comments/0

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On 2009-07-20T23:23:41+00:00 Cwwmozilla wrote:

Actually it IS necessary on Windows.  You need no-remote on all OSes to
start a second instance.

Reply at:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/1226952/comments/1

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On 2009-07-20T23:33:45+00:00 error10 wrote:

That's interesting; on my Windows Vista box I was able to start Profile
Manager without it by using firefox -ProfileManager from the command
prompt, at least once. Now I've tried it again and indeed it does open a
new window. Apparently I was hallucinating.

In any case I still believe that -no-remote should not be necessary when
-ProfileManager is given, because it leads to a confusing user
experience, so I've changed this bug to "enhancement".

Reply at:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/1226952/comments/2

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On 2009-07-21T04:42:52+00:00 Davemgarrett wrote:

Hallucinations generally produce iffy bug reports.

Dupe of bug 441422 or do you just want -P to imply -no-remote?

Reply at:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/1226952/comments/3

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On 2009-07-21T05:03:15+00:00 error10 wrote:

I don't think it's quite the same as bug 441422, since I can live
without OS Integration (though it would be nice, it apparently would
also be "an extreme amount of complexity to implement"). I would be
happy if -P implied -no-remote. Alternately, a way to explicitly open
the Profile Manager (e.g. from the Tools menu) to start a new instance
of Firefox. That's apparently been a very long-standing feature request.

Reply at:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/1226952/comments/4

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On 2010-01-22T11:12:43+00:00 3-tim-a wrote:

It may be worth noting that various Linux distributions have fixed this
bug in the past e.g. http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-
bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=356250

Reply at:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/1226952/comments/5

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On 2013-09-18T06:59:54+00:00 Era+mozilla wrote:

This should be CONFIRMED with a vengeance.  This bug has existed like
forever.

If -ProfileManager is supported, then it should work without additional
chicanery (so I guess comment #3 applies), or else it should not be
displayed in --help etc (but that would suck; multiple profiles are a
very useful feature).

I reported a downstream bug with additional notes for Ubuntu:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/firefox/+bug/1226952 -- in particular, I have
links to half a dozen old Mozilla bugs which should probably be marked
as duplicates of this one (and it's easy to find more).

Reply at:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/1226952/comments/7

** Changed in: firefox
       Status: Unknown => New

** Changed in: firefox
   Importance: Unknown => Wishlist

** Bug watch added: Debian Bug tracker #356250
   http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=356250

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Title:
  Option -ProfileManager does not work without (bogus) -u

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