Use default profile

Hi,

when I upgrade firefox versions in Debian and restart the browser, firefox edits the file "~/.mozilla/firefox/profiles.ini" and often adds new profiles. It doesn't change the default profile but it always happens that the default profile is not listed as first in the file any more. But helm-firefox just uses the name of the first profile listed in the files to get the bookmarks. So, after upgrading firefox I always have to edit profiles.ini manually and move the profiles around so that the default profile comes first. Can helm-firefox be smarter and search for the default profile by itself?

TIA, Michael.

[thierryvolpiatto]

Michael Heerdegen <notifications@github.com> writes:

Hi, when I upgrade firefox versions in Debian and restart the browser, firefox edits the file "~/.mozilla/firefox/profiles.ini" and often adds new profiles. It doesn't change the default profile but it always happens that the default profile is not listed as first in the file any more.

Hmm, not sure where looking, for me it is working fine because it seems all profiles have same path.

But helm-firefox just uses the name of the first profile listed in the files to get the bookmarks. So, after upgrading firefox I always have to edit profiles.ini manually and move the profiles around so that the default profile comes first. Can helm-firefox be smarter and search for the default profile by itself?

So, what is the default profile, the one with "Name=Default"? I have also an option in the General section with "StartWithLastProfile=1", do you have the same option enabled?

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-- Thierry Get my Gnupg key: gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 59F29997

Thierry Volpiatto <notifications@github.com> writes:

Hmm, not sure where looking, for me it is working fine because it seems all profiles have same path.

Do you mean the "Path=..." specs? They are different for me for every profile.

So, what is the default profile, the one with "Name=Default"?

I guess. At least it's the one with "my" bookmarks. Since some weeks the file also includes sections like [Install4F96D1932A9F858E] Default=zb8lgbe2.default-release Locked=1 I'm not sure what the resulting semantics are, and whether the syntax even differs on different platforms.

I have also an option in the General section with "StartWithLastProfile=1", do you have the same option enabled?

Yes, I have that. Michael.

[thierryvolpiatto]

Michael Heerdegen <notifications@github.com> writes:

Thierry Volpiatto ***@***.***> writes: > Hmm, not sure where looking, for me it is working fine because it > seems all profiles have same path.

Hmm, not for me: [Install4F96D1932A9F858E] Default=onguag7n.default-release Locked=1 [Profile1] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=onguag7n.default-release Default=1 [Profile0] Name=default-release IsRelative=1 Path=onguag7n.default-release [General] StartWithLastProfile=1 Version=2

Do you mean the "Path=..." specs? They are different for me for every profile. > So, what is the default profile, the one with "Name=Default"? I guess. At least it's the one with "my" bookmarks. Since some weeks the file also includes sections like [Install4F96D1932A9F858E] Default=zb8lgbe2.default-release Locked=1

Yes same, see above, so perhaps we have now to search "Default" instead of path (perhaps fallback to "Path" if "Default" is not a valid directory name?) WDYT?

I'm not sure what the resulting semantics are, and whether the syntax even differs on different platforms.

Me the same, but I don't think it differs on different platforms but with different versions yes (older).

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-- Thierry Get my Gnupg key: gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 59F29997

Thierry Volpiatto <notifications@github.com> writes:

Yes same, see above, so perhaps we have now to search "Default" instead of path (perhaps fallback to "Path" if "Default" is not a valid directory name?) WDYT?

First, some background I found: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1276002 https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/understanding-depth-profile-installation A problem I see with the new syntax: if a user has different defaults for different firefox installations (which seem to be identified with a hash), how do we find which one we should choose? Anyway, I seem to currently have three profiles and three according profile paths in my setup, and only one includes a bookmarks.html. I guess this is true for most of the users. Maybe we should just look for files named "bookmarks.html" in "~/.mozilla/firefox/*" and choose the one most recently changed if there is more than one? We could also add a user option that allows to choose between that behavior and specifying a path directly. If no bookmark file has been found there should be some kind of notification (error). Michael.

[thierryvolpiatto]

Michael Heerdegen <notifications@github.com> writes:

Thierry Volpiatto ***@***.***> writes: > Yes same, see above, so perhaps we have now to search "Default" instead > of path (perhaps fallback to "Path" if "Default" is not a valid > directory name?) WDYT? First, some background I found: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1276002 https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/understanding-depth-profile-installation

Thanks for the links.

A problem I see with the new syntax: if a user has different defaults for different firefox installations (which seem to be identified with a hash), how do we find which one we should choose?

After reading documentation, it seems different profiles are used for people using different versions of firefox on same machine. The last installed create a new directory without all your options, bookmarks etc... IIRC, it happened to me to have different directories in the ~/.mozilla/firefox directory because I had the (bad) habit of restoring my previous .mozilla directory through OS reinstallations (new versions, changing laptop etc...), I am now using firefox sync and I have no more problem, it seems to be the recommended way with also letting firefox choose the directory of the last installed to avoid corruption. It seems also that if you reuse a old .mozilla directory a new directory is created at each firefox upgrade in .mozilla/firefox.

Anyway, I seem to currently have three profiles and three according profile paths in my setup, and only one includes a bookmarks.html.

I guess you are in the same case than me when I was reusing my old .mozilla unless you are using simultaneously different firefox versions e.g. stable and nighly.

I guess this is true for most of the users. Maybe we should just look for files named "bookmarks.html" in "~/.mozilla/firefox/*" and choose the one most recently changed if there is more than one?

In the case of people using only one version of firefox yes, but for others using different versions this will be wrong because you will have your old bookmarks yes, but all the new ones will be saved in another directory and you will never see them in helm-firefox.

We could also add a user option that allows to choose between that behavior and specifying a path directly. If no bookmark file has been found there should be some kind of notification (error).

Yes, perhaps this is the best option, using what we have actually as default, but to ensure you never have problems, the best is perhaps to avoid the error described above and use firefox sync.

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-- Thierry Get my Gnupg key: gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 59F29997

[thierryvolpiatto]

I have added a new user var `helm-firefox-bookmark-user-directory` which default to what we were using previously.

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-- Thierry Get my Gnupg key: gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 59F29997

Thierry Volpiatto <notifications@github.com> writes:

I guess you are in the same case than me when I was reusing my old .mozilla unless you are using simultaneously different firefox versions e.g. stable and nighly.

Something like this, indeed. Ebay didn't work with stable firefox, so I had installed several versions at the same time.

> I guess this is true for most of the users. Maybe we should just look > for files named "bookmarks.html" in "~/.mozilla/firefox/*" and choose > the one most recently changed if there is more than one? In the case of people using only one version of firefox yes, but for others using different versions this will be wrong because you will have your old bookmarks yes, but all the new ones will be saved in another directory and you will never see them in helm-firefox.

Not sure if you understood what I meant: the most recently changed file named "bookmarks.html" in the "~/.mozilla/firefox/*" dir tree will contain the new bookmarks, right? I hoped that with this method, we will always get the bookmarks corresponding to the last active firefox session, which seems quite natural.

[thierryvolpiatto]

Does this function returns the right directory for you?

(defun helm-get-firefox-user-init-dir ()
  "Guess the default Firefox user directory name."
  (with-current-buffer
      (find-file-noselect
       (expand-file-name "profiles.ini" helm-firefox-default-directory))
    (goto-char (point-min))
    (prog1
        (cl-loop with dir
                 with atime = 0
                 while (re-search-forward "Path=" nil t)
                 for tmpdir = (buffer-substring-no-properties (point) (point-at-eol))
                 for bmkfile = (expand-file-name "bookmarks.html" tmpdir)
                 for at = (if (file-exists-p bmkfile)
                              (float-time (nth 5 (file-attributes bmkfile)))
                            (max atime 0))
                 when (> at atime)
                 do (setq dir tmpdir
                          atime at)
                 finally return (file-name-as-directory
                                 (expand-file-name dir)))
      (kill-buffer))))

Thierry Volpiatto <notifications@github.com> writes:

Does this function returns the right directory for you?

Yes, it does, looks good, thanks (caveat: instead of high level `find-file-noselect` I suggest to use `with-temp-buffer` + `insert-file-contents'.) Michael.

[thierryvolpiatto]

Michael Heerdegen <notifications@github.com> writes:

Thierry Volpiatto ***@***.***> writes: > Does this function returns the right directory for you? Yes, it does, looks good, thanks (caveat: instead of high level `find-file-noselect` I suggest to use `with-temp-buffer` + `insert-file-contents'.)

Yes indeed, now installed thanks.

…

-- Thierry Get my Gnupg key: gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 59F29997

Thierry Volpiatto <notifications@github.com> writes:

Yes indeed, now installed thanks.

Great, thanks. I haven't yet tested your change, but will do when it has arrived on Melpa. If it works ok for you feel free to close. Thanks, Michael.