Closed Bug 1176600 Opened 10 years ago Closed 2 months ago

Remove or move (to suite) defunct prefs listed in our m-c prefs/all.js files (and therefore about:config)

Categories

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Product:
Firefox
Component:
General
Version:
34 Branch
Type:
defect

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED FIXED
Milestone:
139 Branch
Tracking Flags:
Tracking Status
firefox139 --- fixed

People

(Reporter: behrang.farnaz, Assigned: jasonjabarjones, Mentored)

References

(Blocks 1 open bug)

Details

Attachments

(1 file)

Bug 1176600 - Remove defunct pref listed in m-c prefs/all.js r?Gijs!
48 bytes, text/x-phabricator-request
Details | Review
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_9_5) AppleWebKit/600.3.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.3 Safari/537.85.12 Steps to reproduce: Tried to use these preferences in about:config: accessibility.typeaheadfind.autostart accessibility.typeaheadfind.enabletimeout accessibility.usebrailledisplay accessibility.usetexttospeech application.use_ns_plugin_finder autocomplete.grab_during_popup autocomplete.ungrab_during_mode_switch browser.chrome.toolbar_style browser.download.debug browser.EULA.version browser.popups.showPopupBlocker capability.policy.default.SOAPCall.invokeVerifySourceHeader dom.idle-observers-api.enabled dom.mozContacts.enabled dom.workers.maxPerDomain intl.fallbackCharsetList.ISO-8859-1 layout.frame_rate.precise media.audio_data.enabled middlemouse.openNewWindow network.http.bypass-cachelock-threshold prefs.converted-to-utf8 print.always_cache_old_pres print.print_extra_margin print.print_paper_size profile.confirm_automigration profile.manage_only_at_launch profile.migration_behavior profile.migration_directory profile.seconds_until_defunct security.ask_for_password security.checkloaduri security.password_lifetime security.xpconnect.plugin.unrestricted toolbar.customization.usesheet toolkit.asyncshutdown.timeout.crash ui.key.saveLink.shift viewmanager.do_doublebuffering Actual results: They have no effect. Expected results: The preferences in about:config should be updated as preferences are added and removed during evolution. For the above preferences, they actually have been removed from source code (checked the source code) in some previous versions but they are still in about:config. Even, for some of them I found some documentation explicitly stating that they removed the feature. However, they are still available in about:config. It is not possible for everyone to go and check the source code to see if there is a bug, or h/she is doing something wrong, or this is just an intentional change while about:config has not been updated.
Note that some of these (e.g. browser.chrome.toolbar_style, middlemouse.openNewWindow, ui.key.saveLink.shift, ...) are in use in comm-central. There are also some cases of code in the tree that uses string concatenation to remove a common prefix from a set of prefs, which makes those prefs a pain to search for (e.g. browser.urlbar.delay). I didn't find any examples in your list, but I didn't check them all (and, well, like I said, they're a pain to search for).
As noted, a bunch of these (also e.g. usesheet, the a11y prefs) are in use in comm-central. They could be moved there, but that would require more investigation for the individual cases you list. I can mentor this, but I don't have time to actively develop on this myself.
Mentor: gijskruitbosch+bugs
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Component: Untriaged → General
Ever confirmed: true
Summary: Some preferences with no effect exist in about:config → Remove or move (to suite) defunct prefs listed in our m-c prefs/all.js files (and therefore about:config)
See Also: → 1220287
Severity: normal → S3

Hi Gijs, is this bug still relevant, and where should we begin?

Flags: needinfo?(gijskruitbosch+bugs)

(In reply to Jason Jones from comment #3)

Hi Gijs, is this bug still relevant, and where should we begin?

I'm not sure - it's been 10 years!. To see if the bug is still relevant, you would want to use searchfox to see if the prefs from comment 0 still exist in https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/search , and if they do but are not used, if they are used in https://searchfox.org/comm-central/search . If they exist in mozilla-central but are not used either there or in comm-central, they can be removed. If none of the prefs exist anymore (a lot of the ones from comment 0 seem to not show any results in searchfox, though I haven't tried all of them) then this bug can be resolved "works for me".

Flags: needinfo?(gijskruitbosch+bugs) → needinfo?(jasonjabarjones)

Scanning through the list, accessibility.typeaheadfind.autostart is the only case I can see where the pref exists without clear functional use in mozilla-central, but it does have clear functional use in comm-central. All of the other prefs appear present in mozilla-central with a clear usage (dom.workers.maxPerDomain, middlemouse.openNewWindow) or are absent from mozilla-central entirely.

Flags: needinfo?(jasonjabarjones) → needinfo?(gijskruitbosch+bugs)

(In reply to Jason Jones from comment #5)

Scanning through the list, accessibility.typeaheadfind.autostart is the only case I can see where the pref exists without clear functional use in mozilla-central, but it does have clear functional use in comm-central. All of the other prefs appear present in mozilla-central with a clear usage (dom.workers.maxPerDomain, middlemouse.openNewWindow) or are absent from mozilla-central entirely.

Thanks for doing the research! Let's remove accessibility.typeaheadfind.autostart from mozilla-central, then (the comm-central users can/should define it themselves as all the code using it is in comm-central anyway), and then we can close this out. That's kind of a small patch but would you mind doing the honours as you've put in the work already? I can try to find something more substantial for you to work on after, if you like. :-)

Flags: needinfo?(gijskruitbosch+bugs) → needinfo?(jasonjabarjones)
Assignee: nobody → jasonjabarjones
Status: NEW → ASSIGNED

(In reply to :Gijs (he/him) from comment #6)

I can try to find something more substantial for you to work on after, if you like. :-)

Of course ^_^
I've been assisting Shane with browser.js refactors (1954799, 1955586, 1957495) and we'd love to take on more if you have any!

Flags: needinfo?(jasonjabarjones) → needinfo?(gijskruitbosch+bugs)

(In reply to Jason Jones from comment #8)

(In reply to :Gijs (he/him) from comment #6)

I can try to find something more substantial for you to work on after, if you like. :-)

Of course ^_^
I've been assisting Shane with browser.js refactors (1954799, 1955586, 1957495) and we'd love to take on more if you have any!

Yeah, I need to file some bugs for y'all. Will try (again) to get to it today; this week has been a little... interesting. Sorry about that.

Flags: needinfo?(gijskruitbosch+bugs)

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/6e232dad524c

Status: ASSIGNED → RESOLVED
Closed: 2 months ago
status-firefox139: --- → fixed
Resolution: --- → FIXED
Target Milestone: --- → 139 Branch

These prefs are removed:

  • accessibility.typeaheadfind.autostart
Blocks: old-prefs
QA Whiteboard: [qa-triage-done-c140/b139]
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