Re: Coming in Firefox 65: Dedicated Profiles Per Install and Profile Downgrade Protection

2018-10-23 Thread Matthew N. 
Our current Firefox migrator (used for a Firefox Refresh) just copies files
so wouldn't be suitable for a downgrade scenario as it could introduce
problems that we're trying to avoid with this approach. We could rewrite it
to be more like other migrators where it would read individual records from
the old profile and then insert them into the new file/DB but that would be
a fair amount of work.

For the case of testing a newer version like you mentioned (going from
Release to Beta or Nightly), copying the files should be safe and so you
could use the `-migration` command line option to migrate from the old
profile to the new one. There is no UI for this so you'd want to provide a
.bat file for the user to run your testing Firefox build with the command
line argument. We've done similar things for user testing
 before.

Cheers,
Matthew

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 8:34 AM, Michael Verdi  wrote:

> Dave could there be a way/option to migrate safe data to the new profile
> similar to what we do with a refresh?
>
> On Thu, Oct 18, 2018 at 2:32 PM Dave Townsend 
> wrote:
>
>> In Firefox 65 we intend to ship two new features to help prevent user
>> frustration caused by using profiles created by newer versions of Firefox.
>>
>> Why
>>
>> Firefox stores all of its settings in the user’s profile and unless
>> certain command line arguments are used Firefox always launches with the
>> same profile. Periodically as Firefox upgrades it makes changes to the
>> settings that can render the profile unusable by earlier versions of
>> Firefox. This can cause anything from certain features of Firefox being
>> broken after a downgrade to Firefox crashing on startup.
>>
>> To protect against this two new features will be landing in Nightly soon.
>>
>> Dedicated Profiles Per Install
>>
>> A common cause of users switching between different versions of Firefox
>> is having Firefox installed multiple times. This most often happens when
>> users have different channels installed at the same time like ESR and
>> Release. It is a common request to be able to run the different installs at
>> the same time. In Firefox 35 this was made possible for the developer
>> edition by giving it a dedicated profile. The new dedicated profiles per
>> install feature extends this and will give every install of Firefox on the
>> computer a dedicated profile by default.
>>
>> Users will be able to run different installs of Firefox simultaneously.
>> Each will use a different profile for its settings. Upgrading an install of
>> Firefox will keep it using the same settings.
>>
>> We’re tracking work on this feature in bug 1474285.
>>
>> Profile Downgrade Protection
>>
>> For cases where users manually downgrade an install of Firefox or attempt
>> to forcefully use an older version of Firefox with a newer profile the
>> profile downgrade protection feature will now tell the user that the
>> profile is too new to use with this Firefox giving them the option to
>> create a new profile to use or to quit.
>>
>> We’re tracking work on this feature in bug 1455707.
>>
>> Developer Implications
>>
>> As developers it is quite common to switch between different builds for
>> example when testing different built versions of Firefox and doing
>> regression testing. To support these use-cases a new command line argument
>> “--allow-downgrade” will allow skipping the downgrade protection.
>>
>> Conclusions
>>
>> While some users may be impacted by this change we believe that most
>> users will be unaffected and those that are will see less problems caused
>> by downgrades than previously. This will give us the ability to ignore the
>> possibility of downgrades when implementing new features and fixing bugs
>> going forwards. Being able to make the assumption that this code works as
>> designed will allow us flexibility in other changes downstream.
>> ___
>> firefox-dev mailing list
>> firefox-...@mozilla.org
>> https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/firefox-dev
>>
>
>
> --
> Michael Verdi • Firefox Search UX • Slack: verdi
>
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Re: Coming in Firefox 65: Dedicated Profiles Per Install and Profile Downgrade Protection

2018-10-23 Thread Michael Verdi 
Dave could there be a way/option to migrate safe data to the new profile
similar to what we do with a refresh?

On Thu, Oct 18, 2018 at 2:32 PM Dave Townsend  wrote:

> In Firefox 65 we intend to ship two new features to help prevent user
> frustration caused by using profiles created by newer versions of Firefox.
>
> Why
>
> Firefox stores all of its settings in the user’s profile and unless
> certain command line arguments are used Firefox always launches with the
> same profile. Periodically as Firefox upgrades it makes changes to the
> settings that can render the profile unusable by earlier versions of
> Firefox. This can cause anything from certain features of Firefox being
> broken after a downgrade to Firefox crashing on startup.
>
> To protect against this two new features will be landing in Nightly soon.
>
> Dedicated Profiles Per Install
>
> A common cause of users switching between different versions of Firefox is
> having Firefox installed multiple times. This most often happens when users
> have different channels installed at the same time like ESR and Release. It
> is a common request to be able to run the different installs at the same
> time. In Firefox 35 this was made possible for the developer edition by
> giving it a dedicated profile. The new dedicated profiles per install
> feature extends this and will give every install of Firefox on the computer
> a dedicated profile by default.
>
> Users will be able to run different installs of Firefox simultaneously.
> Each will use a different profile for its settings. Upgrading an install of
> Firefox will keep it using the same settings.
>
> We’re tracking work on this feature in bug 1474285.
>
> Profile Downgrade Protection
>
> For cases where users manually downgrade an install of Firefox or attempt
> to forcefully use an older version of Firefox with a newer profile the
> profile downgrade protection feature will now tell the user that the
> profile is too new to use with this Firefox giving them the option to
> create a new profile to use or to quit.
>
> We’re tracking work on this feature in bug 1455707.
>
> Developer Implications
>
> As developers it is quite common to switch between different builds for
> example when testing different built versions of Firefox and doing
> regression testing. To support these use-cases a new command line argument
> “--allow-downgrade” will allow skipping the downgrade protection.
>
> Conclusions
>
> While some users may be impacted by this change we believe that most users
> will be unaffected and those that are will see less problems caused by
> downgrades than previously. This will give us the ability to ignore the
> possibility of downgrades when implementing new features and fixing bugs
> going forwards. Being able to make the assumption that this code works as
> designed will allow us flexibility in other changes downstream.
> ___
> firefox-dev mailing list
> firefox-...@mozilla.org
> https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/firefox-dev
>


-- 
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Re: Coming in Firefox 65: Dedicated Profiles Per Install and Profile Downgrade Protection

2018-10-23 Thread Dave Townsend 
Not currently no.

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 12:50 AM bruno ais  wrote:

> Can firefox be setup to make profile backups before each update? I
> certainly wouldn't like having a surprise update to the degree of firefox
> 57 (which thankfully I was ready for) and then lose everything I had setup
> just because firefox updated.
>
> On Mon, Oct 22, 2018 at 11:21 PM Dave Townsend 
> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Oct 22, 2018 at 3:20 PM Mike Hommey  wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, Oct 18, 2018 at 12:32:36PM -0700, Dave Townsend wrote:
>>> > In Firefox 65 we intend to ship two new features to help prevent user
>>> > frustration caused by using profiles created by newer versions of
>>> Firefox.
>>> >
>>> > Why
>>> >
>>> > Firefox stores all of its settings in the user’s profile and unless
>>> certain
>>> > command line arguments are used Firefox always launches with the same
>>> > profile. Periodically as Firefox upgrades it makes changes to the
>>> settings
>>> > that can render the profile unusable by earlier versions of Firefox.
>>> This
>>> > can cause anything from certain features of Firefox being broken after
>>> a
>>> > downgrade to Firefox crashing on startup.
>>> >
>>> > To protect against this two new features will be landing in Nightly
>>> soon.
>>> >
>>> > Dedicated Profiles Per Install
>>> >
>>> > A common cause of users switching between different versions of
>>> Firefox is
>>> > having Firefox installed multiple times. This most often happens when
>>> users
>>> > have different channels installed at the same time like ESR and
>>> Release. It
>>> > is a common request to be able to run the different installs at the
>>> same
>>> > time. In Firefox 35 this was made possible for the developer edition by
>>> > giving it a dedicated profile. The new dedicated profiles per install
>>> > feature extends this and will give every install of Firefox on the
>>> computer
>>> > a dedicated profile by default.
>>> >
>>> > Users will be able to run different installs of Firefox simultaneously.
>>> > Each will use a different profile for its settings. Upgrading an
>>> install of
>>> > Firefox will keep it using the same settings.
>>> >
>>> > We’re tracking work on this feature in bug 1474285.
>>> >
>>> > Profile Downgrade Protection
>>> >
>>> > For cases where users manually downgrade an install of Firefox or
>>> attempt
>>> > to forcefully use an older version of Firefox with a newer profile the
>>> > profile downgrade protection feature will now tell the user that the
>>> > profile is too new to use with this Firefox giving them the option to
>>> > create a new profile to use or to quit.
>>> >
>>> > We’re tracking work on this feature in bug 1455707.
>>> >
>>> > Developer Implications
>>> >
>>> > As developers it is quite common to switch between different builds for
>>> > example when testing different built versions of Firefox and doing
>>> > regression testing. To support these use-cases a new command line
>>> argument
>>> > “--allow-downgrade” will allow skipping the downgrade protection.
>>> >
>>> > Conclusions
>>> >
>>> > While some users may be impacted by this change we believe that most
>>> users
>>> > will be unaffected and those that are will see less problems caused by
>>> > downgrades than previously. This will give us the ability to ignore the
>>> > possibility of downgrades when implementing new features and fixing
>>> bugs
>>> > going forwards. Being able to make the assumption that this code works
>>> as
>>> > designed will allow us flexibility in other changes downstream.
>>>
>>> Does this also mean we can actively remove old data from profiles after
>>> this work lands? My profile is very old, and there is a non-negligible
>>> amount of data that has accumulated that's just leftover from old data
>>> formats that have changed and are now stored in different files. We've
>>> never cleaned those up presumably to support downgrades. It seems to me
>>> with downgrades officially being unsupported, we should have an active
>>> policy of removing old profile data when we migrate to new formats.
>>>
>>
>> I certainly think so. What's more we can be more proactive about not
>> leaving that stuff around going forwards.
>> ___
>> firefox-dev mailing list
>> firefox-...@mozilla.org
>> https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/firefox-dev
>>
>
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Re: Coming in Firefox 65: Dedicated Profiles Per Install and Profile Downgrade Protection

2018-10-23 Thread Michael Verdi 
No - sync is too complicated for a 15 minute test.

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 9:21 AM Eric Shepherd (Sheppy) <
esheph...@mozilla.com> wrote:

> No… although you could turn sync off again after the initial sync is
> complete, I guess.
>
>
> --
> Eric Shepherd
> Senior Technical Writer
> MDN Web Docs
> https://developer.mozilla.org/
>
> On Oct 23, 2018, 10:20 AM -0400, bruno ais , wrote:
>
> Can sharing with firefox sync be done just one way?
>
> On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 3:18 PM Eric Shepherd (Sheppy) <
> esheph...@mozilla.com> wrote:
>
>> Michael,
>>
>> Should be able to just enable sync in each copy of Firefox and sync the
>> items you need across profiles that way. Is that good enough?
>>
>>
>> --
>> Eric Shepherd
>> Senior Technical Writer
>> MDN Web Docs
>> https://developer.mozilla.org/
>>
>> On Oct 23, 2018, 10:08 AM -0400, Michael Verdi ,
>> wrote:
>>
>> Is there a way migrate data from one profile to another? We occasionally
>> run user tests and ask people to install beta or nightly so that they can
>> test a feature with their current data (bookmarks, history, preferences,
>> etc). Will Firefox show up in the import wizard?
>> Thanks,
>> Michael
>> --
>> Michael Verdi • Firefox Search UX • Slack: verdi
>> ___
>> firefox-dev mailing list
>> firefox-...@mozilla.org
>> https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/firefox-dev
>>
>> ___
>> firefox-dev mailing list
>> firefox-...@mozilla.org
>> https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/firefox-dev
>>
>

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Re: Coming in Firefox 65: Dedicated Profiles Per Install and Profile Downgrade Protection

2018-10-23 Thread Eric Shepherd (Sheppy) 
No… although you could turn sync off again after the initial sync is complete, 
I guess.


--
Eric Shepherd
Senior Technical Writer
MDN Web Docs
https://developer.mozilla.org/

On Oct 23, 2018, 10:20 AM -0400, bruno ais , wrote:
> Can sharing with firefox sync be done just one way?
>
> > On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 3:18 PM Eric Shepherd (Sheppy) 
> >  wrote:
> > > Michael,
> > >
> > > Should be able to just enable sync in each copy of Firefox and sync the 
> > > items you need across profiles that way. Is that good enough?
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Eric Shepherd
> > > Senior Technical Writer
> > > MDN Web Docs
> > > https://developer.mozilla.org/
> > >
> > > On Oct 23, 2018, 10:08 AM -0400, Michael Verdi , 
> > > wrote:
> > > > Is there a way migrate data from one profile to another? We 
> > > > occasionally run user tests and ask people to install beta or nightly 
> > > > so that they can test a feature with their current data (bookmarks, 
> > > > history, preferences, etc). Will Firefox show up in the import wizard?
> > > > Thanks,
> > > > Michael
> > > > --
> > > > Michael Verdi • Firefox Search UX • Slack: verdi
> > > > ___
> > > > firefox-dev mailing list
> > > > firefox-...@mozilla.org
> > > > https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/firefox-dev
> > > ___
> > > firefox-dev mailing list
> > > firefox-...@mozilla.org
> > > https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/firefox-dev
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Re: Coming in Firefox 65: Dedicated Profiles Per Install and Profile Downgrade Protection

2018-10-23 Thread bruno ais 
Can sharing with firefox sync be done just one way?

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 3:18 PM Eric Shepherd (Sheppy) <
esheph...@mozilla.com> wrote:

> Michael,
>
> Should be able to just enable sync in each copy of Firefox and sync the
> items you need across profiles that way. Is that good enough?
>
>
> --
> Eric Shepherd
> Senior Technical Writer
> MDN Web Docs
> https://developer.mozilla.org/
>
> On Oct 23, 2018, 10:08 AM -0400, Michael Verdi ,
> wrote:
>
> Is there a way migrate data from one profile to another? We occasionally
> run user tests and ask people to install beta or nightly so that they can
> test a feature with their current data (bookmarks, history, preferences,
> etc). Will Firefox show up in the import wizard?
> Thanks,
> Michael
> --
> Michael Verdi • Firefox Search UX • Slack: verdi
> ___
> firefox-dev mailing list
> firefox-...@mozilla.org
> https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/firefox-dev
>
> ___
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> https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/firefox-dev
>
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Re: Coming in Firefox 65: Dedicated Profiles Per Install and Profile Downgrade Protection

2018-10-23 Thread Eric Shepherd (Sheppy) 
Michael,

Should be able to just enable sync in each copy of Firefox and sync the items 
you need across profiles that way. Is that good enough?


--
Eric Shepherd
Senior Technical Writer
MDN Web Docs
https://developer.mozilla.org/

On Oct 23, 2018, 10:08 AM -0400, Michael Verdi , wrote:
> Is there a way migrate data from one profile to another? We occasionally run 
> user tests and ask people to install beta or nightly so that they can test a 
> feature with their current data (bookmarks, history, preferences, etc). Will 
> Firefox show up in the import wizard?
> Thanks,
> Michael
> --
> Michael Verdi • Firefox Search UX • Slack: verdi
> ___
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> firefox-...@mozilla.org
> https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/firefox-dev
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Re: Coming in Firefox 65: Dedicated Profiles Per Install and Profile Downgrade Protection

2018-10-23 Thread Michael Verdi 
Is there a way migrate data from one profile to another? We occasionally
run user tests and ask people to install beta or nightly so that they can
test a feature with their current data (bookmarks, history, preferences,
etc). Will Firefox show up in the import wizard?
Thanks,
Michael
-- 
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Re: Coming in Firefox 65: Dedicated Profiles Per Install and Profile Downgrade Protection

2018-10-23 Thread bruno ais 
Can firefox be setup to make profile backups before each update? I
certainly wouldn't like having a surprise update to the degree of firefox
57 (which thankfully I was ready for) and then lose everything I had setup
just because firefox updated.

On Mon, Oct 22, 2018 at 11:21 PM Dave Townsend 
wrote:

> On Mon, Oct 22, 2018 at 3:20 PM Mike Hommey  wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Oct 18, 2018 at 12:32:36PM -0700, Dave Townsend wrote:
>> > In Firefox 65 we intend to ship two new features to help prevent user
>> > frustration caused by using profiles created by newer versions of
>> Firefox.
>> >
>> > Why
>> >
>> > Firefox stores all of its settings in the user’s profile and unless
>> certain
>> > command line arguments are used Firefox always launches with the same
>> > profile. Periodically as Firefox upgrades it makes changes to the
>> settings
>> > that can render the profile unusable by earlier versions of Firefox.
>> This
>> > can cause anything from certain features of Firefox being broken after a
>> > downgrade to Firefox crashing on startup.
>> >
>> > To protect against this two new features will be landing in Nightly
>> soon.
>> >
>> > Dedicated Profiles Per Install
>> >
>> > A common cause of users switching between different versions of Firefox
>> is
>> > having Firefox installed multiple times. This most often happens when
>> users
>> > have different channels installed at the same time like ESR and
>> Release. It
>> > is a common request to be able to run the different installs at the same
>> > time. In Firefox 35 this was made possible for the developer edition by
>> > giving it a dedicated profile. The new dedicated profiles per install
>> > feature extends this and will give every install of Firefox on the
>> computer
>> > a dedicated profile by default.
>> >
>> > Users will be able to run different installs of Firefox simultaneously.
>> > Each will use a different profile for its settings. Upgrading an
>> install of
>> > Firefox will keep it using the same settings.
>> >
>> > We’re tracking work on this feature in bug 1474285.
>> >
>> > Profile Downgrade Protection
>> >
>> > For cases where users manually downgrade an install of Firefox or
>> attempt
>> > to forcefully use an older version of Firefox with a newer profile the
>> > profile downgrade protection feature will now tell the user that the
>> > profile is too new to use with this Firefox giving them the option to
>> > create a new profile to use or to quit.
>> >
>> > We’re tracking work on this feature in bug 1455707.
>> >
>> > Developer Implications
>> >
>> > As developers it is quite common to switch between different builds for
>> > example when testing different built versions of Firefox and doing
>> > regression testing. To support these use-cases a new command line
>> argument
>> > “--allow-downgrade” will allow skipping the downgrade protection.
>> >
>> > Conclusions
>> >
>> > While some users may be impacted by this change we believe that most
>> users
>> > will be unaffected and those that are will see less problems caused by
>> > downgrades than previously. This will give us the ability to ignore the
>> > possibility of downgrades when implementing new features and fixing bugs
>> > going forwards. Being able to make the assumption that this code works
>> as
>> > designed will allow us flexibility in other changes downstream.
>>
>> Does this also mean we can actively remove old data from profiles after
>> this work lands? My profile is very old, and there is a non-negligible
>> amount of data that has accumulated that's just leftover from old data
>> formats that have changed and are now stored in different files. We've
>> never cleaned those up presumably to support downgrades. It seems to me
>> with downgrades officially being unsupported, we should have an active
>> policy of removing old profile data when we migrate to new formats.
>>
>
> I certainly think so. What's more we can be more proactive about not
> leaving that stuff around going forwards.
> ___
> firefox-dev mailing list
> firefox-...@mozilla.org
> https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/firefox-dev
>
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