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Does Firefox force updates on your configuration? On Windows it's opt-in for me. I know Android will forcibly update any app (including Firefox) while you're us

Does Firefox force updates on your configuration? On Windows it's opt-in for me. I know Android will forcibly update any app (including Firefox) while you're using it, but you can shut that off system-wide.

joshgev 5y ago
The default is that it forces a restart when a new update has been downloaded, which has been a frustration for me as apparently it has been for the parent. Apparently this can be changed by requesting that FF only install updates with explicit consent[1]. I'd think the best way would be to install anything that's available locally when the browser starts without forcing a restart. [1] https://superuser.com/questions/1451210/how-can-i-make-firefox-stop-forcing-me-to-restart-my-browser https://superuser.com/questions/1451210/how-can-i-make-firef...
- Vinnl 5y ago
  Are you using Linux, by any chance? IIRC, the issue here is that the update is done by your package manager, changing Firefox's files out from under them. If you use the direct download from Mozilla, it shouldn't be as disruptive. I still hope a fix or workaround to this can be found, but knowing why something is the cause makes it easier to accept, at least for me :)
Nextgrid 5y ago
What pisses me off is less about the update itself (they're typically unnoticeable) but the constant nags and "what's new" crap that opens up after the update. Firefox is more hostile than a lot of paid, proprietary software in this regard.
- brimble 5y ago
  This. That crap is significantly more disruptive and irritating that the actual paid ads in old-school free Opera (the largest feature-comparable browser when FF/Phoenix/Firebird first launched).
alexb_ 5y ago
Happens to me often. I'll be browsing and then suddenly I am told that before I can view the next webpage I MUST restart. Giant PITA if I have a ton of private windows open, as none of those are coming back.
- foxfluff 5y ago
  It's not firefox, it's your distro.
  - account42 5y ago
    The update might be started by the distro in this case, but there is no reason that Firefox cannot just keep an fd on the resource files open and use that instead of the updated files. Either that or keep things compatible so it can use the new files. Not being able to use the browser after an update is inexcusable.
    - foxfluff 5y ago
      > there is no reason that Firefox cannot just keep an fd on the resource files open and use that instead of the updated files If you check what processes you've running, you'll see that firefox has many of them. I'm not going to grep the sources but I believe the ones with the "-contentproc" flag are started with an exec call as needed, and I'm not aware of an exec that works with fds. It requires a path, it executes the binary at that path, and that binary in turn loads a bunch of files it needs. It's all going to blow up if your parent and child processes are running different versions of the program. Keeping parts of a program compatible with arbitrary versions of other parts of the same program is virtually impossible. Go ahead, checkout 50% of your files from some random version of your project thousands of commits ago while keeping the rest at master, and see if it still compiles and runs correctly.
      - account42 5y ago
        > If you check what processes you've running, you'll see that firefox has many of them. I'm not going to grep the sources but I believe the ones with the "-contentproc" flag are started with an exec call as needed, and I'm not aware of an exec that works with fds. It requires a path, it executes the binary at that path, and that binary in turn loads a bunch of files it needs. It's all going to blow up if your parent and child processes are running different versions of the program. That firefox is set up in a way that does not work when replacing the files while running does not meat that it cannot be setup differently. For example you could have one process paused after loading all needed libraries and opening all resource archives and then just fork from that. NB: You can actually execve the original executable under Linux via /proc/self/exe - while it behaves somewhat like a symlink to e.g. show the original path under ls / readlink, reading from it behaves like a hardlink to the original inode. This does not solve shared libraries however (but does Firefox really need to link its own libraries dynamically?) or resources (you could sendfd them to the new process if you really wanted to go with exec). > Keeping parts of a program compatible with arbitrary versions of other parts of the same program is virtually impossible. Go ahead, checkout 50% of your files from some random version of your project thousands of commits ago while keeping the rest at master, and see if it still compiles and runs correctly. The most sensible solution would be to keep all parts in sync, which is possible even if the copies on the filesystem changed. However, you could also have a stable API between the browser binary and the javascript parts if you wanted - that is a far cry from mixing arbitrary source files. Keep in mind that browsers have become more like a mini-OS and should not get away with behavior common in normal applications but instead should provide stability guarantees more like an OS. And you definitely don't need to reboot because the kernel has been updated on the filesystem.
account42 5y ago
On Windows it will nag everytime you start the browser even if auto-updates are disabled.

joshgev 5y ago

The default is that it forces a restart when a new update has been downloaded, which has been a frustration for me as apparently it has been for the parent. Apparently this can be changed by requesting that FF only install updates with explicit consent[1]. I'd think the best way would be to install anything that's available locally when the browser starts without forcing a restart. [1] https://superuser.com/questions/1451210/how-can-i-make-firefox-stop-forcing-me-to-restart-my-browser https://superuser.com/questions/1451210/how-can-i-make-firef...

Vinnl 5y ago
Are you using Linux, by any chance? IIRC, the issue here is that the update is done by your package manager, changing Firefox's files out from under them. If you use the direct download from Mozilla, it shouldn't be as disruptive. I still hope a fix or workaround to this can be found, but knowing why something is the cause makes it easier to accept, at least for me :)

Nextgrid 5y ago

What pisses me off is less about the update itself (they're typically unnoticeable) but the constant nags and "what's new" crap that opens up after the update. Firefox is more hostile than a lot of paid, proprietary software in this regard.

brimble 5y ago
This. That crap is significantly more disruptive and irritating that the actual paid ads in old-school free Opera (the largest feature-comparable browser when FF/Phoenix/Firebird first launched).

alexb_ 5y ago

Happens to me often. I'll be browsing and then suddenly I am told that before I can view the next webpage I MUST restart. Giant PITA if I have a ton of private windows open, as none of those are coming back.

foxfluff 5y ago
It's not firefox, it's your distro.
- account42 5y ago
  The update might be started by the distro in this case, but there is no reason that Firefox cannot just keep an fd on the resource files open and use that instead of the updated files. Either that or keep things compatible so it can use the new files. Not being able to use the browser after an update is inexcusable.
  - foxfluff 5y ago
    > there is no reason that Firefox cannot just keep an fd on the resource files open and use that instead of the updated files If you check what processes you've running, you'll see that firefox has many of them. I'm not going to grep the sources but I believe the ones with the "-contentproc" flag are started with an exec call as needed, and I'm not aware of an exec that works with fds. It requires a path, it executes the binary at that path, and that binary in turn loads a bunch of files it needs. It's all going to blow up if your parent and child processes are running different versions of the program. Keeping parts of a program compatible with arbitrary versions of other parts of the same program is virtually impossible. Go ahead, checkout 50% of your files from some random version of your project thousands of commits ago while keeping the rest at master, and see if it still compiles and runs correctly.
    - account42 5y ago
      > If you check what processes you've running, you'll see that firefox has many of them. I'm not going to grep the sources but I believe the ones with the "-contentproc" flag are started with an exec call as needed, and I'm not aware of an exec that works with fds. It requires a path, it executes the binary at that path, and that binary in turn loads a bunch of files it needs. It's all going to blow up if your parent and child processes are running different versions of the program. That firefox is set up in a way that does not work when replacing the files while running does not meat that it cannot be setup differently. For example you could have one process paused after loading all needed libraries and opening all resource archives and then just fork from that. NB: You can actually execve the original executable under Linux via /proc/self/exe - while it behaves somewhat like a symlink to e.g. show the original path under ls / readlink, reading from it behaves like a hardlink to the original inode. This does not solve shared libraries however (but does Firefox really need to link its own libraries dynamically?) or resources (you could sendfd them to the new process if you really wanted to go with exec). > Keeping parts of a program compatible with arbitrary versions of other parts of the same program is virtually impossible. Go ahead, checkout 50% of your files from some random version of your project thousands of commits ago while keeping the rest at master, and see if it still compiles and runs correctly. The most sensible solution would be to keep all parts in sync, which is possible even if the copies on the filesystem changed. However, you could also have a stable API between the browser binary and the javascript parts if you wanted - that is a far cry from mixing arbitrary source files. Keep in mind that browsers have become more like a mini-OS and should not get away with behavior common in normal applications but instead should provide stability guarantees more like an OS. And you definitely don't need to reboot because the kernel has been updated on the filesystem.

account42 5y ago

On Windows it will nag everytime you start the browser even if auto-updates are disabled.