Hi @j.j/Moz-jeka,

Thanks for your response - and sorry I couldn't get back to this issue
earlier.. (I'll try to post from Launchpad.net, and see if the post
makes it to Mozilla Bugzilla).


>> ... and it doesn't mention the '-app' command switch anywhere?! It just
>> mentions "Remote XUL" - but the file I'm reading is local?
>
> it mentions file://URLs which are locale files

Yes, but I'm not trying to load a local file in Firefox via file://URL -
I'm trying to specify it on the command line as an argument - in a
context where that file should be ran as a XUL application...


> have you done this?
> - type about:config in URL bar
> - confirm the warning
> - rightclick into the table of prefs
> - select "new -> boolean"
> - type in dom.allow_XUL_XBL_for_file
> - select "true"

Now I have - I also closed firefox (now v8), and tried again (with the
same application code listed in the OP):

$ firefox -no-remote -app xultestapp/application.ini

... and again, the -app switch is ignored; "application.ini" is not
started - and instead the usual Firefox is started.


Now, in the meantime, I decided to also try firefox 3 on Linux - and it behaves 
the exactly same way ! Which made me wander a bit about that ArsTechnica 
article ... then again, I remembered I have in fact used 'firefox -app' before 
- under Windows! 

So, I got the Windows release of Firefox 3:

http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.6.24&os=win&lang=en-US

... and ran this installer under Wine - and installed to a custom
directory. Finally, I call:

 $ ./firefox.exe -app /path/to/xultestapp/application.ini

This starts up wine (and it even converts the absolute Unix path on the
command line) - and what do you know, application.ini starts!


----

So, in brief - is it possible that the -app switch is implemented *only*
for Windows? It could make sense, I guess - on Ubuntu, both Firefox and
xulrunner are installed by default. But then, a Linux user of a XUL
application would have to use this command to run it:

xulrunner xultestapp/application.ini

... and a Windows user would typically not be expected to have xulrunner
installed, so they would be expected to use:

firefox.exe -app xultestapp\application.ini

... is that correct? If so, where is this documented?


To confirm this, I just ran the install for the Windows Firefox 8 under wine 
too, and again I try: 

$ ./firefox.exe -app /path/to/xultestapp/application.ini

... and now I get an alert window, with title "XULRunner", and message:

Error: Platform version '8.0' is not compatible with
minVersion >= 1.8 
maxVersion <= 2.*

(which refers to the differing version numbers of latest xulrunner (2)
vs. latest Firefox (8)) - and application.ini refuses to run; however,
firefox doesn't start up either! Which for me confirms that the Windows
version of Firefox does indeed acknowledge the '-app' switch (v3-8) -
while the Linux one doesn't.

By the way, neither the Windows nor the Linux version do not report the
-app switch as existing - here is windows v3 (under wine):

$ ./firefox3win/firefox.exe --help
fixme:system:SetProcessDPIAware stub!
fixme:process:SetProcessDEPPolicy (1): stub
Usage: Z:\path\to\firefox3win\firefox.exe [ options ... ] [URL]
       where options include:

        -h or -help             Print this message.
        -v or -version          Print Firefox version.
        -P <profile>            Start with <profile>.
        -migration              Start with migration wizard.
        -ProfileManager         Start with ProfileManager.
        -no-remote              Open new instance, not a new window in running 
instance.
        -UILocale <locale>      Start with <locale> resources as UI Locale.
        -safe-mode              Disables extensions and themes for this session.
        -console                Start Firefox with a debugging console.
fixme:iphlpapi:NotifyAddrChange (Handle 0x12fe980, overlapped 0x12fe964): stub
  -jsconsole           Open the Error console.
  -browser            Open a browser window.
  -private            Enable private browsing mode.
  -setDefaultBrowser   Set this app as the default browser.

... and here is Linux v3:

 $ ./firefox3/firefox --help
Usage: ./firefox3/firefox-bin [ options ... ] [URL]
       where options include:

X11 options
        --display=DISPLAY               X display to use
        --sync          Make X calls synchronous
        --no-xshm               Don't use X shared memory extension
        --xim-preedit=STYLE
        --xim-status=STYLE
        --g-fatal-warnings              Make all warnings fatal

Firefox options
        -h or -help             Print this message.
        -v or -version          Print Firefox version.
        -P <profile>            Start with <profile>.
        -migration              Start with migration wizard.
        -ProfileManager         Start with ProfileManager.
        -no-remote              Open new instance, not a new window in running 
instance.
        -UILocale <locale>      Start with <locale> resources as UI Locale.
        -safe-mode              Disables extensions and themes for this session.
  -jsconsole           Open the Error console.
  -browser            Open a browser window.
  -private            Enable private browsing mode.
  -setDefaultBrowser   Set this app as the default browser.


Pretty much the same options for both --- and "-app" is reported nowhere!

----


Why this is relevant for me is that I'd like to develop a XUL application, and 
leave decent instructions on how to run it; especially since often I run 
different Linuxes which may not have neither Firefox (nor xulrunner) installed 
- and here I often download Firefox from Mozilla, unpack it and use it; and it 
would have been very convenient not to rely on additional xulrunner download. 
That is why I wanted to rely on the '-app' switch - which now, I guess, is an 
option only available for Windows users (and even a buggy one for the latest 
Firefox 8 release, since it cannot make the difference between the xulrunner 
and firefox versions). 

If I understood this correctly - then I guess this would be a
documentation bug of sorts, because I cannot find any references for
'-app' being a Windows-only feature; if anyone knows of a link
discussing that, it will be much appreciated!

Many thanks again for the feedback, 
Cheers!

-- 
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/880596

Title:
  Option '-app' missing from Firefox above version 3

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