Bug#742531: keyword.URL preference ignored after upgrade to version 23+

[Sylvestre Ledru]

On 25/03/2014 10:25, E Taylor wrote:
> Hi Sylvestre,
>
>>> It would be nice if any user-defined value for the keyword.URL
>>> preference could be used to automatically set the default search engine
>>> after upgrade.
>> Why do you think Debian should carry and maintain such changes?
>
> As I see it, this is just a case of a config file format change, and
> typically a Debian package would try to help the user preserve any
> user-set value after upgrade.  Also, as in the example I gave, this
> unannounced change of behaviour could lead to someone leaking sensitive
> search terms out to an unintended third party, which has
> privacy/security implications.
Well, I haven't looked into the source code but if the preference has
been removed from
the configuration, I don't think the feature is still available.
Having Debian taking care of bringing back features removed by upstream
is a huge work.


>
> This issue seems similar to:
>     https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=720968
> where there seemed to be some quite strong demand that a
> privacy/security setting be preserved and not trampled on by an upstream
> change.  It appears that you marked that bug as wontfix rather than
> leaving open the wishlist request that the user's settings survive a
> package upgrade, or they at least be warned about this.  I can only
> humbly ask that this bug report does not suffer the same fate, and that
> you consider at least including a warning to users about how to preserve
> their settings.
I don't see that as a packaging bug. I don't think it is the goal of
Debian to manage that.
If you think it should be managed, you should push the change upstream
(or look if there is an extension
doing it):
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/

Otherwise, expect if you provide a patch and commit to maintain it, yeh,
I will probably close
it like #720968

Sorry,
Sylvestre