future of tor-launcher? - Firefox XPCOM / XUL based add-ons deprecation
Hi, XPCOM / XUL based add-ons will be deprecated in Firefox. [1] I've searched trac, mailing list, irc logs... I know you are aware of that, but haven't found your plan forward. Is there already one? What are your plans regarding tor-launcher? Will tor-launcher be ported over as Firefox WebExtension? Is that even possible? Or will tor-launcher become a standalone application that runs outside of Firefox? If it is the latter, we Whonix would be interested in that. Our use case is "same as system Tor". I guess the Tails developers may be interested in that also, hence cc'd their list also. Best regards, Patrick [1] https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2015/08/21/the-future-of-developing-firefox-...
Patrick Schleizer:
Hi,
XPCOM / XUL based add-ons will be deprecated in Firefox. [1]
I've searched trac, mailing list, irc logs... I know you are aware of that, but haven't found your plan forward. Is there already one?
What are your plans regarding tor-launcher? Will tor-launcher be ported over as Firefox WebExtension? Is that even possible?
We investigated what we would need for porting the extensions over to Webextensions a while ago in https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/17248. The current plan has not changed: we still plan to port our extensions over to the Webextensions framework. It might need some upstream changes which we would provide with own patches but we'll see. Georg
Georg Koppen:
Patrick Schleizer:
Hi,
XPCOM / XUL based add-ons will be deprecated in Firefox. [1]
I've searched trac, mailing list, irc logs... I know you are aware of that, but haven't found your plan forward. Is there already one?
What are your plans regarding tor-launcher? Will tor-launcher be ported over as Firefox WebExtension? Is that even possible?
We investigated what we would need for porting the extensions over to Webextensions a while ago in https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/17248.
The current plan has not changed: we still plan to port our extensions over to the Webextensions framework. It might need some upstream changes which we would provide with own patches but we'll see.
In Tails we run Tor Launcher as a stand-alone XUL application. Last I checked it was not clear whether this would still be supported by Firefox + WebExtensions. Do you know anything more about this? Cheers!
On 1/10/17 5:18 AM, anonym wrote:
In Tails we run Tor Launcher as a stand-alone XUL application. Last I checked it was not clear whether this would still be supported by Firefox + WebExtensions. Do you know anything more about this?
Unfortunately, I do not know anything about Mozilla's plans in regard to standalone XUL applications. Currently Tails is using the firefox -app feature, correct? In the long run, I expect Mozilla to stop using XUL entirely and to migrate to HTML-based UI even inside Firefox. Although it will take them a long time to make that transition, I could see them dropping support for standalone XUL applications relatively soon. I don't expect WebExtensions to support a standalone app mode, although for your purposes it might be acceptable to start the browser with TOR_CONFIGURE_ONLY=1. I guess there are some differences in terms of how much Firefox code is executed as well as loss of a custom icon though. -- Mark Smith Pearl Crescent http://pearlcrescent.com/
Mark Smith:
On 1/10/17 5:18 AM, anonym wrote:
In Tails we run Tor Launcher as a stand-alone XUL application. Last I checked it was not clear whether this would still be supported by Firefox + WebExtensions. Do you know anything more about this?
Unfortunately, I do not know anything about Mozilla's plans in regard to standalone XUL applications. Currently Tails is using the firefox -app feature, correct?
Correct!
In the long run, I expect Mozilla to stop using XUL entirely and to migrate to HTML-based UI even inside Firefox. Although it will take them a long time to make that transition, I could see them dropping support for standalone XUL applications relatively soon.
Yes, that is my fear as well.
I don't expect WebExtensions to support a standalone app mode, although for your purposes it might be acceptable to start the browser with TOR_CONFIGURE_ONLY=1. I guess there are some differences in terms of how much Firefox code is executed as well as loss of a custom icon though.
I wasn't aware of that option, but it sounds promising. Thanks! Cheers!
anonym:
Mark Smith:
I don't expect WebExtensions to support a standalone app mode, although for your purposes it might be acceptable to start the browser with TOR_CONFIGURE_ONLY=1. I guess there are some differences in terms of how much Firefox code is executed as well as loss of a custom icon though.
I wasn't aware of that option, but it sounds promising. Thanks!
Wait a minute, *I* implemented this option! :S Indeed, we use it in Tails currently since we want Tor Launcher to only configure the already running system tor instance, (i.e. just skip the "start tor" step). My understanding is that with this option set, when Tor Launcher is run as a browser extension, the browser would still start, which is what we don't want. Am I misunderstanding what you meant here? It seems like your impression is that setting that option would prevent the browser from starting, achieving something similar to a "XUL standalone application". That said, if the Tor Launcher WebExtension would have such an option (in addition to TOR_CONFIGURE_ONLY), possibly by just hiding the browser window, that would be good enough for Tails. It would be interesting to know if you (or Kathy, who is investigating Tor ticket #17248) think such an option would be possible. Cheers!
participants (4)
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anonym -
Georg Koppen -
Mark Smith -
Patrick Schleizer