[clue-tech] SSH/Firefox crossover effect

[Matt Gushee]

Jason S. Friedman wrote:

> But, if I launch Firefox from machine one, and do not shut
> down Firefox on machine one before launching Firefox from
> machine two, I now have merely another Firefox window that
> is "pointing" to machine one (it uses ~userone/.mozilla
> and name resolution from machine one), not machine two
> (from where it was launched.
> 
> I'm guessing this is an SSH issue, rather than a Firefox
> issue, but I cannot guess what the issue is.

Actually, I think it is Firefox. I don't understand all the mechanics, 
but the command "firefox" is a shell script. And when you invoke it, it 
checks for already-running instances of the main executable. Check out 
this excerpt from my /opt/mozilla/bin/firefox:

   # The following is to check for a currently running instance.
   # This is taken almost verbatim from the Mozilla RPM package's launch
   # script.
   MOZ_CLIENT_PROGRAM="$dist_bin/mozilla-xremote-client"
   check_running() {
       "${run_moz}" "$MOZ_CLIENT_PROGRAM" -a "${progbase}" 'ping()' \
          2>/dev/null >/dev/null
       RETURN_VAL=$?
       if [ $RETURN_VAL -eq 0 ]; then
           echo 1
           return 1
       else
           echo 0
           return 0
       fi
   }

It looks like mozilla-xremote-client is what detects the running 
instance. Unfortunately, that's a binary, so we can't easily look inside 
it, but I'd guess it is looking for any X client called Firefox.

If I'm right, then this is a non-trivial problem, but I imagine you 
could come up with a "firefox" script that would start a new local 
instance if the existing instance is remote.

Hmmm ... or here's another thought: if you try to start Firefox locally 
when there's already a local instance running, you get (or at least I 
do) a dialog saying that Firefox is already running, and asking you to 
select a profile. That suggests that there might be a workaround using 
profiles ... e.g. each user might have a profile representing a local 
instance, and another for remote instances. Just off the top of my head.

--
Matt Gushee
Englewood, CO, USA