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July 29, 2008

Customize Firefox’s Default Profile Without Creating One

We recently ran into problems with our default Firefox profile after upgrading to Firefox 3. Before, we’d defined a default profile in the default user’s ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles folder, set it up to have the settings and homepage we desired, and let that copy into a new user’s profile on login. After having some problems with some of the settings that restricted extension installation, we discovered a way to define defaults for Firefox without having to pre-create a user’s profile. There are a few files to change in the application bundle that cause it to work as we’d like:

• /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/application.ini: Change “EnableProfileMigrator=1” to “EnableProfileMigrator=0” to disable the prompt on startup to import Safari preferences.
• /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/browserconfig.properties: This file contains the default homepage for the browser. Change it as you like and all newly-created profiles will lead the user to the page you specify.
• /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/defaults/profile/bookmarks.html: Change this file to alter the default set of bookmarks your users receive on new profile creation.
• /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/defaults/profile/prefs.js: This file has no settings defined by default, but you can add your own if you like. We added the following settings:
  • user_pref("browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone", "ignore"); disables a user receiving notification of a new version of Firefox when they're updated.
  • user_pref("browser.shell.checkDefaultBrowser", false); causes Firefox to skip the prompt on startup to make it the default browser.

Your needs may vary, and you can do a lot more inside the application bundle, such as putting extensions in the /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/extensions folder. Putting default settings here has two main advantages over putting it in the default user profile:

1. Firefox profiles are only created as needed. Not copying over a default profile reduces login time, and users who use Safari will never need a Firefox profile.
2. Using a default profile, all profiles have the same name (e.g. ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/m6oj7kr0.default/). The method I’ve outlined in this post results in differently-named Firefox profiles. I have no idea if this is an advantage, but Firefox’s developers randomize the profile folder name for a reason, and this method preserves their methodology.

Update 8/5/08: Added application.ini info.

Posted by slauncha at 03:03 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 08, 2008

Prune old transcripts with tkpruner

One of the things we’ve noticed is that since we sync out our loadsets to several servers around campus, we’re wasting time syncing old loadsets that aren’t in use anymore. Even with rsync, the files need to be compared. So, to that end, I wrote a script I call “tkpruner” that walks the config file of a Radmind server, finds the loadsets that are in use, and backs everything else up to ~/transcript/obsolete and ~/file/obsolete. It also backs up unused command files, moving them to ~/command/obsolete. Everything the script backs up is timestamped: ~/transcript/foo/bar/FooBar.T would become ~/transcript/obsolete/FooBar.20080708.T if I backed it up today.

Using this script, we can automate the archival process for old transcripts. Our obsolete folder isn’t included in syncs, and it’s located on a RAID array, so we aren’t concerned about data loss, merely with ensuring that our satellite servers have the transcripts that are in use.

Here’s the script:

#!/bin/bash

##
# Walk the config file and move unused transcripts to ~/transcript/obsolete
##

# Declarations
RadmindFolder="/var/radmind"
configfile="${RadmindFolder}/config"
ExcludeFile="${RadmindFolder}/etc/tpruner.exclude"
TranscriptFolder="${RadmindFolder}/transcript"
CommandFolder="${RadmindFolder}/command"
ObsoleteTFolder="${TranscriptFolder}/obsolete"
ObsoleteKFolder="${CommandFolder}/obsolete"

# Subroutines
processconfig(){
        for x in `cat "$configfile" | grep -v "#" | awk '{ print $2 }'`; do
                isinkarray=0

                for command in ${karray[@]}; do
                        if [ "$command" == "${CommandFolder}/$x" ]; then
                                isinkarray=1
                                continue
                        fi
                done

                if [ $isinkarray == 0 ]; then
                        karray[${#karray[@]}]="${CommandFolder}/$x"
                        processk "${CommandFolder}/$x"
                fi
        done
}

processk(){
        for x in `cat $1 | awk '{ if ($1=="p" || $1=="n") print $2 }'`; do
                isintarray=0

                for transcript in ${tarray[@]}; do
                        if [ "$transcript" == "${TranscriptFolder}/$x" ]; then
                                isintarray=1
                                continue
                        fi
                done

                if [ $isintarray == 0 ]; then
                        tarray[${#tarray[@]}]="${TranscriptFolder}/$x"
                fi

        done

        for x in `cat $1 | awk '{ if ($1=="k") print $2 }'`; do
                isinkarray=0

                for command in ${karray[@]}; do
                        if [ "$command" == "${CommandFolder}/$x" ]; then
                                isinkarray=1
                                continue
                        fi
                done

                if [ $isinkarray == 0 ]; then
                        karray[${#karray[@]}]="${CommandFolder}/$x"
                        processk "${CommandFolder}/$x"
                fi

        done
}

evald(){
        cd $1

        for transcript in `ls | grep \\\\.T`; do
                if [ -f $transcript ]; then
                        evalt "`pwd`/$transcript"
                fi
        done

        for command in `ls | grep \\\\.K`; do
                if [ -f $command ]; then
                        evalk "`pwd`/$command"
                fi
        done

        for file in `ls | grep -v \\\\.T`; do
                if [ -d $file ]; then
                        directory="`pwd`/$file"
                        if [ "`grep $directory "$ExcludeFile"`" == "" ]; then
                                evald "$directory"
                        fi
                fi
        done

        cd ..
}

evalt(){
        isintarray=0

        for transcript in ${tarray[@]}; do
                if [ "$transcript" == "$1" ]; then
                        isintarray=1
                        continue
                fi
        done

        if [ $isintarray == 0 ]; then
                ttomovearray[${#ttomovearray[@]}]="$1"
        fi
}

evalk(){
        isinkarray=0

        for command in ${karray[@]}; do
                if [ "$command" == "$1" ]; then
                        isinkarray=1
                        continue
                fi
        done

        if [ $isinkarray == 0 ]; then
                ktomovearray[${#ktomovearray[@]}]="$1"
        fi
}

movet(){
        Transcript=$1
        TranscriptNoPath="`echo $Transcript | awk 'BEGIN { FS = "/" } { print $NF }'`"
        TranscriptNoEnding="`echo $TranscriptNoPath | sed -e \"s/\.T//\"`"
        Today="`date +%Y%m%d`"
        Target="${ObsoleteTFolder}/${TranscriptNoEnding}.${Today}.T"

        mv $1 $Target

        sourcefiledir="`echo $1 | sed -e \"s/\/var\/radmind\/transcript/\/var\/radmind\/file/\"`"
        targetfiledir="`echo $Target | sed -e \"s/\/var\/radmind\/transcript/\/var\/radmind\/file/\"`/"

        mv $sourcefiledir $targetfiledir
}

movek(){
        Command=$1
        CommandNoPath="`echo $Command | awk 'BEGIN { FS = "/" } { print $NF }'`"
        CommandNoEnding="`echo $CommandNoPath | sed -e \"s/\.K//\"`"
        Today="`date +%Y%m%d`"
        Target="${ObsoleteKFolder}/${CommandNoEnding}.${Today}.K"

        mv $1 $Target
}

# Initiate the array.
processconfig

# Walk the filesystem.
evald "$TranscriptFolder"
evald "$CommandFolder"

echo The following will be backed up:
echo "${#ktomovearray[@]} command file(s)"
echo "${#ttomovearray[@]} transcript(s)"
echo
echo "(R)eview changes, (A)pply changes or (C)ancel?"

read response

if [ "$response" == "R" -o "$response" == "r" ]; then
        echo "Command file(s) to back up:"
        for x in `jot ${#ktomovearray[@]} 0`; do
                echo "  ${ktomovearray[$x]}"
        done

        echo

        echo "Transcript(s) to back up:"
        for x in `jot ${#ttomovearray[@]} 0`; do
                echo "  ${ttomovearray[$x]}"
        done

        echo
        echo "(A)pply changes or (C)ancel?"

        read response
fi


if [ "$response" == "A" -o "$response" == "a" ]; then
        for x in `jot ${#ktomovearray[@]} 0`; do
                movek "${ktomovearray[$x]}"
        done

        for x in `jot ${#ttomovearray[@]} 0`; do
                movet "${ttomovearray[$x]}"
        done
fi

exit 0

Posted by slauncha at 10:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack