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Where/How is Homepage URL stored in Mozilla Firefox 0.9?

Okay, I worked up a nice little script to circumvent the profiles hassle when trying to run multiple instances of firefox 0.9.

My script does one of these four things:
If firefox isn't running at all and a URL isn't supplied, launch a new instance
If firefox isn't running at all and a URL is supplied, launch a new instance that opens the URL
If firefox is running and a URL is supplied, open URL in a new tab
If firefox is running and a URL isn't supplied, open a new tab that's blank

the last condition is the tricky one. I don't want it to open blank. I would rather have it open up the home page. I have scoured the 'net and can't find the command that will accomplish this or the location (either file or variable) that stores what the homepage URL is. Any help?

*Note: for the homepage, I tried $home. This doesn't work. Just remove it (be sure to leave the comma), if you just want it to open blank.*

Code:

#!/bin/sh

# Works for Firefox 0.9

# Written by Robert Mullenix, June 2004



MOZILLA="/usr/share/firefox/firefox"

# Find out Firefox is open already

if $MOZILLA -a firefox -remote "ping()" 2>/dev/null

then

  if [ -z $1 ]

  then

# instance already opened, open new tab

    $MOZILLA -a firefox -remote "openURL($home,new-tab)" &

  else

# instance already opened, launch URL $1 in new tab

    $MOZILLA -a firefox -remote "openURL($1,new-tab)" &

  fi

else

  if [ -z $1 ]

  then

#  no URL present, just open firefox

    $MOZILLA &

  else

#  no instances exist, open a new window with URL $1

    $MOZILLA $1 &

  fi

fi

exit 1

all i could find was this, did you see it?

http://www.deftone.com/blogzilla/arc...n_new_tab.html

I missed that. It's a good link and it works for mozilla, but it won't work for firefox. I extracted the comm.jar in firefox/chrome and then went into the content directory, but right away you'll notice that there is no navigator folder or navigator.js.

Whatever causes mozilla to open up a new tab isn't there...

good idea, though

Okay, I did some snooping to try and figure out where Firefox puts the homepage. It stores it in ~/.mozilla/firefox/{profile_name}.ima/prefs.js

Since I use the default profile, I did some scripting and came up with this. It may not work for everyone, but it works for me:

Code:

#!/bin/sh

# firefox.sh

# Works for Firefox 0.9

# Written by Robert Mullenix, June 2004



HOMEPAGE=`cat ~/.mozilla/firefox/default.ima/prefs.js | grep browser.startup.homepage\" | cut -f 4 -d \"`

MOZILLA="/usr/share/firefox/firefox"

# Find out Firefox is open already

if $MOZILLA -a firefox -remote "ping()" 2>/dev/null

then

  if [ -z $1 ]

  then

# instance already opened, open new tab

    $MOZILLA -a firefox -remote "openURL($HOMEPAGE,new-tab)" &

  else

# instance already opened, launch URL $1 in new tab

    $MOZILLA -a firefox -remote "openURL($1,new-tab)" &

  fi

else

  if [ -z $1 ]

  then

#  no URL present, just open firefox

    $MOZILLA &

  else

#  no instances exist, open a new window with URL $1

    $MOZILLA $1 & 

  fi

fi

exit 1

You're right, it won't work for everyone because the "default.ima" folder is random. For instance, here it is named "default.6ss". Would be nice if you could have the script guess the ending

This'll do the trick:
I have really gotten to like the grep cut combo, but it seems a little clunky...

Modifications in bold

Code:

# firefox.sh

# Works for Firefox 0.9

# Written by Robert Mullenix, June 2004



PROFILEPATH=`cat ~/.mozilla/firefox/profiles.ini | grep Path | cut -f 2 -d =`

HOMEPAGE=`cat ~/.mozilla/firefox/$PROFILEPATH/prefs.js | grep browser.startup.homepage\" | cut -f 

MOZILLA="/usr/share/firefox/firefox"

# Find out Firefox is open already

if $MOZILLA -a firefox -remote "ping()" 2>/dev/null

then

  if [ -z $1 ]

  then

# instance already opened, open new tab

    $MOZILLA -a firefox -remote "openURL($HOMEPAGE,new-tab)" &

  else

# instance already opened, launch URL $1 in new tab

    $MOZILLA -a firefox -remote "openURL($1,new-tab)" &

  fi

else

  if [ -z $1 ]

  then

#  no URL present, just open firefox

    $MOZILLA &

  else

#  no instances exist, open a new window with URL $1

    $MOZILLA $1 & 

  fi

fi

exit 1

Odd, the last script does not work. the grep by itself works and extracts default.6ss from the ini file, but the full path to the prefs file is missing the $PROFILEPATH subdir...the script thinks my prefs.js file is located at "/home/axion/.mozilla/firefox//prefs.js"...default6ss is not added for some reason, though the same grep works outside of the script...

a tiny improvement

This should work for you, it may be inefficient (2 cut's :P) but it works

Code:

# firefox.sh

# Works for Firefox 0.9

# Written by Robert Mullenix, June 2004

# Modified by Cuneyt Yilmaz, June 2004



PROFILEPATH=`cat ~/.mozilla/firefox/profiles.ini | grep Path | cut -f 2 -d =`

HOMEPAGE=`cat ~/.mozilla/firefox/$PROFILEPATH/prefs.js | grep browser.startup.homepage\" | cut -f 2 -d , | cut -f 2 -d \"`

# I'm using the following, but hard-coded path may be better for some

#MOZILLA=`which firefox`

MOZILLA=/usr/local/firefox/firefox

URL=$1



# if no URL is given, use the home page

if [ -z $URL ]; then

  URL=$HOMEPAGE

fi





$MOZILLA -a firefox -remote "ping()" 2>/dev/null

if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then

  # it's already running

  $MOZILLA -a firefox -remote "openURL($URL,new-tab)" &

else

  # not running

  $MOZILLA "$URL" &

fi

exit 1