Bug #17447

Customized Thunderbird/Enigmail settings are reset to default on restart

Added by numbat 2020-01-21 10:20:39 . Updated 2020-02-09 18:27:23 .

Status:
In Progress
Priority:
Low
Assignee:
segfault
Category:
Target version:
Start date:
Due date:
% Done:

0%

Feature Branch:
Type of work:
Research
Blueprint:

Starter:
Affected tool:
Email Client
Deliverable for:

Description

A user has reported that setting Enigmail to encrypt Headers/Subject doesn’t stick after restarting Thunderbird. I can confirm as well.

In ~/.thunderbird/profile.default/prefs.js extensions.enigmail.protectedHeaders is reset to 0 after restarting Thunderird.

This setting is available in Thunderbird, in Menu -> Enigmail - click “Display Expert Settings and Menus” -> Advanced -> “Encrypt subject bu default”.

Subtasks

History

#1 Updated by intrigeri 2020-02-07 13:35:01

  • Subject changed from Thunderbird/Enigmail setting reset on restart to Customized Thunderbird/Enigmail settings are reset to default on restart
  • Affected tool set to Email Client

(Making this more specific: AFAIUI this only affects a couple Enigmail settings.)

#2 Updated by intrigeri 2020-02-07 13:38:38

I guess it’s a direct consequence of commit:222fc2e21d25a4c6f5d73995d43da4cf6442d7cf: that’s the only way we’ve found back then to disable protected headers.
I suspect segfault already spent lots of time trying to do it differently so I’m not sure it’s worth trying again.

#3 Updated by segfault 2020-02-09 17:15:24

  • Assignee set to segfault

#4 Updated by segfault 2020-02-09 17:27:03

  • Status changed from Confirmed to In Progress

Applied in changeset commit:tails|4d1fbbc9e9bf4122b9b083b9cfd983b080d0120a.

#5 Updated by segfault 2020-02-09 18:27:23

intrigeri wrote:
> I guess it’s a direct consequence of commit:222fc2e21d25a4c6f5d73995d43da4cf6442d7cf: that’s the only way we’ve found back then to disable protected headers.
> I suspect segfault already spent lots of time trying to do it differently so I’m not sure it’s worth trying again.

I tried again. The easy way would have been to use defaultPref [1], but that doesn’t work, probably because Enigmail overwrites the default preference after the AutoConfig file was loaded. We could instead patch /usr/share/xul-ext/enigmail/chrome/content/preferences/defaultPrefs.js.

[1] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/customizing-firefox-using-autoconfig#w_functions-of-autoconfig