[NTLUG:Discuss] Firefox Plugins

[Fred James]

terry wrote:
> It appears that there are several directories for plugins:
> ~/.mozilla/plugins/ ~/.firefox/plugins/ /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/
> /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/
> So my question is;   In what order does firefox search for any particular
> plugin?
> What I ASSUME is that firefox first searches ~/.firefox/plugins/  then
> ~/.mozilla/plugins/  then /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/ then
> /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/  But this is ONLY an assumption.  Am I right?  Or
> not?
> I know for sure is that ~/.mozilla/plugins/  comes before
> /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
> And the reason I know this is that I recently had an older version of
> libflashplayer.so in ~/.mozilla/plugins/  and had placed a newer version of
> it in /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/  and firefox kept using the older version
> until I deleted it from ~/.mozilla/plugins/
>   So it looks like firefox has 4 possible directories to look in for
> plugins.
>   And I suppose there are two possible questions that arise:
> 1) Does firefox really search all 4 directories?
> 2) If firefox does in fact search all 4 directories, in what order does it
> search them?
>        (There is probably a fairly simple/easy experiment one could preform
> to prove and/or determine the exact order, I'm just not sure what it is...
>   
Terry
Short answer ... I don't know the order, but
    (a) it has something to do with whether the browser is installed as 
a system or user application.
    (b) it would be safe to put the new version of the *.so in all 4 
directories
    (c) libflashplayer.so is a compiled shared object and can be 
moved/copied without damage
CAUTION ... note the permissions and owner:group before doing anything, 
so you can restore those if need be.
Also, if there are other *.so files in a particular directory, take note 
of their permissions and owner:group, as you may want to use those 
instead, if they differ.

If you wish to test for the order ...
First make copies of the 2 versions of libflashplayer.so in a safe place
Second remove all versions of the libflashplayer.so from the 4 search 
directories
Then put one version in one directory, and the other version in a second 
directory and test
    record the detail
    switch the version between the two directories and test again
    record the detail

Continue in that manner to determine ...
    in the ~/ pair, which has priority, .mozilla or .firefox
    in the /usr/lib pair, which has priority, .mozilla or .firefox
    then between the ~/ and /usr/lib pairs ... which pair has priority

Such testing can be very exhaustive, or very cursory ... your choice ... 
Your mileage may vary, caution is advised on area lakes

Good luck
Regards
Fred James

PS: perhaps someone else can advise?