Bug 2342438

Summary: does firefox package need /usr/lib64/firefox/firefox-bin ?
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: skierpage <info>
Component: firefoxAssignee: Gecko Maintainer <gecko-bugs-nobody>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity: low Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: 44CC: erack, fedora, gecko-bugs-nobody, jhorak, klaas, rstrode, stransky, suraj.ghimire7
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Hardware: x86_64   
OS: Linux   
URL: https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/firefox/blob/rawhide/f/firefox.spec
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Description skierpage 2025-01-27 22:54:52 UTC
In Fedora 41, `/usr/bin/firefox` is a script that invokes `/usr/lib64/firefox/firefox`. But there is also a `/usr/lib64/firefox/firefox-bin` binary of identical size, but different contents. Why?

This seems an artifact of history. Mozillabug 658850 suggests firefox used to be a script that ran firefox-bin (it still is on MacOS X?), and Mozilla kept both rather than making symlinks to avoid bugs with Mozilla updates. But Fedora's firefox package doesn't do in-browser check for updates and never seems to invoke firefox-bin.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Run /usr/bin/firefox
2. Search process tree for firefox-bin
3. Run lsof /usr/lib64/firefox/firefox-bin
4. Run /usr/lib64/firefox/firefox-bin --new-instance &
Actual Results:  
Normal firefox operation doesn't involve the firefox-bin binary.

Expected Results:  
Maybe /usr/lib64/firefox/firefox-bin is unnecessary in Fedora.

This is a minor thing but it's been confusing users for years, and besides the extra 500kB on-disk, it takes time to build.

I looked at a huge firefox x86_64 build.log and it copies dist/bin/firefox to dist/bin/firefox-bin twice, but again my /usr/lib64/firefox and firefox-bin binaries differ and `ldd shows the same libaries at different addresses.

(Edited: tiny comment fixes.)

Comment 1 Martin Stransky 2025-01-28 06:55:59 UTC
Yes, we don't need firefox-bin, it's just a copy of firefox binary. Not sure why it's here.

Comment 2 skierpage 2025-01-29 09:19:35 UTC
thunderbird has the same issue: /usr/lib64/thunderbird/thunderbird-bin is the same size as /usr/lib64/thunderbird/thunderbird , but the binary differs and the library offsets are different. Mozillabug 697218.

(In reply to Martin Stransky from comment #1)
> Yes, we don't need firefox-bin, it's just a copy of firefox binary. Not sure
> why it's here.

If you remove firefox-bin from the spec file would it no longer be installed? Mozillabug 658850 comment 12 has patches to remove the -bin file from the build, though they don't seem to remove the intentional copy of $(MOZ_APP_NAME) to $(MOZ_APP_NAME)-bin in browser/app/Makefile.in. I haven't figured out what modifies one of the binaries slightly after this copy.

I noticed the firefox.1 man page in the package is wrong, it describes firefox-bin instead of firefox. I filed bug 2342756.

Comment 3 Martin Stransky 2025-09-11 13:29:04 UTC
Do you mind to post updated spec file here?
Thanks.

Comment 4 skierpage 2025-09-18 01:30:52 UTC
I removed firefox-bin from firefox.spec in my fork,
https://src.fedoraproject.org/fork/skierpage/rpms/firefox/c/b2858cc12f0dc153ab86932aef1a38130624b7ad?branch=rawhide

Comment 5 Adam Williamson 2025-12-02 02:15:25 UTC
This message is a reminder that Fedora Linux 41 is nearing its end of life.
Fedora will stop maintaining and issuing updates for Fedora Linux 41 on 2025-12-15.
It is Fedora's policy to close all bug reports from releases that are no longer
maintained. At that time this bug will be closed as EOL if it remains open with a
'version' of '41'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, change the 'version' 
to a later Fedora Linux version. Note that the version field may be hidden.
Click the "Show advanced fields" button if you do not see it.

Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we were not 
able to fix it before Fedora Linux 41 is end of life. If you would still like 
to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version 
of Fedora Linux, you are encouraged to change the 'version' to a later version
prior to this bug being closed.

Comment 6 Christian Stadelmann 2025-12-02 20:59:14 UTC
Issue is still present, even on latest rawhide builds.