It creates new nsRemoteService instance which is parent (proxy) class which is registered as global nsIRemoteService. It provides basic functionality (watch observer for shutdown, launch firefox instance by HandleCommandLine()) for child services which are system specific. nsDBusRemoteService listens on DBus interface and it's available on DBus enabled systems only. nsGtkRemoteService is the former one based on X window propery mechanism.
MozReview-Commit-ID: GHpXdjstwyY
The -remote option has existed essentially forever, but its usefulness is
questionable:
- It requires a running instance to be any useful, so any script actually
using it should first do -remote 'ping()' and handle the response properly.
- It is not cross-application. The remote service dispatches the -remote
commands to the command line handler, and, for example, desktop b2g builds
don't have handlers for -remote (although thunderbird and seamonkey do).
- It is not a cross-platform option, which leads to the following point:
- There are other command line ways to do the same thing (at least in
Firefox), without having to jump through hoops with -remote 'ping()',
because there are command line options to do those same things on non-X11
platforms.
For the latter, in Firefox case:
- -remote 'openURL(url)' can be replaced with firefox url
- -remote 'openURL(url,new-tab)' can be replaced with firefox -new-tab url
- -remote 'openURL(url,new-window)' can be replaced with firefox -new-window
url
- -remote 'openfile(file,...)' is the same as -remote 'openurl(file,...) so,
can be replaced as above
- -remote 'xfedocommand(openbrowser)' is inherited from the mozilla suite and
doesn't make much sense, but can be replaced with firefox -new-window
The interesting part is that without changing nsBrowserContentHandler.js,
-remote still works, meaning that if people really feel strongly about
-remote, they'll still be able to write an addon to bring it back. This also
means this patch actually doesn't remove -remote for applications other than
Firefox that do support it, although -remote 'ping()' doesn't work as
expected. However, other -remote commands will now work even without a
running instance.
