Installing and removing addons from command line?

Add-ons
#1

Hi,
I would like to add and remove addons to Firefox from the command line in an automated fashion. I am an admin and have to do this over 400 times, and I can’t do this by hand.

The first thing I need to do is to remove all addons. Am I right that it’s enough to just remove everything under $profile/extensions (e.g. ~/.mozilla/firefox/nogdglqv.myprofile/extensions) and then all the extensions will be gone? I mean normal addons, not stuff like flash or java.

Then I need to install the right extensions. How do I do this? Guides online are a bit old and there’s no official guide. Will it be ok to just drop the xpi in $profile/extensions? Some guides say you have to unpack the xpi to $profile/extensions/$gid where $gid is the gid in the xpi’s manifest. But when I look at extensions that have been installed manually (by clicking in the GUI), they’re just xpi files. What’s the right way to do this?

Other than modify what’s under $profile/extensions, do I need to do any other changes to the profile in order for the extension to become installed properly?

Thanks!

1 Like
#2

I guess that you have already seen this Linux section (with the red alert near the head of the page):

#3

Hi Graham,

I haven’t read this. But it goes partly in line with what I experienced. There are some missing parts i describe below. But mainly i am missing a good description of how to remove an extension. I’ll probably end up just deleting the xpi (or dir).

When you copy an addon into a profile it will start out disabled (FF says “it was installed by an external application”) and you need to enable it manually. This is pretty bad and I need to find a way to do this automatically. I’ll probably do it by modifying extensions.json. (note this behaviour might be only because i installed an extension through the gui, restarted, then removed the xpi, restarted, then moved it back in, and restarted).

#4

Btw, it seems that WebExtensiom addons also come in xpi form and the red warning you mention doesn’t apply. (The warning says “Add-ons using the techniques described in this document are considered a legacy technology in Firefox. Don’t use these techniques to develop new add-ons. Use WebExtensions instead. If you maintain an add-on which uses the techniques described here, consider migrating it to use WebExtensions.” etc)

#5

I was wondering if I could bring this topic up again? It’s an issue I encounter very often.