Some of XUL / xulrunner Removed in Firefox 53?

I am working on a WebExtensions Bug 1276817 which has been assigned to me. I last built Firefox 52.0a1 from source, back in October 2016. (The WebExtensions API is in JavaScript and, mercifully, does not require building to retest.) Presumably due to my updating macOS and/or Xcode since then, yesterday it would no longer build. So I removed my local repo and started over again with a fresh clone of Nightly 54.0a1.

In this process, I noticed that…

  • I got a build error, indicating that project xulrunner could not be found, until I removed the directive to build xulrunner from my .mozconfig file.

  • When I test my old Firefox extension, which uses XUL, Firefox 53 or 54 crashes every time my native app attempts interapplication communication with my old Firefox extension. The reason logged is that the symbol _NS_GetServiceManager, which is called by the old dynamic library in my old extension, is not found.

My hypothesis is that some of xulrunner was removed in Firefox 53, but I cannot find any mention of this in this forum, or in recent release notes, or in the AMO blog. I know that xulrunner deprecation was announced years ago (which is why I am helping to bring up WebExtensions), but I’m surprised that an important chunk would be removed with no announcement. Did I miss the announcement?

Can someone please confirm what is going on with XUL?

My hypothesis is that some of xulrunner was removed in Firefox 53, but I cannot find any mention of this in this forum, or in recent release notes, or in the AMO blog. I know that xulrunner deprecation was announced years ago (which is why I am helping to bring up WebExtensions), but I’m surprised that an important chunk would be removed with no announcement. Did I miss the announcement?

I think this is an intended consequence of the work being done in bug 1299187 I believe. I don’t think the release notes are finished yet, but I agree this deserves a somewhat big warning.

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Thank you, Emililo.

It’s hard to say, because that Bug 1299187 is quite sketchy.

So, I just submitted a comment to it. Maybe someone over there can turn on the lights.