Are locale changes always associated with a browser restart?

Henri Sivonen

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Sep 6, 2013, 6:45:52 AM9/6/13

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I installed a language pack and it didn't appear to have any effect
even after a browser restart. By browsing support forums, I learned
that it's necessary to go to about:config and change
general.useragent.locale and restart.

This doesn't look exactly user-friendly. Is this really the main flow
that there is? But what I'm mainly interested in is: Is a locale
change always associated with the browser restart?

--
Henri Sivonen
hsiv...@hsivonen.fi
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/

Archaeopteryx

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Sep 6, 2013, 7:55:43 AM9/6/13

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This seems to be an unfiled bug, I can confirm that restartless language
switching (affecting new windows) is not working. There are likely
add-ons out there which reload chrome and change the user agent to
switch the language, but this usually let users lose tabs etc.

Restartless language pack switching had been implemented last year:
https://blog.mozilla.org/axel/2012/09/27/language-packs-are-restartless-now/

Language switching UI is
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=377881 (status: NEW)

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
Betreff: Are locale changes always associated with a browser restart?
Von: Henri Sivonen <hsiv...@hsivonen.fi>
Datum: 2013-09-06 12:45

Axel Hecht

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Sep 6, 2013, 9:25:22 AM9/6/13

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On Aurora and Nightly, it works for me on Mac:

Go to ftp, latest-mozilla...-l10n, mac, xpi, download and install the
language pack, change general.useragent.locale in about:config, open new
window.

See content in your language.

Axel

Archaeopteryx

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Sep 6, 2013, 1:47:47 PM9/6/13

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Sorry for the false alarm. I had a UIlocale command line parameter in
use which overwrote the useragent setting.

Archaeopteryx

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
Betreff: Re: Are locale changes always associated with a browser restart?
Von: Axel Hecht <l1...@mozilla.com>
An: dev-...@lists.mozilla.org
Datum: 2013-09-06 15:25

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Henri Sivonen

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Sep 9, 2013, 3:52:45 AM9/9/13

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On Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 4:25 PM, Axel Hecht <l1...@mozilla.com> wrote:
> Go to ftp, latest-mozilla...-l10n, mac, xpi, download and install the
> language pack, change general.useragent.locale in about:config, open new
> window.

Okay. I missed the part about opening a new window.

So I take it that it's good enough to invalidate caches computed based
on the current locale when the pref general.useragent.locale changes?

Axel Hecht

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Sep 9, 2013, 5:44:29 AM9/9/13

to Henri Sivonen

On 9/9/13 9:52 AM, Henri Sivonen wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 4:25 PM, Axel Hecht <l1...@mozilla.com> wrote:
>> Go to ftp, latest-mozilla...-l10n, mac, xpi, download and install the
>> language pack, change general.useragent.locale in about:config, open new
>> window.
>
> Okay. I missed the part about opening a new window.
>
> So I take it that it's good enough to invalidate caches computed based
> on the current locale when the pref general.useragent.locale changes?
>

Yes,
http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/netwerk/protocol/http/nsHttpHandler.cpp#1248
is the code path that accept-lang follows.

Axel