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There are (at least) two config files that seem to be made to define organizational preferences that should be valid for all users of firefox on a machine: syspref.js and local-settings.js. Additionally, this guide talks about using ´all-companyname.js´.

It tried to define locked preferences by using ´lockPref´ in ´syspref.js´ as described here and here. However, then firefox complains about an unknown keyword. However, I can define the ´general.config.filename´ in both ´syspref.js´ or ´local-settings.js´.

And in addition, one can also define group policies, e.g. using the ´policies.json´.

So, my question is: Which of these possibilities should I use for which purpuse? Is there a good and up-to-date documentation that explains this?

Thanks!

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  • All instructions are provided here support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/firefox-enterprise/…
    – Biswapriyo
    Oct 19, 2019 at 18:14
  • Thanks you for your hint. I previously had a look at this site and found information about policies.json there. However, I didn't find an answer to my question about the different config files and when to use which.
    – Peter T.
    Oct 19, 2019 at 18:38

2 Answers 2

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I believe that in the latest Firefox versions, you should now use pref("...","...",locked); instead of lockPref("...","...");.

Example :

pref("browser.startup.homepage", "http://...", locked);

see https://github.com/pyllyukko/user.js/issues/415#issuecomment-419739194

firefox-esr (60.0esr-1) unstable; urgency=medium

  • The use of lockPref in preferences under /etc/firefox-esr is deprecated. Please use pref("name", value, locked) instead. lockPref will still be supported for compatibility purpose until version 67.

    -- Mike Hommey Thu, 10 May 2018 09:36:46 +0900

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  • Interesting ... Can you point be at documentation about this?
    – Peter T.
    Oct 21, 2019 at 8:30
  • 1
    See this link.
    – harrymc
    Oct 21, 2019 at 9:01
  • Thx! Did they also mention somewhere why they did change the API .......?
    – Peter T.
    Oct 22, 2019 at 19:41
  • Apparently it's just streamlining of the interface.
    – harrymc
    Oct 23, 2019 at 5:16
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    The documentation doesn't yet exist. As you can see, the information is still only found in answers to posts in a very partial manner. It's too early yet.
    – harrymc
    Oct 24, 2019 at 14:56
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Reading https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox/Enterprise_deployment_before_60 I got the impression that all files in the "prefs" directory are read. It says:

Create a JavaScript file that instructs to use a administrative config file at startup. For best results, the filename should be early in the alphabet, for example; 00_admin-prefs.js By convention this file is named autoconfig.js, but other filenames will work.

So, this suggests, that the file is often named autoconfig.js.

On Linux Mint, there is a sym link from /usr/lib/firefox/browser/defaults/preferences/syspref.js to /etc/firefox/syspref.js. So I assume that for this distro that's the place to go.

The doc above states that pref dir can be found:

Linux: browser/defaults/preferences Windows: defaults\pref Mac: Firefox.app/Contents/Resources/defaults/pref

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