[tor-bugs] #28044 [Applications/Tor Launcher]: Integrate Tor Launcher into tor-browser

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#28044: Integrate Tor Launcher into tor-browser
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
 Reporter:  gk                                   |          Owner:  brade
     Type:  defect                               |         Status:  new
 Priority:  High                                 |      Milestone:
Component:  Applications/Tor Launcher            |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                               |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  AffectsTails, ux-team,               |  Actual Points:
  TorBrowserTeam201901                           |
Parent ID:                                       |         Points:
 Reviewer:                                       |        Sponsor:
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
Changes (by mcs):

 * cc: mcs (removed)
 * cc: tbb-team (added)


Comment:

 Kathy and I did some research and experimentation over the past couple of
 days, and we believe the best approach is to:
 1. Integrate Tor Launcher directly into Tor Browser, following up on the
 work that Matt did here: https://github.com/sysrqb/tor-
 launcher/commits/bug25260_mozbuild
 2. Keep tor-launcher.git as a separate repository so that other projects
 such as TorBirdy can continue to package the code as an XPCOM extension.
 3. Fix other incompatibilities with the Firefox ESR68 codebase as we find
 them. For example, support for XUL overlays has been removed by Mozilla,
 so we will instead need to preprocess some of the Tor Launcher source
 files in order to include some shared XUL.

 For 1. above we will need decide on the best way to pull the Tor Launcher
 code into Tor Browser.  We could use a git submodule and integrate tightly
 with the browser build process, or we could "post process" browser/omni.ja
 to add the necessary Tor Launcher pieces.

 A related goal will be to keep the Tor Launcher files together as much as
 possible within the browser package; this will make it easier for
 developers to drop in updated Tor Launcher files for testing (but it will
 never again be as easy as just copying over an .xpi file). Within
 browser/omni.ja, we will probably need to place files under these
 subdirectories:
 * defaults/preferences/
 * chrome/torlauncher/
 * components/torlauncher/
 and we will need to ensure that the following manifest files are updated
 to register the Tor Launcher pieces:
 * chrome/chrome.manifest
 * components/components.manifest

 We will also need to decide whether it is worthwhile to rename the
 preferences, e.g., `extensions.torlauncher.loglevel` could be renamed to
 `torlauncher.loglevel`

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/28044#comment:6>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
The Tor Project: anonymity online