GEX

An extension manager for Gecko browsers. I created this program to further simplify and automate a system (re)install. Currently only tested on Linux.

• THIS PROGRAM IS IN VERY EARLY STAGES

MOZILLA API

gex uses two URLs to communicate to Mozilla's APIs:

• https://addons.mozilla.org/api/v5/addons/addon to find information about an addon
• https://addons.mozilla.org/api/v5/addons/search to search for addons similar to a provided slug

Each method appends the addons's slug at the end of the URL.

A slug is a unique string by which Mozilla identifies its addons.

A slug can easily be found by looking at an addon's URL while browsing Mozilla's Addon page:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/darkreader

In this case, darkreader is this addon's slug.

More information on Mozilla's Add-On API can be found here.

FUNCTIONALITY

USER PROFILES

At first, gex finds your browser's data path, where all user data is stored. This is achieved by providing gex with your browser, and the profile you wish to use. The default browser is Firefox.

If no profile is provided, gex uses the one in use by looking at installs.ini.

If a profile is provided, it scans your profiles.ini file located in the base directory of your browser's data path and validates if the profile you provided exists.

DATABASE

This program uses three databases:

• extensions.json
• addons.json
• manifest files of each addon

Each contain important information about the addons. After finding the user profile, gex reads and keeps information about all of the installed plugins in memory.

INSTALL

After gex configures itself, it searches an addon by its slug. This page returns a json containing information about the addon, if it exists. Each addon contains a URL which points to the it's latest xpi file. The addon gets installed to the profile's extensions folder with it's guid being the filename.

LIST

The profile's addons.json file returns each amoListingURL final slug.

REMOVE

All provided slugs are transformed into their respective ids. Each addon in addons.json contains amoListingURL and id values. amoListingURL is just an URL of Mozilla's addon website (https://addons.mozilla.org/) with the addon's slug appended. By finding the slug, we get the addon's id, which is later used to identify the addon throughout all three databases, and removed from the profile.

SEARCH

The provided slug is sent to https://addons.mozilla.org/api/v5/addons/search. A json of the first 50 addon, sorted by the number of users, is returned to the user.

UPDATE

Not providing slugs means that you wish to update all installed packages. If slugs are provided, it is checked whether they are already installed or not. The currently installed addon's versions are checked against their up-stream versions. After filtering which addons require an update, the install module is called. The updater is practically a wrapper around the installer.

INSTRUCTIONS

Running gex -h issues the following output. Keep in mind that not all commands are implemented:

An extension installer for Gecko browsers

Usage: gex <COMMAND>

Commands:
  install  [aliases: i]
  list     [aliases: ls]
  remove   [aliases: rm]
  search   [aliases: s]
  update   [aliases: u]
  help     Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
  -h, --help     Print help
  -V, --version  Print version

EXAMPLES

To install Dark Reader for Firefox, simply run the following command:

gex install darkreader

To achieve the same for Librewolf:

gex install darkreader -b librewolf

... for the default profile:

gex install darkreader -b librewolf -p default

CAVEATS

The desired browser must have been previously opened in order for this program to function.

LICENSE

This software is licensed under the GPL v3.0 License.

THANKS

• firefoxext by Interfiber for being an inspiration. This program is its spiritual successor. :)

• lsd for providing a well-designed and structured code base.

• bob is another package manager.