Workflow

The fern.js script enables a patch-based workflow to manage our Firefox fork. Here is how common tasks look like using it.

Setup

After cloning the repository, run the following commands to get started (Note that you will need npm and node to be installed on your system):

./fern.js use # Setup 'mozilla-release' folder using information from '.workspace'
./fern.js import-patches
cd mozilla-release # Do some stuff... and commit your changes
./fern.js export-patches # Check 'patches' folder

Upgrading Ghostery

Bumping the Ghostery extension bundled with the browser requires the following:

./fern.js use --ghostery v8.5.2
./fern.js reset
./fern.js import-patches

Upgrading Firefox

Whenever a new version is released or if you want to hack on top of another Firefox version, run the following:

./fern.js use --firefox 80.0.1
./fern.js reset # Needed if you already had this version locally.
./fern.js import-patches

Building

Building the browser in any flavor can be achived as follows:

# Prepare 'mozilla-release' folder with correct version and patches.
./fern.js use
./fern.js reset
./fern.js import-patches

# All three commands can be used from Linux and MacOS (except windows cross-build).
./fern.js build --target mac
./fern.js build --target linux
./fern.js build --target windows

Then check the content of the mozilla-release folder to find the artefacts.

Setting up a dev environment

./mach bootstrap requires a VC checkout of the gecko source to run properly. Use the gecko-dev repo to run mach bootstrap and setup your local build environment:

git clone https://github.com/mozilla/gecko-dev.git
cd gecko-dev
./mach bootstrap

Now you should be able use ./mach build in this project.

Alternatively, the build-* scripts in this repo will prepare docker images with a prepared build environment for each platform. The scripts will drop you to a command prompt in a docker container where you can run ./mach build directly.

Building on windows

Prerequisites

VS2017 Redist

This can be built on windows after setting up a build environment as per these instructions. You will need to install the Windows 10 SDK at version 10.0.17134.0. Then run the following to create vs2017_15.8.4.zip:

./mach python build/windows_toolchain.py create-zip vs2017_15.8.4

Makecab.exe

This is copied from a windows install at C:\Windows\System32\makecab.exe.