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Issue 709490 link

Starred by 1 user
Status: Assigned
Owner:
emaxx@chromium.org
Cc:
rdevlin....@chromium.org
Components:
EstimatedDays: ----
NextAction: ----
OS: All
Pri: 3
Type: Bug



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The --disable-extensions-except flag is counter-intuitive and allows to install extensions even when it's disabled

Project Member Reported by emaxx@chromium.org, Apr 7 2017 
The --disable-extensions-except Chrome flag is documented as following:

// Disable extensions except those specified in a comma-separated list.

However, this flag actually not only disables unwanted extensions, but also force-installs the extensions specified in it, which IMO is rather unexpected.

Additionally, the installation happens unconditionally, even into the profiles which generally have the extensions_enabled_ flag as false (like the Chrome OS sign-in profile).

This is due to the logic in ExtensionService::Init:
https://cs.chromium.org/chromium/src/chrome/browser/extensions/extension_service.cc?l=459


Devlin, do you think it's reasonable to fix this place by making this flag as only a way to _disable_ the extensions - just exactly as its name says?
Feel free to assign this bug to me then, I can do this once I have spare cycles.

Comment 1 by rdevlin....@chromium.org, Apr 7 2017

Cc: -emaxx@chromium.org rdevlin....@chromium.org catmulli...@chromium.org
Owner: emaxx@chromium.org
TL;DR: Yeah, I think we can have this install extensions iff they would normally be installed (i.e., also check extensions_enabled_).  Passed ownership to you. :)

A little background on this:
This flag was added in the deprecation process for --load-component-extension.  --load-component-extension used to load extensions as component extensions - which gave them super powers that should never be granted.  What we realized a lot of folks were using this for was to do --disable-extensions --load-component-extension=that/one/extension/I/want and load up one extension, with all others disabled.  So we gave them a tool to do that (disable-extensions-except) rather than have them rely on a scary way of doing it.  I agree the naming is a little weird, but it seemed reasonable enough and --disable-most-extensions-but-install-these-ones was too long. ;)

Comment 2 by catmulli...@chromium.org, Feb 8 2018

Cc: -catmulli...@chromium.org
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