> On 20 Jun 2024, at 20:52, debian-user@howorth.org.uk wrote:
> Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> wrote:
>> On Thu, Jun 20, 2024 at 22:56:33 +0530, Pranjal Singh wrote:
>>> It runs regular Firefox after adding the -private-window flag.
>>>
>>> To get a MWE, I made these changes later:
>>> - Exec=firefox -private-window %u
>>> - StartupWMClass=firefox
>>> +Exec=gnome-calculator
>>
>> Did you see Gareth's reply at
>> <https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2024/06/msg00432.html>?
>>
>> It's supposed to be --private-window with two leading hyphens, not
>> one, he said.
>
> He was wrong according to Mozilla's documentation
My advice was based on
$ firefox -h | grep private
--private-window <url> Open <url> in a new private window.
$
I did try (with Mate Desktop) with both single and double hyphens, both on the command line and in
/usr/share/applications/firefox-esr.desktop
One hyphen failed to have the desired effect, but works when I try it now. Firefox hasn't been updated here since, so there seem to be other variables involved.
I would be inclined to take it from the firefox help grep results above that the double-hyphen form should always work.
I think the wiki is out of date - cf.
"-private
Opens Firefox in permanent private browsing mode ...
-private-window
Opens a new private browsing window in an existing instance of Firefox ..."
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/CommandLineOptions#Command_line_options
There is no "[-]-private" option according to the grep I performed, and [-]-private produces a non-private window when run here from the command line.
$ apt policy firefox-esr
firefox-esr:
Installed: 115.12.0esr-1~deb12u1
Candidate: 115.12.0esr-1~deb12u1
Version table:
*** 115.12.0esr-1~deb12u1 500
500 https://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security/main amd64 Packages
[...]