bug: librewolf native-messaging-hosts path changed

[VAWVAW]

Are you following the right branch?

• My Nixpkgs and Home Manager versions are in sync

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Issue description

programs.librewolf.nativeMessagingHosts get installed into ~/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts but on the current version of librewolf (136.0-2) it searches the path ~/.librewolf/native-messaging-hosts on my system.

Manually symlinking the librewolf path results in the native-messaging-hosts to be found again.

Maintainer CC

@chayleaf @onny @Mikilio

System information

- system: `"x86_64-linux"`
 - host os: `Linux 6.12.17, NixOS, 25.05 (Warbler), 25.05.20250313.6607cf7`
 - multi-user?: `yes`
 - sandbox: `yes`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.24.12`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/store/xq5rfjj1z2r8yx338arajg5vwsxh1fri-source`

[Mikilio]

I think the symlink should probably be added when librewolf is enabled. Because, it seems that only librewolf is weird about it. Is there any specific extension that doesn't work in the current configuration?

[VAWVAW]

Creating the symlink makes it impossible to make a librewolf configuration that is different from other firefox based browsers. This is probably why they changed the path upstream.

I noticed the problem using keepassxc and and keepassxc-browser.

[kira-bruneau]

I think the change was actually caused by the nix derivation being updated to more closely match upstream patching in NixOS/nixpkgs#388153 (which also includes the update to 136.0-2).

I'm building librewolf with the changes in that PR, excluding the update to 136.0-2 just to be certain.

[Mikilio]

Creating the symlink makes it impossible to make a librewolf configuration that is different from other firefox based browsers. This is probably why they changed the path upstream.

That is a bit problematic when some popular extensions don't even check for that path and use ~/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts by default. So a workaround should be in place until checking the path is something to be more commonly expected.

@booxter Worked on a solution to organize nativeMessengerHost. Any thoughts?

[VAWVAW]

That is a bit problematic when some popular extensions don't even check for that path and use ~/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts by default. So a workaround should be in place until checking the path is something to be more commonly expected.

KeePassXC upstream support was just merged and using programs.librewolf.nativeMessagingHosts = [ pkgs.keepassxc] could be changed to use the correct path.

[booxter]

Having different configurations for firefox and librewolf when configured with home-manager - did it ever work? AFAIU both always used .mozilla directory in HM, so I assume not. But please confirm if this is a recent regression (for HM). If it's not a regression, then as a stop-gap, I'd just add a symlink.

[VAWVAW]

No, it was not possible to configure both independently. I find it just confusing that an option under programs.librewolf has an effect on firefox.

[booxter]

Right. I think it's reasonable to suggest a patch to improve the module so that .librewolf may be produced separately from .mozilla. (Though we may want to have an option to have these symlinked to serve users running an older Librewolf version maybe?) But to address the bug in short term, a symlink is probably enough.

[Mikilio]

Because this conversation provides some helpful information from @kira-bruneau I am linking it here. #6421