My understanding of the parameters -a, -P, and -remote is as follows: The old way of connecting to an already existing process is via the -remote parameter, see http://www.mozilla.org/docs/command-line-args.html#options. This feature is still supported and functional in Seamonkey/Iceape. The code for the -remote option also exists in Firefox/Iceweasel.
From the bug-reports http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=411505&sourceid=mozilla-search#5 and http://forum.ubuntuusers.de/topic/113838/?p=1347673, I surmise that Firefox introduced the -new-tab/-new-window parameters to achieve the same. The feature was first reported broken for 2.0.0.1. Presumably with Firefox 2.0, the -a parameter was introduced. Judging by the Iceweasel man pages, connection to an existing process is now meant to be via -a <application-id> rather than -P <profile>, which in turn means that the process needs to be identified by its <application-id>. According to the Iceweasel man pages -P <profile> implies -a firefox--profile, or -a default if profile is default. As far as I understand, this logic is Iceweasel-only, not Firefox, and is implemented in the shell script /usr/lib/iceweasel/iceweasel thus guaranteeing that firefox-bin will always be called with a non-empty <application-id>. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
