This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

How to open a new window from the CLI, not from the default profile

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 16 views
  • Last reply by John99

more options

Hi

I tried to open a new FF window but with a special profile.

I have a main FF instance running, using the default profile.

Let's say I open a new instance using no-remote option like this :

firefox -no-remote -P "prism" http://www.mozilla.org

Now I want to open a new window using the prism profile. CTRL+N works, but I need it from the CLI. Something like this :

firefox -new-window -P "prism" http://www.newurl.com

But it doesn't works, it tries to launch a new process, which fail : I already have a process running.

Thanks for your help

Hi I tried to open a new FF window but with a special profile. I have a main FF instance running, using the default profile. Let's say I open a new instance using no-remote option like this : firefox -no-remote -P "prism" http://www.mozilla.org Now I want to open a new window using the prism profile. CTRL+N works, but I need it from the CLI. Something like this : firefox -new-window -P "prism" http://www.newurl.com But it doesn't works, it tries to launch a new process, which fail : I already have a process running. Thanks for your help

All Replies (3)

more options

Using -no-remote allows you to open another instance of firefox. Once that is running you may open new windows from within Firefox.

You may not run yet another instance of Firefox from a profile that is in use, Firefox locks the profile. Using a plain Firefox from the CLI whilst Firefox is open will open a new Firefox window in the profile in use so use

more options

Hi John

Well the thing is, in that case, it opens a new window with the default profile, not the "prism" one. Because I have 2 instance of FF running : 1 with default profile, 1 with prism profile. No way to "force" ff to use the prism profile

Modified by fgaudet

more options

This seems a rather odd use case, why not just set "prism" as the default.

I think if you do not set any browser as a default then the last version opened is effectively the default with the chosen profile.

So if your ordinary Firefox is not actually set as default, you should be able to open that, then using no remote open the "prism" profile firefox, with that being the one that opens repeatedly.