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How to disable auto-selection of URL when clicking in the urlbar?

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At some point (I usually use the more stable ESR version of Firefox on most computers, so I don't know exactly when), Firefox seems to have changed so that when you click in the urlbar, the entire URL gets highlighted.

In Firefox 77 (I am currently using a computer where the ESR version is not in the distro repo), this seems to have further changed (with the annoying and ugly self-bloating urlbar that many people hate), and even though the text appears to be selected, it is not actually "selected" as far as Linux/X copy/paste is concerned (that is, it has not been copied into the copy clipboard).

In the past, it was convenient for me, and wired into my fingers, to:

  • click just once in the appropriate place in the urlbar to activate it, if I wanted to edit an URL (eg, fix typo, change a parameter, etc),
  • to double-click to select the whole URL and automagically copy it into the X copy clipboard. I could then just middle-click to paste the URL elsewhere for further use (eg, into an email). Anyone who uses X regularly knows that this is an essential core feature and part of everyday workflow.

This new auto-selection feature does not appear to work properly with X copy/paste: it seems that I now have to triple-click:

  • once to activate the urlbar (and (only) "select" the URL),
  • again to unselect the URL,
  • and, finally, a third time to re-select the URL and trigger the X select/copy function.

Is there a way to revert the previous behaviour, so that the urlbar is only "activated" with single-click, and requires double-click to actually select/copy the URL?

At some point (I usually use the more stable ESR version of Firefox on most computers, so I don't know exactly when), Firefox seems to have changed so that when you click in the urlbar, the entire URL gets highlighted. In Firefox 77 (I am currently using a computer where the ESR version is not in the distro repo), this seems to have further changed (with the annoying and ugly self-bloating urlbar that many people hate), and even though the text ''appears'' to be selected, it is not actually "selected" as far as Linux/X copy/paste is concerned (that is, it has not been copied into the copy clipboard). In the past, it was convenient for me, and wired into my fingers, to: * '''click just once''' in the appropriate place in the urlbar to activate it, if I wanted to edit an URL (eg, fix typo, change a parameter, etc), * to '''double-click''' to select the whole URL and automagically copy it into the X copy clipboard. I could then just middle-click to paste the URL elsewhere for further use (eg, into an email). Anyone who uses X regularly knows that this is an essential core feature and part of everyday workflow. This new auto-selection feature does not appear to work properly with X copy/paste: it seems that I now have to '''triple-click''': * once to activate the urlbar (and (only) "select" the URL), * again to unselect the URL, * and, finally, a third time to re-select the URL and trigger the X select/copy function. Is there a way to revert the previous behaviour, so that the urlbar is only "activated" with single-click, and requires double-click to actually select/copy the URL?

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Hello,

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Unfortunately it isn't possible to revert to the previous state used on Linux where clicking once didn't visually select the URL.

In particular on Linux a single click selects all without primary selection, a double click selects a word, and a triple click selects all with primary selection (bug 333714#c32)

The two clickSelectsAll prefs are no longer supported in Firefox 75 and newer and you will have to get used to the new behavior.

  • Bug 1621570 - browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll=false has no effect since 75b1
  • Bug 333714 - browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll should default to true on all platforms [75]

(please do not comment in bug reports
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html
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