Remove one off searches in URL bar in Firefox

remove-one-off-searches-in-urlbar.md

This no longer works because of the code change. I have given up fighiting it.

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The misery of having one-off searches in URL bar comes from a file in a "zip" file omni.ja.

To disable the feature we can edit the file, with the risk of rendering Firefox unusable.

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Make a backup of the file first.

cd /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/Resources/browser/
cp omni.ja omni.ja_backup

Unzip the file and edit

cd ~/temp
cp /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/Resources/browser/omni.ja .
unzip omni.ja
rm omni.ja
vi modules/SearchOneOffs.jsm

// we add a flag to see whether it is from URL bar or search bar
  constructor(container) {
    this.container = container;
this.noOp = container.parentElement.classList.contains("urlbarView");
    this.container.appendChild(

...
// and return an empty list for search engines when it is in URL bar
  async getEngines() {
if (this.noOp) { return []; }
    if (this._engines) {
      return this._engines;
    }

And repack and overwrite

zip -qr9XD omni.ja *
cp omni.ja /Applications/Firefox.app//Contents/Resources/browser/omni.ja

Finally, purge the caches for our hack to take effect.

/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -purgecaches

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The above is done in MacOS and on Firefox 81.0. For earlier versions that file is in chrome/browser/content/browser/search/search-one-offs.js. The same change should work on Linux and Windows as well, but I am not sure about the file locations and the commands to use. Feel free to comment below.

I'm not taking responsibilities if you break any stuff.

Hi! I'm trying to do this on Windows through total commander/code editor. And it won't allow me to rewrite file. Is it different on Mac? Do you think it's windows problem or i should do it with cmd?

Probably you should ask this question on stack overflow/stack exchange with all your commands and error messages.

Ok I opened your mdn link (which i should to begin with:) I think it's because you can only repack it with right options (zip -0DXqr omni.ja). Problem is there is no zip program in cmd, so i have to install it for PATH or something.

Ok I managed to repack it! Could you please explain where exactly the code goes? I found the first part in the beginning. But what about second part?
upd: Forget it found other way https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/k03coh/how_to_really_remove_oneoffs_search_engines/