{"id":3550,"date":"2023-04-10T12:07:10","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T11:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pmortensen.eu\/world2\/?p=3550"},"modified":"2023-05-09T14:17:56","modified_gmt":"2023-05-09T13:17:56","slug":"extracting-edit-summaries-from-firefox-e-g-for-stack-overflow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pmortensen.eu\/world2\/2023\/04\/10\/extracting-edit-summaries-from-firefox-e-g-for-stack-overflow\/","title":{"rendered":"Extracting edit summaries from Firefox (e.g., for Stack Overflow)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The short version: Past edit summaries<\/a> used on Stack Overflow<\/a> can be extracted from Firefox using a simple Linux (or Windows) command line with the SQL query “SELECT fieldname, value FROM moz_formhistory”:<\/p>\n

\r\nsqlite3 formhistory.sqlite "SELECT fieldname, value FROM moz_formhistory" | grep 'edit-comment' | sort\r\n<\/pre>\n
The current directory must be where file formhistory.sqlite<\/em> is. And SQLite 3 must be installed. And on Linux, Firefox must not be active on (using) that “profile” (there is usually only one profile by default); otherwise the result is “Error: database is locked”<\/em>. A workaround for the former (to avoid having to quit Firefox) is to make a copy of file formhistory.sqlite<\/em> and use the copy instead.<\/p>\n
This can also be used when migrating to a new computer or to a new Firefox profile.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Finding formhistory.sqlite<\/em><\/h2>\n
In about:profiles<\/em>, it is on the line “Root Directory” (for the profile in question). Press “Open Directory” to get a convenient way to copy\/paste it.<\/p>\n
Sample (Linux):<\/p>\n
\r\n\/home\/mortensen\/.mozilla\/firefox\/moi8yf2e.default\r\n<\/pre>\n
Command line<\/h2>\n
Windows<\/h3>\n
Installation of SQLite 3<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Sample command-line<\/p>\n
\r\ncd C:\\Users\\someUser\\AppData\\Roaming\\Mozilla\\Firefox\\Profiles\\wy9qk6en.default\r\nsqlite3 formhistory.sqlite "SELECT fieldname, value FROM moz_formhistory" | grep 'edit-comment'\r\n<\/pre>\n
Sample output<\/h2>\n
\r\nedit-comment|Removed meta information (this belongs in comments).\r\nedit-comment|Copy edited (e.g. ref. <https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1Dax90QyXgI&t=17m54s>). Dressed the naked link.\r\nedit-comment|Removed the (rhetorical) question - it is not a real question (or at least not one we would answer on this site).\r\nedit-comment|Removed the unrelated (rhetorical) question - it is not a real question (or at least not one we would answer on this site).\r\nedit-comment|Active reading [<https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/NetBeans> <https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Task_Manager_(Windows)> <https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/can%27t#Verb>]. Jeopardy compliance.\r\nedit-comment|Fixed the weird syntax highlighting (as a result, the diff looks more extensive than it really is - use view "Side-by-side Markdown" to compare).\r\nedit-comment|Active reading [<https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/NetBeans> - it is also the literal name of the folder].\r\n<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The short version: Past edit summaries used on Stack Overflow can be extracted from Firefox using a simple Linux (or Windows) command line with the SQL query “SELECT fieldname, value FROM moz_formhistory”: The current directory must be where file formhistory.sqlite …<\/p>\n
  Extracting edit summaries from Firefox (e.g., for Stack Overflow)<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pmortensen.eu\/world2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pmortensen.eu\/world2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pmortensen.eu\/world2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pmortensen.eu\/world2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pmortensen.eu\/world2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3550"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/pmortensen.eu\/world2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3791,"href":"https:\/\/pmortensen.eu\/world2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550\/revisions\/3791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pmortensen.eu\/world2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pmortensen.eu\/world2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pmortensen.eu\/world2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}