Mac OS Leopard: /usr/bin/open -b org.mozilla.firefox 'file:///tmp/test.html/?a=b&c=d' does not work

I just ran into a bug where by a command like this:

> /usr/bin/open -b org.mozilla.firefox 'file:///tmp/test.html/?a=b&c=d'

does not work correctly. It turns out the query string such as '?a=b&c=d' does not get passed to the Firefox as evident in the address bar. The http:// protocol based URLs work correctly.

I suspect the #reference to go to a specific anchor will also not work. I have not tried it though.

This is a bug (regression) on Mac OS Leopard (10.5). It use to work on Mac OS Tiger (10.4). I have already filed a bug with Apple for this.

BTW I have to use the /usr/bin/open command to reliably and repeatedly open a URL in Firefox (i.e. when Firefox is already running or not). That is because if I use the command such as:

> /Application/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox 'file:///tmp/test.html/?a=b&c=d'

when Firefox is already running it give me an error along the lines of "There is already an instance of Firefox running. You can only run one instance of Firefox.".

I thought this information may be useful to some folks who are struggling with the same issue.