tag 345382 upstream clone 345382 -1 retitle -1 firefox: please make about:config options self-documenting severity -1 wishlist thanks
On Sun, Jan 22, 2006 at 08:46:46PM +0100, Mike Hommey wrote: > On Sun, Jan 22, 2006 at 07:32:30PM +0100, David Schmitt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > Am Sonntag, 22. Januar 2006 17:03 schrieb Justin Pryzby: > > > Hello David, > > > > > > On Sun, Jan 22, 2006 at 04:19:38PM +0100, David Schmitt wrote: > > > > I have the same problems. Here some numbers: > > > > > > This doesn't answer precisely Eric's question. He said: > > > | Are you certain? If you open say 5 tabs, close them and then open 2 > > > | more, does memory usage increase markedly? Hard numbers please. > > > > > > Note that it involves closing existing tabs, and then reopening back > > > to the same number. > > > > > > This is different from opening a tab (up to a new "record" number of > > > tabs) and then closing it. > > > > > > FF is (probably) using a memory allocation scheme whereby memory > > > doesn't get freed when it is no longer used, but retains allocation > > > and reuses it when it is convenient. I'm not sure I agree with this > > > as a design decision, since memory allocation afaik isn't particularly > > > expensive, and I agree that firefox seems to leak memory, in that it > > > is *common* to end up with an FF process with a 200MB VM space. But I > > > don't know that your tests show this. > > > > Indeed, running under valgrind showed only insignificant memory leaks > > (11kB) > > when loading the munin page. > > > > After further playing I also found, that FF indeed releases the pixmaps in > > the > > xserver when tabs are "replacing" the closed tabs with many graphics, i.e.: > > 3 > > open tabs, close two, open two new empty, then FF seems to release most of > > the X resources (pixmaps) of the closed tabs. > > For more information about Firefox and memory management, and especially > FF 1.5, please have a look at > http://www.chevrel.org/fr/carnet/index.php?2006/01/05/545-parametrer-firefox-par-rapport-a-sa-configuration-memoire > > You'll have to understand french to read it, until I have time to > translate it in english. (or anyone else does it before me) Good enough for me http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chevrel.org%2Ffr%2Fcarnet%2Findex.php%3F2006%2F01%2F05%2F545-parametrer-firefox-par-rapport-a-sa-configuration-memoire&langpair=fr%7Cen&hl=en&c2coff=1&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools I think it would be great if firefox had a "reset" button to help with its memory issues. It could do one of several things. fork+exec a new firefox, and load the usable "state" of the old one. This would fix actual leaks, and fragmentation. "state" should include not only open tabs, but also things like "tab history". reset could free all the cache memory that is supposed to be used for optimization. This hurts an incredible amount on my laptop, which has 128 MB ram. Firefox can take ~1 minute to unswap itself, for no good reason. IMO if it uses ~30MB resident after restarting it, then it should not take anywhere near that long to unswap.. not overcache stuff. If firefox actually isn't leaking memory, then maybe all it needs is tweaks on its cache algorithm. Use some sysconf foo to read the memory size, and cache stuff only in proportion to ram size eg with an MRU algorithm. actually document the about:config foo. Yea, firefox might do everything everyone wants, but nobody knows what button to push. Too, about:config is pretty obscure. -- Clear skies, Justin -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
