[PLUG] Firefox Heap Memory Constipation

Pete Lancashire pete at petelancashire.com
Mon Jun 25 18:01:42 UTC 2007


Also take a look at swiftfox  http://getswiftfox.com

>> Keith Lofstrom (keithl at kl-ic.com) typed this ...
>> > I typically leave a firefox window ( or three or four or ten ) open
>> > all the time.  This could be the source of my crashes, as it eats
>> > up all my memory.  Any suggestions of other things to look at in
>> > order to debug this?
>
> On Sun, Jun 24, 2007 at 09:52:01PM -0700, Kurt Sussman wrote:
>> I used a nice page that listed a bunch of config settings that limit the
>> amount of memory that Firefox can use. This isn't it, but it's got about
>> 70% of what I remember using.
>>
>>   http://www.aviransplace.com/2006/10/22/tip-reduce-firefox-memory-usage/
>>
> ...
>> Any ideas? Keith, if you try the config settings on this page and start
>> to see the same behavior, please let me know!
>
> The pointer got me looking in the right direction, thanks.  It turns
> out that "this is not a bug, it's a FEATURE" in the minds of firefox
> developers.  There is a firefox memory area called a heap, which
> firefox uses for all sorts of things.  When firefox needs more
> memory - for example, to render a large image - it increases the heap.
> When firefox is done with that task, it keeps the empty heap memory,
> "just in case".  The so-called rationale is that if you run out of
> real memory, some of the heap will just get swapped out.  "All your
> RAM are belong to us", I suppose.  In the real world, this just
> slows down everything else, slows down program exit, reduces
> security, and increases crash probability.
>
> You can limit memory, but only per tab/window, not for the whole
> application.  And there is no way to tell firefox to let go of the
> heap when it is done with it, or after an idle time.  This should
> at least be an option, if not the default behavior.
>
> Well - I know of one way to fight the attitude.  Link to this image:
> http://www.keithl.com/billheap.jpg
>
> grump, grump, grump!
>
> Keith
>
> --
> Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
> KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
> Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs
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