Thread: Firefox memory leaks?

  1. #1
    and the hat of copycat stevesmithx's Avatar
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    Firefox memory leaks?

    After recent update to 3.0.11 i am seeing a lot of memory usage by Fx.
    For opening just 10 tabs, it is around 300Mb. [it gets higher, and reaches as high as 500mb].
    Response is very slow at that point. Anybody else having similar problems?. I have a lot of extensions installed(firebug,webdeveloper,aadvark,etc,). Could that be causing the problem?.
    Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted
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    I am experiencing very high CPU usage with Firefox on Linux (that caused slowdowns). I think it's due to the flash plugin, though. I installed a flash blocker and haven't noticed any slowdowns since then.

    If you can reproduce the slowdowns at will, you can just disable those extensions one by one and see.

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    Registered User hk_mp5kpdw's Avatar
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    I can't seem to get the "When Firefox starts: Show windows and tabs from last time" option to work correctly... it only shows a blank page. I've only got noscript as a plug-in/extension.
    "Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods."
    -Christopher Hitchens

  4. #4
    and the hat of copycat stevesmithx's Avatar
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    Thanks for the replies.
    I tried disabling all plugins still no improvement.(It starts with 50Mb initially and goes high like crazy). Time for a reinstall i guess..
    Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted
    - Albert Einstein.


    No programming language is perfect. There is not even a single best language; there are only languages well suited or perhaps poorly suited for particular purposes.
    - Herbert Mayer

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    int x = *((int *) NULL); Cactus_Hugger's Avatar
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    Firefox leaks, but it's a slow & gradual thing. Flash accelerates the process. (This is under Linux...) Session manager makes life easier - close firefox, open firefox, restore last session. Memory under control, for a while. (Like, a couple of days.) It's using about 150-200MHz worth of CPU at the moment.
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    I'm not sure if my firefox leaks memory. Memory usage does increase over a few days, but my number of tabs increases linearly, too. I usually close it and restart at about 40 tabs.

  7. #7
    Woof, woof! zacs7's Avatar
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    Pretty much every build I've used has leaked... which is why I don't use Fire "Opps where did that pointer go?" Fox.

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    When you have 4GB of RAM, the problem is a bit more bearable .

  9. #9
    Cat without Hat CornedBee's Avatar
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    Also, the 3.x was a massive improvement over 2.x. My own experience has been pretty much leak-free since I upgraded.
    All the buzzt!
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    Registered User hk_mp5kpdw's Avatar
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    "Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods."
    -Christopher Hitchens

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    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hk_mp5kpdw View Post
    That is good news for the forthcoming MKbulletin -- "The most resource heavy forum software in the universe!"
    Last edited by MK27; 06-18-2009 at 02:06 PM.
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    GNU C Function and Macro Index -- glibc reference manual
    The C Book -- nice online learner guide
    Current ISO draft standard
    CCAN -- new CPAN like open source library repository
    3 (different) GNU debugger tutorials: #1 -- #2 -- #3
    cpwiki -- our wiki on sourceforge

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    Frequently Quite Prolix dwks's Avatar
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    @cyberfish: I usually close my firefox (well, iceweasel) when I have about sixty tabs, I think . . . .

    I have quite a bit of memory, so I don't mind when firefox takes a lot of it. What annoys me is firefox's plugins (usually flash) taking a little bit of my CPU time. You can usually SIGSTOP or SIGTERM the flash plugin without hurting firefox itself, though, fortunately.
    dwk

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  13. #13
    C++まいる!Cをこわせ!
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    You could also create a new Firefox profile to clean up the old should you experience problems with it. It cleans up most errors, though not memory leaks from Firefox itself, of course.
    A lot plugins are known to have leaks, though.

    But I can tell you that you are not alone with Firefox eating a lot of memory and being sluggish at times.
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    Registered User ssharish2005's Avatar
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    Well, have any come across memory leaks on IE. I seem to stangly see them on my machine. I use IE at work. It just takes a hell lot of memory which brings the whole system down.

    -ssharish
    Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving - Einstein

  15. #15
    Cat without Hat CornedBee's Avatar
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    There's a very famous leak in IE6's handling of JavaScript/DOM interaction. It's there in a less discoverable way in IE7, too.
    All the buzzt!
    CornedBee

    "There is not now, nor has there ever been, nor will there ever be, any programming language in which it is the least bit difficult to write bad code."
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