How to reduce Firefox memory consumption
Hello,
I am working at HP Software. We have developed a Firefox extension that allows automating user actions for creation of end to end test scripts and running them in a load test. Each script is run by a virtual user that runs a browser instance. It is pretty similar in concept to selenium only that it is oriented for performance and load testing as oppose to functional testing.
We have noticed that memory consumption of recent Firefox versions (e.g. 30 to 32) is gradually growing. To be more precise Firefox memory footprint is 20 MB bigger than it was in version 22. This affect the amount of virtual users our customers can run a single computer.
I have read all the best practices listed in this article https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-uses-too-much-memory-ram?esab=a&as=aaq
I am looking for a more drill down information and best practices of how to reduce the memory consumption. For example: how can we configure Firefox to run with less modules.
I would highly appreciate if we can hold a meeting to discuss our use case in details.
Best Regards, Shlomi Nissim HP Software
Tutte le risposte (5)
You can inspect the Firefox memory usage on the about:memory page to see if you can find out what causes the difference.
Thanks for the prompt reply. about:memory does not tell why the memory has grown between one Firefox version to another. It is also not detailed enough to hint on native modules that consume this memory.
I don't know if this can help.
Go to the Mozilla Add-ons Web Page {web link} (There’s a lot of good stuff here) and search for memory.
Note that there is a Verbose check-box in the current Firefox version at the top next to "Show Memory Reports" to get more details.
Thanks for the help guys. We will dive more deeply into these addons and see if we reduce the footprint somehow. it will take sometime... I will update as soon as we have progress