firefox memory footprint

remonsim · 2004-06-26 01:32:09

greetings,

i write regarding the memory footprint of the mozilla-firefox package for arch. i downloaded the gtk2/xft binary of firefox 0.9 from the mozilla website and used it in anticipation of the arch package being released. previously on my arch box i had used the mozilla-fire* package rather than the mozilla.org binary. but now i have noticed a discrepency in memory footprint between the two. 'ps v' gives for the arch package and mozilla.org package, respectively:
<pre>
1798 pts/1 S 0:04 0 66 37829 23280 18.2 /opt/mozilla-firefox/l
1979 pts/1 S 0:06 9 9190 27345 19564 15.3 /tmp/firefox/firefox
</pre>
both were taken immediately after firefox startup. this seems to be a pretty significant difference. it is enough for me to prefer the mozilla.org package on my obsolete box with 128 megs ram, anyway.

p.s. i've been using arch for some time now. i would just like to take this opportunity to thank those who created and maintain arch linux. it is an enjoyable distribution

dp · 2004-06-26 02:09:05

i have mozilla-firefox using mem this way:

13600 pts/32   S      0:00      0    47  3604 2140  0.2 /opt/gnome/libexec/gconfd-2 11
13651 pts/32   S+     0:00      0   577  1666 1096  0.1 /bin/sh /opt/mozilla-firefox/bin/firefox
13669 pts/32   S+     0:00      0   577  1702 1108  0.1 /bin/sh /opt/mozilla-firefox/lib/firefox-0.9/run-mozilla.sh /opt
13674 pts/32   S+     0:02      0    66 49069 27464  3.5 /opt/mozilla-firefox/lib/firefox-0.9/firefox-bin
13675 pts/32   S+     0:00      0    66 49069 27464  3.5 /opt/mozilla-firefox/lib/firefox-0.9/firefox-bin
13676 pts/32   S+     0:00      0    66 49069 27464  3.5 /opt/mozilla-firefox/lib/firefox-0.9/firefox-bin
13678 pts/33   Ss     0:00      0   577  2854 2456  0.3 -bash
13691 pts/32   S+     0:00      0    66 49069 27464  3.5 /opt/mozilla-firefox/lib/firefox-0.9/firefox-bin
13692 pts/32   S+     0:00      0    66 49069 27464  3.5 /opt/mozilla-firefox/lib/firefox-0.9/firefox-bin
13693 pts/32   S+     0:00      0    66 49069 27464  3.5 /opt/mozilla-firefox/lib/firefox-0.9/firefox-bin
13694 pts/32   S+     0:00      0    66 49069 27464  3.5 /opt/mozilla-firefox/lib/firefox-0.9/firefox-bin

and i cannot see any problem with that

but i found out something strange while running it:

[damir@Asteraceae /]$ mozilla-firefox 
LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /opt/mozilla-plugins/Blender3DPlugin.so [/opt/mozilla-plugins/Blender3DPlugin.so: undefined symbol: _ZTV16nsQueryInterface]
libxpt: bad magic header in input file; found 'XPCOM
TypeLib
–@', expected 'XPCOMnTypeLibrn32'
*** loading the extensions datasource
[damir@Asteraceae /]$

the blender plugin is broken --- funny enough: i hear the first time that such thing exist, so it would be nice that someone else confirm this ;-)

i3839 · 2004-06-26 09:12:24

Make sure that all the settings are the same, especially font and cache settings.

remonsim · 2004-06-26 12:03:36

both using the same profile, so no difference in configuration

dp · 2004-06-26 12:59:35

did you compiled the one from the mozilla.org also with i686 optimizations?

remonsim · 2004-06-26 15:06:01

you will have to ask that question to mozilla.org. but i assume it incoporates i686 optimisations since the name of the tarball is firefox-0.9-i686-linux-gtk2+xft-installer.tar.gz

i have remembered that with the mozilla.org binary i did a 'custom' install and deselected everything (including developer tools, the crash reporting functionality, etc.). that may account for the difference. i'm not sure.

i note no difference in speed between the two builds, but that of course is a very subjective statement. in fact i at first thought the mozilla.org binary was more responsive, but i have since changed my mind. the new default skin itself seems less sluggish than the old 0.8 default and i think that was colouring my initial perception.

please note that i am not complaining...just pointing out an observation. there may be good reason for the higher memory usage; and/or the reason may be beyond the control of the package maintainer. i am sure 90% of archers have more ram than me and wouldn't care if it used twice as much as the mozilla.org binary.

i3839 · 2004-06-27 00:11:08

Statically linked programs/libs use much less memory, so that may explain something too, perhaps...

To see the compile options go to about:buildconfig.

Arch Linux

#1 2004-06-26 01:32:09

firefox memory footprint

#2 2004-06-26 02:09:05

Re: firefox memory footprint

#3 2004-06-26 09:12:24

Re: firefox memory footprint

#4 2004-06-26 12:03:36

Re: firefox memory footprint

#5 2004-06-26 12:59:35

Re: firefox memory footprint

#6 2004-06-26 15:06:01

Re: firefox memory footprint

#7 2004-06-27 00:11:08

Re: firefox memory footprint

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