178944 - Add GUI preference to disable disk cache

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Camino Graveyard :: Product Site, enhancement)

Description

[Albert Kammerer]

Navigator's disk cache size can get way out of hand if you aren't paying
attention. There should be some preference you can set to limit the size of the
cache. I have seen (in other browsers) days used (delete anything older than 7
days) as well as size (limit cache size to 20 megs). Either of these would be
good options, though I think I prefer a size limit.

Comment 1

[Simon Fraser [no longer active]]

Sure.

Comment 2

[Bryan Kennedy]

I would also like to see this feature.  Many people have high speed connections
and don't really need a cache.  For me having a cache is a hindrance because it
just frags my hard drive. 

Comment 3

[Jasper]

bump :)

Comment 4

[Greg K.]

Navigator does offer this, but not via GUI. Set a value (in KB) for
'browser.cache.disk.capacity' in your user.js file. For example, to set a 1-MB
cache size:
user_pref("browser.cache.disk.capacity", 1024);

See also <http://preferential.mozdev.org/preferences.html> for further
browser.cache settings.

Comment 5

[Jasper]

Attachment: Adding the text filed to the history tab.

Just me hacking some code and not yet being able to build. Wondering if it
would be any good what Ijust did.

Comment 6

[Jasper]

Attachment: And the appropriate nib file.

Adding the modified nib file, I should have a better look on how to make it
better.

Comment 7

[Stuart Morgan]

Updating summary to reflect comment 4, and adding to the 0.9 list so this can be
included in the pref rewrite.

Comment 8

[Jasper]

Attachment: Adding text input field to history tab.

Fixed a type O.

Comment 9

[Jasper]

We should make sure users can only give MB values instead of Kb's. That would be
better t understand I guess. We should also only allow + values.

Comment 10

[Stuart Morgan]

General comments:
-Yes, we should do it in MB, not KB. This means that we might want to allow
non-integer values (e.g., 2.5MB) and round to the nearest KB--probably not a big
deal either way though, since resolution of less than 1MB is hardly necesary.
-Since one very common request for this comes from users who want *no* cache, we
should consider having a checkbox to disable/enable the cache, since that's more
intuitive for the user than entering 0 MB.
-What is the default value for this? Is it unbounded by default? What *should*
our default be?

Patch comments:
browser.cache.memory.capacity isn't the right pref; that controlls the *memory*
cache, which users shouldn't need to mess with.

Comment 11

[Stuart Morgan]

Based on discussions, changing bug to "Add GUI preference to disable disk cache"
(was "Add GUI for preference to limit disk cache size"). There is already a
default limit on the cache size, and it's doubtful that most people would know
what a good value would be (and not be able to edit user.js). Turning off the
disk cache has relatively easy-to-understand/explain performance differences,
and is rapidly becoming more useful as broadband becomes more common.

Unless someone has a compelling argument for a GUI to change the actual cache
size, we shouldn't add it.

One thing we should test is the effect of disabling cache on favicons. I assume
they would all be lost at every quit, which we would want to mention.

Comment 12

[Josh Aas]

Recent discussions on irc.mozilla.org have leaned towards not adding this pref.
Bumping this bug to 1.0 and taking it.

Comment 13

[Bruce Davidson]

Following further discussion there's general agreement that we don't want to
expose this option in the GUI. As this is sometimes requested (though can't work
out why myself - would have thought browsing with cache and then doing a browser
reset was better) agreed to reassign to the help component and Jasper, so that
it gets mentioned in the hints & tips somewhere. (Probably after about:config
has been fixed.)

Comment 14

[Jasper]

Reassigning back to Mike, I think we should indeed not implement this. Instead
we should add it to the hidden prefs page.

Comment 15

[Mike Pinkerton (not reading bugmail)]

jasper, if you're writing that page, shouldn't you own this bug?

Comment 16

[Bruce Davidson]

The "Hidden Preferences" page on caminobrowser.org documents how to disable this
option. Following the discussion in comments 12-15 I believe we can resolve this
as FIXED.

Comment 17

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

Mass move of mis-filed bugs out of obsolete component; apologies for bugspam.