297313 - multiple cookies files made in profile

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 257288

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Allan]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050511 Firefox/1.0.4
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050511 Firefox/1.0.4

For each web page I visit, a new cookie file is made.  The are numbered
"cookies.txt", "cookies-1.txt", "ccokies-2.txt"..."cookies-xx.txt".  As the
quanitiy of these files increase, the loading speed of a web page decreases.

We have a special setup with our corporate computers for mobility that might be
very much involved in this problems but I do not want to migrate to Firefox from
Mozilla until I can determine the cause and solution/workaround for this. 
Further details on system setup in the steps to reproduce.

Also, any insight as to what conditions cause the creation of "cookies-x.txt"
files would be helpful in troubleshooting this.  Thanks

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.  Redirect the user profile "Applications Data" to a server (Windows 2000
Server) location.
2.  Syncronize with this folder so that the workstation/laptop can be
disconnected from the server
3.  Browse websites on and off line
Actual Results:  
A new "cookies-x.txt" file is made for each web page opened that contains
cookies from all previous pages visited plus the cookie from the new site.

Expected Results:  
Should only be a single "cookies.txt" file that get updated with the new cookies.

Comment 1

[Rich Walsh]

Do the extra files have the 'Hidden' or 'System' file attribute set?

Comment 2

[zug_treno]

Related to Core bug 257288?

Comment 3

[Allan]

(In reply to comment #1)
> Do the extra files have the 'Hidden' or 'System' file attribute set?
> 
No, they do not have these attibutes set.  I checked the security settings to be
sure and the user and "system" have total control over these files.  The only
thing that I saw interesting was that the redirected "Applications Data" folder
was "read-only" and "hidden" (the sub files and directories are not) while the
local "Applications Data" folder is just "read-only" (sub files and folders are
not) and this is normal.

Comment 4

[Allan]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Related to Core bug 257288?

This does not seem to be the same bug.  When I used the Mozilla Suite, the
cookies seemed to work fine for me.  Just when I started testing Firefox in the
past few months did this problem appear in Firefox.

Comment 5

[Allan]

(In reply to comment #0)

> For each web page I visit, a new cookie file is made.  The are numbered
> "cookies.txt", "cookies-1.txt", "ccokies-2.txt"..."cookies-xx.txt".  As the
> quanitiy of these files increase, the loading speed of a web page decreases.
> 
I did find the problem and once found, I noticed some passing comments in replys
to other bugs.

A file called "cookies.txt.moztmp" was Read-Only.  One I deleted that file all
was ok.  I suspect that this resulted from a past process of write protecting
the cookies file in Netscape to prevent cookies from being "permanently" saved.
 This permited a clean cookies file in each session of Netscape.  This carried
over into Mozilla and then into Firefox.  With a more recent release of Firefox,
this write protected file started causing problems.

After deleting the "cookies.txt.moztmp" file, Firefox started storing cookies
correctly (or at least not making multiple "cookies-x.txt" files).

Once found, I saw similar issues with other cookie related files in Bugzilla. 
Note particularly bug 257288 and Comment #20 mentions this file.

I am not sure if this is a duplicate of bug 257288 since different files are
discussed in the inital comment, but they are definitly very related and needs
to be fixed.

Comment 6

[David E. Ross]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060130 SeaMonkey/1.0

This is indeed related to bug #257288.  With SeaMonkey, it only happens when I mark cookie.txt read-only.  

Comment 7

[mike_brown]

(In reply to comment #5)
> (In reply to comment #0)
>  
> A file called "cookies.txt.moztmp" was Read-Only.  One I deleted that file all
> was ok.  I suspect that this resulted from a past process of write protecting
> the cookies file in Netscape to prevent cookies from being "permanently"      > saved.   This permited a clean cookies file in each session of Netscape.  This > carried over into Mozilla and then into Firefox.  With a more recent release   > of Firefox,  this write protected file started causing problems.

If I might add my $0.02:  I'm interjecting here so I may address the developers working on the issue.  Not because I, too, would like a "clean cookies file" in a new session but, rather, that I would like a cookies file WITH ONLY SELECTED COOKIES in it.  In other words; one cookies files with certain cookies flagged as "permanent" (i.e. individual cookie entries "write protected") and allowing all sites during the session to add new cookies.  On closing FF, all cookies would be deleted EXCEPT the "permanent" ones.  I'd also like to see a way in the cookie manager to flag and unflag certain cookies.  In the past I've write protected my cookies file to accomplish this.

My rationale:  I log into quite a number of suppliers web sites for my business that require userid/password to enter (not to mention hotmail and similar webmail site).  For these, I'd like my cookies file to always remember my info.  For the less savory sites I might accidentally visit <ahem!> ;-) I don't want any cookies saved.

Comment 8

[zug_treno]

(In reply to comment #7)
> In other words; one cookies files with certain cookies flagged
> as "permanent" (i.e. individual cookie entries "write protected") and allowing
> all sites during the session to add new cookies.

Duplicate of Core bug 315134/bug 284315/Core bug 149544?