Closed Bug 339294 Opened 18 years ago Closed 17 years ago

Firefox fills system memory after staying open

Categories

(Firefox :: General, defect)

1.5.0.x Branch
x86
Windows XP
defect
Not set
major

Tracking

()

RESOLVED INVALID

People

(Reporter: darcmarc, Unassigned)

Details

(Whiteboard: CLOSEME 06/27)

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.3) Gecko/20060426 Firefox/1.5.0.3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.3) Gecko/20060426 Firefox/1.5.0.3

Immediatly on open, firefox takes 45ish MB of ram. In the next couple of seconds, it builds up to over 100MB [took 30 seconds for me, watching task manager] and will hover around that level. After browsing a while, it continues to grasp more and more ram, until there is no more to take. I notice my ram meter reading 94% full, so I bring up the task manager. Sure enough, there it is holding 432,884K of  ram. Possibly a potential security flaw, if the 'memory leaks' [as I call them, perhaps due to lack of better words] are exploitable.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open Firefox.
2. Browse.
3. Watch RAM usage.

Actual Results:  
Ram at 97% full. Killed firefox.exe, drops to 65%. [I have 1024MB of RAM]

Expected Results:  
Not eaten my ram. ;)

about:buildconfig

Build platform
target
i586-pc-msvc

Build tools
Compiler 	Version 	Compiler flags
$(CYGWIN_WRAPPER) cl 	12.00.8804 	-TC -nologo -W3 -Gy -Fd$(PDBFILE)
$(CYGWIN_WRAPPER) cl 	12.00.8804 	-TP -nologo -W3 -Gy -Fd$(PDBFILE)

Configure arguments
--enable-application=browser --enable-update-channel=release --enable-optimize --disable-debug --disable-tests --enable-static --disable-shared --enable-official-branding --enable-svg --enable-canvas --enable-update-packaging
Version: unspecified → 1.5.0.x Branch
The memory leaks are not exploitable, except perhaps as a denial-of-service which we don't generally keep confidential.

From about:buildconfig it looks like you're running an official release 1.5.0.3, is that right? I ask because people usually only include about:buildconfig when they're running a custom build of some kind.

Some people are experiencing these memory problems and some aren't. It would really help if we can get additional clues from what your configuration has in common with the people who leak.

First we should eliminate extensions as a cause: many are known to leak horribly, especially older versions (for example, see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problematic_extensions). First try running in "safe mode" which will turn off profile-installed extensions. If that solves the problem then go over the list I just linked to and make sure you upgrade any that are listed on that page. That list is not exhaustive, it just covers common issues in popular extensions. If safe-mode fixes your leaks but upgrading the known-problematic extensions doesn't solve it then you'll have to figure out the problem extension on your own by taking them away one-by-one.

It's far more interesting to us if it's not caused by your extensions. In that case you might want to temporarily try a "Bon Echo Alpha 2" build, or alpha 3 soon, and see if that fixes it. Same with a trunk nightly (though those are more unstable). Not to switch to permanently, but if the problem goes away then you're being hit by one of the known memory leaks we've already fixed (we've been working on the problem). If we've fixed it there's no point spending more time trying to diagnose the problem, you'll just have to wait for the release.

Bugzilla is a poor vehicle for this investigation, I urge you to participate in the developers newsgroups or mozillazine forums listed at http://www.mozilla.org/support/
Group: security
: Thanks for the clarification on the non-exploitability of memory leaks.
: I incuded buildconfig, as it reccomended I might want to, and this is my first bug report. I'll check my plugins against that list, and try running in safe mode, and let you know what happened.
Even in safe mode, It still coninues to drain my memory. As it was, I was using two of the plugins known to cause memory leaks. It's not as bad now, but it's still taking up to 300megs of ram. [Also tried a reinstall]
Reporter, do you still see this problem with the latest Firefox 2? If not, can you please close this bug as WORKSFORME. Thanks!
Whiteboard: CLOSEME 06/27
I'm still having the problem with the latest public build, but after removing some plug-ins, the severity is lessened. The ram only ever gets up to around 225-250MB of ram after an hour or so of use, but seeing as it's not infinitely inflating, I'll go ahead and resolve the bug.

Thanks!
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 17 years ago
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
(In reply to comment #5)
> I'm still having the problem with the latest public build, but after removing
> some plug-ins, the severity is lessened. The ram only ever gets up to around
> 225-250MB of ram after an hour or so of use, but seeing as it's not infinitely
> inflating, I'll go ahead and resolve the bug.

Chris, are you talking about addons aka extension?  Plugins are a different beast.  

Also, if you determine a problem to be a plugin or addon/extension, then generally the more correct resolution is INVALID, i.e. the problem's cause is 
not due to the mozilla product.  (If you narrow it down to a one or two you might mention them here in the bug)
Resolution: WORKSFORME → INVALID
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