502731 - Memory leak only cleaned up if window refocused

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Jimmy Happy]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1) Gecko/20090624 Firefox/3.5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1) Gecko/20090624 Firefox/3.5

If I leave Firefox open with 10 tabs open, and minimize it, leaving
it open for a day or 2, there is a memory leak.

If it is still possible, I can refocus the Firefox window while the
system is swapping the memory (on the hard drive)
and the memory get's released. If that doesn't work, closing a tab
will remove the excess memory.

If it fails (and crashes), the built-in Session Manager sometimes loses
data as well. In one case, an entire window or tab was lost and
was not included in the list of windows and tabs to restore (in the Session Manager).

My suggestion is to change the memory manager to make it
clean up often, even when the window is unfocused.

This seems like a regression from Firefox 3.5 RC3,
where the memory is cleaned up often.

This occurs mostly in Linux. I haven't tried testing it out in Windows.

This was tested in a clean environment. (Clean profile, no plugins on)

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Start a clean session by opening Firefox with the Profile Manager:
./firefox -ProfileManager (LINUX)
2. Create a clean profile. (new one)
3. Disable any plugins installed in Firefox.
4. Open Javascript/CSS/HTML/Image intensive websites, like cnn.com, yahoo.com, microsoft.com.
5. Minimize the window. Look at the memory usage.
6. Keep it open (still minimized) for a day or 2. 
7. Look at memory again. If memory doesn't go up, refocus the window.
   The memory may go up at that point.
8. As fast as possible, close a tab.
9. Examine memory usage again. The memory usage should have
   dropped significantly.
Actual Results:  
Memory leak occurred, had to close a tab to get Firefox's memory manager
to free up memory.

Expected Results:  
Firefox's memory manager should have freed memory periodically,
like in Firefox 3.5 RC3.

Linux:
OS: Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
Firefox: Mozilla official build (from Mozilla's website - NOT repository build!)

Windows:
Version: Windows XP SP2
Firefox: Mozilla official build (from Mozilla's website)

Comment 1

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Well, there were no changes between RC3 and 3.5, so...
But, please read http://quality.mozilla.org/bug-writing-guidelines#memory

Comment 2

[Jimmy Happy]

I am sure my machine does not have any problems... so that's ruled out.

So wait... does that mean there were minor changes?
Or is it just a rename from RC3 to 3.5 FINAL?

Comment 3

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Did you read the links in the article? They have some useful info for this bug. No changes occurred.

Comment 4

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

3.5 final is basically a rename of RC3 without changes except Build ID.

Comment 5

[Jimmy Happy]

OK, I see. 
Let me boot into my Ubuntu Linux and I'll see what I can do.

It may take a while to get the results (as I said, it takes a day or 2 to reproduce the bug).

Comment 6

[Chris Huey]

I have the same issues with Firefox 3.5 under WinXP. Ran the leak-gauge.pl and it at the end it says:

Leaked 0 out of 0 DOM Windows
Leaked 0 out of 124 documents
Leaked 47 out of 48 docshells
Leaked content nodes within 89 out of 137 documents

I have the nspr.log and a screen shot from Process Explorer showing the memory climbing when unfocused, then it drops shortly after a focus gained event.

Comment 7

[Chris Huey]

I suppose I should add that I have the config.trim_on_minimize config boolean set to TRUE.

Comment 8

[Синица]

Stop bothering developers with this minor problem, you are the only one, who has it.

Comment 9

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Синица, if the reporter can provide the information we need, we will fix it. No need to be rude

Comment 10

[Jo Hermans]

excuses for comment 8, some is spamming various bugs, see bug 567347

Comment 11

[Chris Huey]

For what it's worth, this is also happening in FF 3.6. If left minimized over a few days, the memory usage can easily climb to several gigs. Stopping the process takes a long time, on the order of minutes. At times I have to kill the process because it becomes non-responsive.

Comment 12

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Reporter, are you still seeing this issue with Firefox 4.0.1 or later in safe mode or a fresh profile? If not, please close. These links can help you in your testing.
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Safe+Mode
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles

Comment 13

[Chris Huey]

I have not seen this issue recur with Firefox 4.0.1. It's been running for over a week and the memory usage is what I would expect.

Comment 14

[Chris Huey]

Attachment: Process Explorer screen shot of FIrefox 4.0.1

I spoke too soon. Firefox 4.0.1 got up to 1.2GB within the last two days and became non-responsive. I had to kill the process to recover. After restarting, it's sitting at around 760MB.

Comment 15

[Chris Huey]

And, for what it's worth, here is what about:memory says after the restart:

Memory Usage  
      Overview
            Memory mapped:
            353,370,112
	  
            Memory in use:
            335,544,844
    
      Other Information
        Description                            Value
	malloc/allocated                 335,547,972
        malloc/mapped                    353,370,112
        malloc/committed                 347,881,472
        malloc/dirty                       3,350,528
        win32/privatebytes               402,087,936
        win32/workingset                 358,961,152
        js/gc-heap                        47,185,920
        js/string-data                    16,667,740
        js/mjit-code                       7,215,024
        storage/sqlite/pagecache           6,446,088
        storage/sqlite/other               1,321,984
        gfx/d2d/surfacecache                       0
        gfx/d2d/surfacevram                        0
        gfx/surface/win                  322,481,649
        images/chrome/used/raw                     0
        images/chrome/used/uncompressed      356,500
        images/chrome/unused/raw                   0
        images/chrome/unused/uncompressed          0
        images/content/used/raw           10,105,279
        images/content/used/uncompressed     954,948
        images/content/unused/raw                  0
        images/content/unused/uncompressed         0
        layout/all                        16,750,823
        layout/bidi                            1,594
        content/canvas/2d_pixel_bytes      1,280,032
        gfx/surface/image                     14,760

Comment 16

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

No reply, INCOMPLETE. Please retest with Firefox 4 or later and a new profile (http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles). Also, ensure you have the most up to date graphics drivers, operating system updates, and plugin versions (flash, java, etc). If you continue to see this issue with the newest Firefox and a new profile, then please comment on this bug.