Move firefox profile and cache into RAM tmpfs.

Posted 11-22-2017 at 03:57 AM by number22
Updated 11-22-2017 at 10:48 AM by number22

Tags cache, firefox, profile, ram, tmpfs

Relocating firefox's profile and cache into tmpfs of RAM; speed up firefox and save your hard drive's lifespan and space.

Change XXXX.UserProfile to exactly to your path of course.

creating backup locations first:

Code:

mkdir ~/backup/firefox.profile
mkdir ~/backup/firefox.cache
chmod 700 ~/backup/firefox.*

edit your /etc/fstab add following lines files will be mounted on firefox original locations, profile and cache:

Code:

tmpfs  your_home/.mozilla/firefox/XXXX.UserProfile   tmpfs size=250M,user,exec,uid=uid#,gid=100   0     0

tmpfs  your_home/.cache/mozilla/firefox/XXXX.UserProfile  tmpfs size=250M,user,exec,uid=uid#,gid=100   0     0

Before you mount these drives, you need backup all its files, and clean these space, needs root to mount all these new ram drive partitions.

Code:

cd ~/.mozilla/firefox/XXXX.UserProfile
cp -a * ~/backup/firefox.profile
cd ~/.cache/mozilla/firefox/XXXX.UserProfile
cp -a * ~/backup/firefox.cache

Add following lines into your .bash_profile, which will copy your backup firefox cache and profile into memory disk whenever you login.

Code:

if [ "$(find $HOME/.mozilla/firefox/XXXX.UserProfile/ -maxdepth 0 -empty)" ]; then
   rsync -ah $HOME/backup/firefox.profile/   $HOME/.mozilla/firefox/XXXX.UserProfile/ --delete-before
else
   echo -n "firefox profile is already filled ";
fi

if [ "$(find $HOME/.cache/mozilla/firefox/XXXX.UserProfile/ -maxdepth 0 -empty)" ]; then
   rsync -ah $HOME/backup/firefox.cache/    $HOME/.cache/mozilla/firefox/XXXX.UserProfile/ --delete-before
else
   echo " cache is already restored";
fi

sleep 0.1

now creating a script to manual sync your firefox profile and cache, which can be used by cron job too:

vim ~/sbin/firefox_sync

Code:

#!/bin/sh
#check both directory exist then back up when there is no lock file inside firefox profile 
if [[ -d ~/.mozilla/firefox/XXXX.UserProfile ] && [-d ~/.cache/mozilla/firefox/XXXX.UserProfile]] && [[ -d ~/backup/firefox.profile ] && [-d ~/backup/firefox.cache ]]; then
if [ -L ~/.mozilla/firefox/XXXX.UserProfile/lock ]; then
   echo "lock file exist"
   exit 1
else
rsync -ah ~/.mozilla/firefox/XXXX.UserProfile/  ~/backup/firefox.profile/ --delete-before
rsync -ah  ~/.cache/mozilla/firefox/XXXX.UserProfile/ ~/backup/firefox.cache/ --delete-before
fi;
fi

sleep 0.1
exit 0

save it then chmod 700 make it manually executable. You can use this script in .bash_logout or crontab -e .

Go to firefox preference, security and privacy; override automatic cache management and change its size to anything less than 250MB.or modify firefox's options in user.js/about:config:

Code:

user_pref("browser.cache.disk.capacity", 234496);
user_pref("browser.cache.disk.smart_size.enabled", false);
user_pref("browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run", false);
user_pref("browser.cache.memory.enable", false);

more info of user.js you can consult with kb.mozillazine.org/User.js_file and or ghacks.net user.js
Good luck.

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Comments

	This is a great guide, very similar to this one. Would you know on Linux how to affect all profiles, e.g., some where in the /usr/lib64/firefox path?
	Posted 01-25-2018 at 11:05 AM by RobbieTheK