Hello all,

I want to lock the firefox software so that this software can be run only once simultaneously in one session.

For example, I use s01 thin client to get the kernel and initrd files from a server and uses some files (like firefox profiles) from the server. Once I clicked the firefox icon in the thin client, the program will run but if I click the firefox icon twice or more, the firefox process will be only one.

Can anyone help on this ? How to realize this function?

You still only have one firefox binary in memory.

What happens is that the second/third click directs the first firefox to fork a new instance - sharing all code.

Only new data pages get allocated.

This is done so that the new window can pop up immediately - the only delay is the data to display.

Even if you manually run the process you will still get only one binary as long as the path used is the same as for the first instance. Only if you have two versions installed and start each one will you get a new binary load - as the path name now point to two different applications.

This is part of the normal "deduplication" done by the kernel. If the same inode is being referenced (and is already loaded) then there is no need to load a new copy - it just duplicates the memory map for the code segment, and allocates a new stack+heap (the data space), and the program starts.

In addition, it is possible (I'm not sure Firefox does this, but I ran across the feature quite a while ago) that the same firefox process just opens a new window...

Chrome does this, and just starts a new thread for each tab/window.