Re:Firefox finally plugs the leak
by corin_ on Tuesday May 08, 2012 @07:05AM
(#3943073)
Is that actually the case, or is it that the leak they've fixed is related to the add-ons API? I've only really glanced at the patch discussion thread, and this isn't an area I understand all that well anyway, but the way it reads to me is as the latter - hopefully someone can explain why I'm either write or wrong on that, though.
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They did both. The leak was in numereous add-ons code, but they were able to change the semantics of the API to remove all these leaks. But that breaks things in some edge cases, but that was deemed acceptable (one time fix in some extensions, mainly those using Jetpack needing to embed the latest versions).
Actually it's looking like most of the breakage can be avoided by a simple change on our side.
Re:Firefox finally plugs the leak
by AndrewDucker on Tuesday May 08, 2012 @07:09AM
(#3943079)
So far as I understand, there was a change made which cut off a leak between add-ons and the tabs/windows they were attached to, so that closed tabs weren't being held in memory just because an add-on had a reference to them.
However, that change broke something in earlier versions of the Add-on SDK, which means that at least one Add-on was then leaking memory like crazy. Upgrading that add-on to the latest version fixed _that_ leak.
More here: http://blog.kylehuey.com/post/21892343371/fixing-the-memory-...