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ChrisNZL / Fauxbar

An alternative to Chrome's Omnibox.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fauxbar/hibkhcnpkakjniplpfblaoikiggkopka
MIT License
89 stars 13 forks source link

Memory usage bug #40

Closed Chealer closed 5 years ago

Chealer commented 5 years ago

According to https://github.com/ChrisNZL/Fauxbar/wiki/FAQ#what-is-fauxbar-memory-helper Fauxbar suffers from a memory usage bug which causes unwarranted RAM usage.

I have no idea if this is still the case, but I have been experiencing serious performance issues with Chrome for some time and Fauxbar is my only extension. This ticket is asking to either solve the bug or discontinue the Memory helper extension.

ChrisNZL commented 5 years ago

Back in 2011, memory usage with Fauxbar was an issue; it would increase a fair bit.

7 years later, Chrome's extension memory management has improved (just as a general unscientific observation over the years), and I haven't noticed any extreme memory usage when using Fauxbar these days.

I don't use Fauxbar Memory Helper myself anymore. Might be worth removing it, yeah.

If performance feels like it's suffering, maybe try going Fauxbar > Options > Management > Reindex or even Rebuild to recreate its database, though everything's asynchronous in the background as you browse, so not sure it would do much, but wouldn't hurt to try.

Chealer commented 5 years ago

Thank you for the advise Chris

ChrisNZL commented 5 years ago

Looks like there's a few hundred people using Fauxbar Memory Helper; I'll leave it alone.

Chealer commented 5 years ago

Hi @ChrisNZL , Should this be considered as a confirmation that Fauxbar Memory Helper remains relevant?

For what it's worth, my performance issues with Chrome haven't been as bad in the last months.

ChrisNZL commented 5 years ago

I assume Memory Helper still works.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Chealer commented 5 years ago

Yes @ChrisNZL but what do you mean by working? Do you just mean it does not break Chrome, or do you mean it works as in it does something useful, i.e. it helps with Fauxbar's memory usage?

ChrisNZL commented 5 years ago

Fauxbar Memory Helper should do what it says: reloads Fauxbar after a few minutes if your computer is idle and no Fauxbar tabs are open.

At a glance, I noticed Fauxbar was using ~60 MB of RAM. Reloaded Fauxbar, and it then dropped to 20 MB.

If there's no issues of the Memory Helper extension not working, then it works as far as I'm aware.

Whether Chrome is actually tackling extension memory better these days is something that could be profiled, but I don't have the desire to investigate, as it feels like a non-issue.

If you're concerned with memory usage (like if your computer only has 2 GB RAM or something), install Memory Helper. If it's not a concern, don't install it.

Chealer commented 5 years ago

Thank you @ChrisNZL In that case, why was this ticket closed? You are saying there is a memory usage bug, or are you not?

ChrisNZL commented 5 years ago

No, it's not a bug, it's just a factor of an extension that does processing on every page you visit. Memory increases.

Back in 2011/2012, I recall memory being a large issue. Other extension developers (like for ad blockers) reported similar concerns that memory usage was just not being controlled well by Chrome. So I created Memory Helper to try and automatically reduce memory.

Years later, I believe Chrome is better at handling memory for extensions, so I don't bother installing Memory Helper myself anymore. It's still there if desired, but just optional and probably not needed.

This ticket is asking to either solve the bug or discontinue the Memory helper extension.

So no, memory usage is not a bug, and no, I don't see the need to discontinue Memory Helper for now.