[gentoo-user] Firefox, Seamonkey to if I can, and memory limits.

[gentoo-user] Firefox, Seamonkey to if I can, and memory limits.

[Dale]

Howdy,

A video on my TV the other day started spitting and stuttering.  At
first, I thought the video was bad.  I was going to make a note to
replace it then skip to the next video.  Then I realized that one of my
Firefox profiles went memory hungry and was using all of my 64GBs of
ram.  I don't have swap yet.  I used the SysRq key and 'f' to kill the
memory hungry thing. Things went back to normal, mostly.  What I'd like
to know, is there a way to limit how much a process like Firefox,
Seamonkey too, to a certain amount of memory?  When it runs out, it
either kills itself or stops working.  I'd like a way to limit this
because while rare, Firefox does on occasion go nuts with memory usages. 

Before someone mentions a bad website, even if it is, I still want to
limit the memory usage.  I have other profiles with no common website
between them do the same thing.  Be it Firefox itself or some website,
I'd still like to limit the damage to the offender, not my entire
system.  I looked to see if I could find a add-on but found nothing. 
I'm hoping there is maybe a command line way that I've never heard of
before.

Any ideas on how to limit Firefox memory usage?  Wouldn't mind if I
could use it for other programs too. 

Thanks.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Firefox, Seamonkey to if I can, and memory limits.

[Wol]

On 23/08/2024 19:38, Dale wrote:
> Any ideas on how to limit Firefox memory usage?  Wouldn't mind if I
> could use it for other programs too.

cgroups? Dunno how they work, but it's something they're supposed to do ...

Cheers,
Wol

Re: [gentoo-user] Firefox, Seamonkey to if I can, and memory limits.

[Matt Jolly]

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Re: [gentoo-user] Firefox, Seamonkey to if I can, and memory limits.

[Dale]

Matt Jolly wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Cgroups are the answer. If you're on systemd you could try making a
> `slice` for Firefox that might look a bit like this:
>
> /etc/systemd/system/user-firefox.slice
>
> ```
> [Unit]
> Description=Firefox Slice
> Before=slices.target
>
> [Slice]
> MemoryAccounting=true
> MemoryLimit=512M
> ```
>
> Then you can run 
>
> ```
> systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl restart user-firefox.slice
> ```
>
> Then launch Firefox in the slice like so
>
> ```
> systemd-run -q --user --scope --unit ff \
>   --slice user-firefox -- firefox --profile myprofile
> ```
>
> Which will apply the limits in the slice (check the docs, there's all
> sorts) to anything running within it. You can enable the slice and run
> Firefox (or anything else you want to limit, really).
>
> You may need to adapt these commands a little, I wrote this on mobile. :)
>
> I use slices on HPC to limit users from monopolising interactive
> nodes, and our batch jobs kill anything that exceeds requested memory
> (hope that wasn't 100h into a job!). I do this on login with user
> slices but the concept is the same.
>
> Here's the docs on slice/scope settings:
> https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/systemd.resource-control.html#
>
> You could also try something like this:
> https://github.com/mk-fg/fgtk#cgrc
>
> You can directly do cgroups on openrc... Probably? I've never had to
> worry about it.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Matt
>

I still use openrc.  I'll look around and see what I can find.  Now I
know what to look for.  Thing is, not sure I use cgroups either, unless
it is on by default.   o_O

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Firefox, Seamonkey to if I can, and memory limits.

[Matt Jolly]

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Re: [gentoo-user] Firefox, Seamonkey to if I can, and memory limits.

[Walter Dnes]

On Fri, Aug 23, 2024 at 07:42:05PM -0500, Dale wrote

> I still use openrc.  I'll look around and see what I can find.  Now I
> know what to look for.  Thing is, not sure I use cgroups either, unless
> it is on by default.   o_O

  The bottom half of file /etc/rc.conf is devoted to cgroups settings.
Look for the line...
# LINUX CGROUPS RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

-- 
There are 2 types of people
1) Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data

Re: [gentoo-user] Firefox, Seamonkey to if I can, and memory limits.

[Dale]

Walter Dnes wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 23, 2024 at 07:42:05PM -0500, Dale wrote
>
>> I still use openrc.  I'll look around and see what I can find.  Now I
>> know what to look for.  Thing is, not sure I use cgroups either, unless
>> it is on by default.   o_O
>   The bottom half of file /etc/rc.conf is devoted to cgroups settings.
> Look for the line...
> # LINUX CGROUPS RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
>


I have searched for info on this.  I did find the settings in rc.conf. 
I see a lot of discussion about running services, like cups, mysql and
such, and controlling them.  What I don't see is how to set up a regular
program like Firefox or any other program that a user runs directly.  I
suspect it can be done but I can't find a howto that shows how to do it. 

I'll keep digging but if anyone has a link they have ran up on before
and would like to share, it would be nice.  It seems what I want to do
is not very common.  Thing is, Firefox sometimes goes nuts and when it
does, it is determined to crash my system if I don't catch it.  Even if
I had the full 128GBs, it would just take longer to consume it as well. 
The best way I see to deal with this, limit its access to memory.  It
seems there is a tool to do this, now to figure out how to use it. 

Thanks to all for the help. 

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Firefox, Seamonkey to if I can, and memory limits.

[Michael]

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On Sunday, 25 August 2024 16:20:19 BST Dale wrote:
> Walter Dnes wrote:
> > On Fri, Aug 23, 2024 at 07:42:05PM -0500, Dale wrote
> > 
> >> I still use openrc.  I'll look around and see what I can find.  Now I
> >> know what to look for.  Thing is, not sure I use cgroups either, unless
> >> it is on by default.   o_O
> >> 
> >   The bottom half of file /etc/rc.conf is devoted to cgroups settings.
> > 
> > Look for the line...
> > # LINUX CGROUPS RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
> 
> I have searched for info on this.  I did find the settings in rc.conf. 
> I see a lot of discussion about running services, like cups, mysql and
> such, and controlling them.  What I don't see is how to set up a regular
> program like Firefox or any other program that a user runs directly.  I
> suspect it can be done but I can't find a howto that shows how to do it. 
> 
> I'll keep digging but if anyone has a link they have ran up on before
> and would like to share, it would be nice.  It seems what I want to do
> is not very common.  Thing is, Firefox sometimes goes nuts and when it
> does, it is determined to crash my system if I don't catch it.  Even if
> I had the full 128GBs, it would just take longer to consume it as well. 
> The best way I see to deal with this, limit its access to memory.  It
> seems there is a tool to do this, now to figure out how to use it. 
> 
> Thanks to all for the help. 
> 
> Dale
> 
> :-)  :-) 

I have not dived into cgroups in any big way.  I would think setting up a 
dekstop application with many complicated & complex userspace dependencies is 
not a simple task.

Perhaps a way to approach this is by launching firefox as a different user and 
setting a memory limit for that user.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Firefox, Seamonkey to if I can, and memory limits.

[Dale]

Michael wrote:
> On Sunday, 25 August 2024 16:20:19 BST Dale wrote:
>> Walter Dnes wrote:
>>> On Fri, Aug 23, 2024 at 07:42:05PM -0500, Dale wrote
>>>
>>>> I still use openrc.  I'll look around and see what I can find.  Now I
>>>> know what to look for.  Thing is, not sure I use cgroups either, unless
>>>> it is on by default.   o_O
>>>>
>>>   The bottom half of file /etc/rc.conf is devoted to cgroups settings.
>>>
>>> Look for the line...
>>> # LINUX CGROUPS RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
>> I have searched for info on this.  I did find the settings in rc.conf. 
>> I see a lot of discussion about running services, like cups, mysql and
>> such, and controlling them.  What I don't see is how to set up a regular
>> program like Firefox or any other program that a user runs directly.  I
>> suspect it can be done but I can't find a howto that shows how to do it. 
>>
>> I'll keep digging but if anyone has a link they have ran up on before
>> and would like to share, it would be nice.  It seems what I want to do
>> is not very common.  Thing is, Firefox sometimes goes nuts and when it
>> does, it is determined to crash my system if I don't catch it.  Even if
>> I had the full 128GBs, it would just take longer to consume it as well. 
>> The best way I see to deal with this, limit its access to memory.  It
>> seems there is a tool to do this, now to figure out how to use it. 
>>
>> Thanks to all for the help. 
>>
>> Dale
>>
>> :-)  :-) 
> I have not dived into cgroups in any big way.  I would think setting up a 
> dekstop application with many complicated & complex userspace dependencies is 
> not a simple task.
>
> Perhaps a way to approach this is by launching firefox as a different user and 
> setting a memory limit for that user.


I did a lot of searching and almost all of it relates to using cgroups
for services, like mysql or something.  I haven't found anything that
explains how to do it for a program started by a user.  It may be doable
but I've yet to find it. 

It's rare so I may just have to close Firefox and such before I nap or
leave for a while.  Avoid the problem that way.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Firefox, Seamonkey to if I can, and memory limits.

[Wols Lists]

On 31/08/2024 19:39, Dale wrote:
> I did a lot of searching and almost all of it relates to using cgroups
> for services, like mysql or something.  I haven't found anything that
> explains how to do it for a program started by a user.  It may be doable
> but I've yet to find it.

I did a quick search and found this ...

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/555080/using-cgroup-to-limit-program-memory-as-its-running

reading through it, it appears to tell you (a) how to set up the cgroup, 
(b) how to put a running program into a cgroup, and (c) (most 
importantly) how to start a program in a cgroup.

So what you'd do is create the cgroup, then edit the firefox and 
seamonkey desktop files to use cgexec to start them.

Beyond that tip, you're on your own but it looks promising. I've not 
done it, so I don't know ...

Cheers,
Wol

Re: [gentoo-user] Firefox, Seamonkey to if I can, and memory limits.

[Dale]

Wols Lists wrote:
> On 31/08/2024 19:39, Dale wrote:
>> I did a lot of searching and almost all of it relates to using cgroups
>> for services, like mysql or something.  I haven't found anything that
>> explains how to do it for a program started by a user.  It may be doable
>> but I've yet to find it.
>
> I did a quick search and found this ...
>
> https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/555080/using-cgroup-to-limit-program-memory-as-its-running
>
>
> reading through it, it appears to tell you (a) how to set up the
> cgroup, (b) how to put a running program into a cgroup, and (c) (most
> importantly) how to start a program in a cgroup.
>
> So what you'd do is create the cgroup, then edit the firefox and
> seamonkey desktop files to use cgexec to start them.
>
> Beyond that tip, you're on your own but it looks promising. I've not
> done it, so I don't know ...
>
> Cheers,
> Wol
>
>


It looks like I do need to do this.  Firefox just went nuts on memory
again.  One of my Firefox profiles was using 98% of memory. 

From that link, it looks like that is done manually.  In other words,
when I start Firefox, I have to add the process to the cgroup by hand. 
Shouldn't there be a way to do it automatically?  Like add it to the
command that runs the program name in the application menu? 

I did see where a lot of services are listed in the directory mentioned
in link tho.  I also found out elsewhere that I have to enable more
cgroup controls in the kernel.  I did that the other day.  I just need
to reboot now.  Once I reboot and those extra drivers are working, I can
peek at things.  See how it is done with other things. 

For something that is designed to do this sort of thing, why is it so
hard to find docs for how to do it?  I've read of other people having
Firefox and other programs go nuts on memory before.  I can't be the
only one who wants to set limits on a process like this.  :/ 

Thanks.  If you find anything else, let me know. 

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Firefox, Seamonkey to if I can, and memory limits.

[Wols Lists]

On 01/09/2024 15:24, Dale wrote:
>  From that link, it looks like that is done manually.  In other words,
> when I start Firefox, I have to add the process to the cgroup by hand.
> Shouldn't there be a way to do it automatically?  Like add it to the
> command that runs the program name in the application menu?

That was that bit about cgexec! I start a whole bunch of programs from 
the terminal, including iirc thunderbird and firefox.

Or I start them by clicking on an icon which fires them up for me.

So just read up on cgexec (including where to find it - I've just tried 
and it's not on my system), then edit the .desktop behind your icon to 
start firefox *from* cgexec.

Then you (presuming you don't start it by typing firefox at the command 
line) will just start as normal, the only change being the icon starts 
cgexec and uses that to start firefox rather than starting firefox directly.

Cheers,
Wol

Re: [gentoo-user] Firefox, Seamonkey to if I can, and memory limits.

[Dale]

Wols Lists wrote:
> On 01/09/2024 15:24, Dale wrote:
>>  From that link, it looks like that is done manually.  In other words,
>> when I start Firefox, I have to add the process to the cgroup by hand.
>> Shouldn't there be a way to do it automatically?  Like add it to the
>> command that runs the program name in the application menu?
>
> That was that bit about cgexec! I start a whole bunch of programs from
> the terminal, including iirc thunderbird and firefox.
>
> Or I start them by clicking on an icon which fires them up for me.
>
> So just read up on cgexec (including where to find it - I've just
> tried and it's not on my system), then edit the .desktop behind your
> icon to start firefox *from* cgexec.
>
> Then you (presuming you don't start it by typing firefox at the
> command line) will just start as normal, the only change being the
> icon starts cgexec and uses that to start firefox rather than starting
> firefox directly.
>
> Cheers,
> Wol
>
>


After reading that, my light bulb turned on.  The command cgexec is for
control group execute.  lol  I got to do some searching for that now. 
You gave me a good search term.  ;-)

I wonder tho, in one of the replies, it says to create a directory in
/sys.  Don't those get cleared after a reboot?  I'm almost certain /proc
does but think /sys does too.  If so, how does that survive reboots?  I
may find more info as I search. 

Dale

:-)  :-)

Re: [gentoo-user] Firefox, Seamonkey to if I can, and memory limits.

[Wol]

On 01/09/2024 20:36, Dale wrote:
> I wonder tho, in one of the replies, it says to create a directory in
> /sys.  Don't those get cleared after a reboot?  I'm almost certain /proc
> does but think /sys does too.  If so, how does that survive reboots?  I
> may find more info as I search.

I'll leave you to dig deeper, but let us know how it goes ... :-)

Just about that /sys thing, that might be if you're trying to put an 
already-running program into a cgroup. If you're using cgexec to start a 
program, it should do all that for you.

Cheers,
Wol

Re: [gentoo-user] Firefox, Seamonkey to if I can, and memory limits.

[Dale]

Wol wrote:
> On 01/09/2024 20:36, Dale wrote:
>> I wonder tho, in one of the replies, it says to create a directory in
>> /sys.  Don't those get cleared after a reboot?  I'm almost certain /proc
>> does but think /sys does too.  If so, how does that survive reboots?  I
>> may find more info as I search.
>
> I'll leave you to dig deeper, but let us know how it goes ... :-)
>
> Just about that /sys thing, that might be if you're trying to put an
> already-running program into a cgroup. If you're using cgexec to start
> a program, it should do all that for you.
>
> Cheers,
> Wol
>
>

I found this too. 


https://www.baeldung.com/linux/limit-resource-consumption


Then I figured out to install dev-libs/libcgroup and that got me a lot
of commands that makes cgroup work. 


/usr/bin/cgclassify
/usr/bin/cgcreate
/usr/bin/cgdelete
/usr/bin/cgexec
/usr/bin/cgget
/usr/bin/cgset
/usr/bin/cgsnapshot
/usr/bin/cgxget
/usr/bin/cgxset
/usr/bin/lscgroup
/usr/bin/lssubsys
/usr/sbin/cgconfigparser
/usr/sbin/cgrulesengd


I really like the cgcreate one.  That should start something.  o_O  I'm
wondering if I should have installed something else and it pull this
package in.   It is a lib which is usually a dependency of something
else.  I can't find anything else related tho.  Is this normal??

Based on some other info I found, it seems permissions is a common
problem people run into.  If I understand it correctly, I need to be a
user when I create and add things that I run as a user, not root.  I
notice most commands are in /bin too. 

I found another page I'd like to read but it has one of those page check
thingys and it just checks the page over and over and over and over and
over again.  Yea, I got tired of it too.  This is a linky. 

https://linux.die.net/man/1/cgexec

Since I can't see it, I bet it has some good info.  Isn't that they way
it works?  LOL 

This may not be as difficult as I thought.  You sharing the cgexec
command helped me to find a lot of info.  One even mentions Firefox
specifically. 

Thanks.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Firefox, Seamonkey to if I can, and memory limits.

[Wols Lists]

On 01/09/2024 22:36, Dale wrote:
> https://linux.die.net/man/1/cgexec
> 

I've never seen that looping ... but there are a few sites like that - 
all it is is the linux man page. If you do "man cgexec" you should get 
the exact same text.

Cheers,
Wol

Re: [gentoo-user] Firefox, Seamonkey to if I can, and memory limits.

[Wol]

On 24/08/2024 00:03, Matt Jolly wrote:
> I use slices on HPC to limit users from monopolising interactive nodes, 
> and our batch jobs kill anything that exceeds requested memory (hope 
> that wasn't 100h into a job!). I do this on login with user slices but 
> the concept is the same.

I used something a bit like that on Pr1mos. I had a batch queue that ran 
on maximum priority, if users wanted something done quick. But it had a 
wall-clock limit of 30 secs. I don't think it got used much, but it was 
nice to know it was there so even if the machine was being hammered you 
could slip small jobs in quickly.

Cheers,
Wol