Firefox plugin does not clean itself up

[chengiz]

If I use the ff plugin, on opening a pdf file in a firefox tab say, a Pdfxcview.exe process appears in the Task Manager. This process does not go away when the tab is closed, leaking memory. In fact a separate process opens up for each pdf file that is opened in the browser.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

No such problem in Opera, although each tab with a PDF file does open a separate instance of the plugin. On closing each tab, each instance of the plugin is closed. I think separate plugin processes is the right way to go — if one crashes, closing it in task manager lets you close the tab. If you had to close all PDF tabs in the (somewhat rare) event of a PDF plugin crash it would be less convenient.

I get the same result if I use the Foxit Reader plugin for Mozilla in Opera, which also opens a separate instance of the plugin for each tab.

I wasn't able to get the PDF-XChange Viewer plugin to work in Firefox, though the Foxit Reader plugin behaves as expected, just as it does in Opera. PDF files just open in the external viewer. I don't use Firefox except for testing so it doesn't matter to me.

[chengiz]

My point was opening up a separate instance leaks that much amount of memory per instance. So it's a lot of resources down the drain. I'm not arguing about the validity of opening multiple instances per se.

That said, your issues with Foxit and Opera, and how you dont care about the pdf-xchange plugin working for FF, are of no relevance to this thread.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Opening a separate instance wastes no more memory than opening up one instance and loading all PDF files in one instance. Anyway, emory is there to be used, not using memory is a waste. Using a little more memory is certainly better if it makes it easier for an application to recover from a problem — closing a tab rather than closing the browser is surely preferable?

My comments about the plugins with Opera were relevant to this thread, as there is no problem with the PDF-XChange plugin not releasing memory when the tab is closed, because the plugin instance is closed. Likewise, with the Foxit Reader plugin.

All of the information I gave could be useful, so I should not hesitate to give it if I think it might help, even if others might think it is irrelevant.

My comment about not needing the PDF-XChange plugin to work with Firefox was for the benefit of Tracker Support. There are several other threads about problems getting the plugin to work with Firefox, so there is no need for them to reply to my comment — that was my intent.

Firefox should close the plugin when the tab is closed, but it does not. Is that a problem with PDF-XChange or with Firefox? Testing Foxit Reader with Firefox might help to pinpoint where the problem lies — with Firefox or with the PDF-XChange plugin.

[Corwin - Tracker Sup]

This process does not go away when the tab is closed

Sorry, cannot reproduce such problem here. Can you give some tips how this problem occurs? Do you have any floating panels in PDF-XChange Viewer?

[chengiz]

I had the 40.5 build, and it was showing this problem. I checked it out on another computer with similar OS etc and it didnt have the problem - the only difference was it had the latest build (41.5) of pdf-xchange viewer. So I installed that on my computer and the problem seems to have disappeared. Other than the different version, I installed liveupdate this time but hadnt the previous time, although I doubt that could have had anything to do with it.

[Chris - PDF-XChange]

Glad the build update worked please get back to us if this behaviour shows up again.

Cheers,
Chris