Firefox Cache Settings

From: Hairy One Kenobi (abuse_at_[127.0.0.1)
Date: 10/24/05

  • Next message: Management: "Re: Firefox Cache Settings" 
    Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 14:59:11 GMT

    (Yes, there *are* security/integrity implications - that's how I found out
    about this...)

    A smidgen of history to start with: computer room being rearranged, 'bout
    time I tidied the backup servers, one of 'em straining to defrag, noticed
    something odd.

    Next, a quick reminder/intro to Windows profiles, post NT4. There's a
    subdirectory for each locally defined user, default install locates TEMP
    etc. in there, to keep user settings and data separated. (Note that I'm
    deliberately ignoring Home-style stuff, here). May be redirected, and
    usually is, in a business environment.

    In general, there are not one, but two, areas of the profile that relate to
    user settings (old, old story of two teams not communicating would be my
    guess).

    Because it's a "special case" IE has its own admin/user-selectable cache
    directory that may - or may not - lie outside of these directories. Ditto
    TEMP (depends upon how complex you want you backup scripts to be, and the
    levels of security you require for transient data files).

    Well, it seems that Firefox lumps its cache in the Application Settings
    area. And there isn't an obvious way to change it through the GUI.

    So.. excluding tweaking backups for this one application (everything else in
    that branch is actually useful), how does one set the cache directory?
    Googling gets me how to change the maximum cache size (shock, horror - oh so
    difficult ;o), but not how to reset the directory itself. And, as part of
    the tidy-up, I dumped the source code...

    >From what I can see, at the moment, sysadmins who are actually deploying
    this in The Real World (tm) are hoovering-up anything up to 50MB of random
    crap into their backup cycles. Per user. Not good if you're the guy paying
    for all that additional storage, or you're getting to the stage that you
    could really do without the extra hour that's it's potentially adding to
    your backup (e.g. 1500 user site)

    The help, naturally, doesn't. 

    -- 
Hairy One Kenobi
Disclaimer: the opinions expressed in this opinion do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of the highly-opinionated person expressing the opinion
in the first place. So there!
  • Next message: Management: "Re: Firefox Cache Settings"

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