Is there a scripting language facility in Firefox? (Linux)

Discussion of general topics about Mozilla Firefox
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taylorkh
Posts: 32
Joined: August 15th, 2011, 8:26 am

Is there a scripting language facility in Firefox? (Linux)

Post by taylorkh »

Here is a BRIEF background and what I am trying to accomplish...

I have several virtial machines (Linux Mint, Ubuntu and CentOS 7) on my CentOS 7 host. For example I have a dedicated VM and FIrefox install to access each of 3 investment firms. I have another VM which access several ProtonMail accounts - multiple FF instances). etc. The idea being to provide some isolation. Not as good as Qubes OS but I have built it using tools I have, understand and which run on my hardware. On top of that I am rather anal about data backup.

Each evening I run scripts to copy important data to other hard drives, external hard drives etc. I have been doing this for many years and it has served me well.

As I run these scripts I see TOO MANY junk looking files in directories like cache and cache2. I have FF set to clear all this crap when closed but there still seems to be too much for my liking. Recently I came across some files which are apparently .sqlite journal files, all sorts of random .bak files etc within the FF profiles. Disk space is cheap but I hate files on my computer which I do not understand. I am tired of trying to determine what I can zap on a daily basis.

What I would like to do is sort of Dockerize FF. Not run FF in a Docker container - at least not yet. I do not know enough to say if that is even possible. My plan would be to:

1 - Create a new FF profile and set all my preferences.
2 - Backup this profile to an archive.
3 - During my nightly backup process the FF script would export bookmarks, saved credentials, favicons perhaps.
4 - The next setp would be to delete the old production profile
5 - Put a copy of the base profile from step 2 in its place.
6 - Another FF script would import the data extracted in step 3.
7 - Repeat steps 3 - 6 for each production profile.

This should give me a backup of my critical data (step 3) and clean unbloated profiles.

Am I lost in space on this?

TIA

Ken

p.s. Thunderbird seems even worse and I have several Thunderbird profiles.
Last edited by DanRaisch on August 7th, 2022, 5:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: (Linux) added to subject line.
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therube
Posts: 21698
Joined: March 10th, 2004, 9:59 pm
Location: Maryland USA

Re: Is there a scripting language facility in Firefox? (Linu

Post by therube »

/cache2/ typically isn't needed at all, so exclude that entirely.

After that, who knows. FF obfuscates - for your protection, heh, & one can grow weary eyed trying to figure out just what is what, not to mention "sqlite" files instead of "text" (where you can just "look & see" what is there)... (But I'm sure there is a method to the madness...)


> export bookmarks, saved credentials, favicons perhaps

If you simply copy your Profile folder, you don't have to export.


I suppose (?) FF still uses (can use?) a user.js file.
If you put your per Profile changes in there...
Fire 750, bring back 250.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.19) Gecko/20110420 SeaMonkey/2.0.14 Pinball CopyURL+ FetchTextURL FlashGot NoScript
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