# Profile-sync-daemon

Related articles

- Anything-sync-daemon
- Firefox
- Chromium
- Opera
- Pdnsd
- SSD

Profile-sync-daemon (psd) is a tiny pseudo-daemon designed to manage browser profile(s) in tmpfs and to periodically sync back to the physical disc (HDD/SSD). This is accomplished by an innovative use of rsync to maintain synchronization between a tmpfs copy and media-bound backup of the browser profile(s). Additionally, psd features several crash recovery features.

## Benefits of psd

Running this daemon is beneficial for two reasons:

1. Reduced wear to physical drives
2. Speed

Since the profile(s), browser cache*, etc. are relocated into tmpfs (RAM disk), the corresponding onslaught of I/O associated with using the browser is also redirected from the physical drive to RAM, thus reducing wear to the physical drive and also greatly improving browser speed and responsiveness. For example, the access time of RAM is on the order of nanoseconds while the access time of physical discs is on the order of milliseconds. This is a difference of six orders of magnitude or 1,000,000 times faster.

Note: Some browsers such as Chrome/Chromium, Firefox (since v21), Midori, and Rekonq actually keeps their cache directories separately from their profile directory. It is not within the scope of profile-sync-daemon to modify this behavior; users are encouraged to refer to the Chromium tweaks#Cache_in_tmpfs section for Chromium and to the Firefox_Ramdisk article for several workarounds. An easy fix is to move the various browsers' cache directory from their default location (e.g. `/home/$USER/.cache/<browser>/<profile>/`) to the corresponding profile directory, e.g. `/home/$USER/.mozilla/firefox/<profile>/cache`, and then symlink the new cache folder back to its original location. This way, profile-sync-daemon will automatically take into account the cache folder too.

## Setup and installation

profile-sync-daemon is available for download from the AUR. Build it and install like any other package.

### Edit /etc/psd.conf

`/etc/psd.conf` contains all user managed settings.

Note: Any edits made to `/etc/psd.conf` while psd is running will be applied only after psd has been restarted from the init service.

At a minimum, define which user(s) will have their profiles managed by psd and note that at least one user must be defined.

Optionally uncomment the BROWSERS array and populate it with whichever browser(s) are to be sync'ed to tmpfs. If the BROWSERS array stays commented (default) then all supported browser profiles will be sync'ed if they exist.

Example: Let's say that Chromium, Opera and Midori are installed but only Chromium and Opera are to be sync'ed to tmpfs since the user keeps Midori as a backup browser and it is seldom used:

    # List browsers separated by spaces to include in the sync. Useful if you do not
    # wish to have all possible browser profiles sync'ed.
    #
    # Possible values:
    #   chromium
    #   conkeror.mozdev.org
    #   firefox
    #   firefox-trunk
    #   google-chrome
    #   heftig-aurora
    #   midori
    #   opera
    #   opera-next
    #   qupzilla
    #
    # If the following is commented out (default), then all available/supported
    # browsers will be sync'ed, separated by comma
    BROWSERS="chromium opera"

## Supported browsers

Currently, the following browsers are auto-detected and managed:

- Chromium
- chromium-dev
- conkeror-git
- Epiphany
- Firefox (all flavors including stable, beta, and aurora)
- google-chrome
- google-chrome-beta
- google-chrome-dev
- heftig's version of Aurora: An Arch Linux-only browser
- icecat
- Luakit
- Midori
- Opera
- opera-next
- Qupzilla
- rekonq
- seamonkey

## Using psd

### Preview mode (parse)

The 'parse' option can be called to show users exactly what psd will do based on the `/etc/psd.conf` entered. Call it like so:

    $ profile-sync-daemon parse
     Profile-sync-daemon v5.24

    psd will manage the following per /etc/psd.conf settings:

    browser/psname:  chromium/chromium
    owner/group:     facade/users
    sync target:     /home/facade/.config/chromium
    tmpfs dir:       /tmp/facade-chromium
    profile size:    81M

    browser/psname:  firefox/firefox
    owner/group:     facade/users
    sync target:     /mnt/data/docs/facade/mozilla/firefox/1Zp9V43q.banking
    tmpfs dir:       /tmp/facade-firefox-1Zp9V43q.banking
    profile size:    5.9M

    browser/psname:  firefox/firefox
    owner/group:     facade/users
    sync target:     /mnt/data/docs/facade/mozilla/firefox/obg67zqQ.proxy
    tmpfs dir:       /tmp/facade-firefox-obg67zqQ.proxy
    profile size:    17M

As shown in the output and as stated above, if no specific browser or subset of browsers are defined in the BROWSERS array, psd will sync ALL supported profiles that it finds for the given user(s).

### Running psd to manage profiles

Do not call `/usr/bin/profile-sync-daemon` to sync or to unsync directly. Instead use the provided service files.

Both a systemd service file and a timer are provided and should be used to interact with psd. The role of the timer is update the tmpfs copy/copies back to the disk which it does once per hour. The timer starts automatically with psd.service.

Start `psd` service and enable it o start/stop at boot/shutdown (highly recommended).

### Sync at more frequent intervals (optional)

The package provided timer syncs once per hour. Users may optionally redefine this behavior simply by extending the systemd unit. The example below changes the timer to sync once every ten minutes:

    /etc/systemd/system/psd-resync.timer.d/frequency.conf

    [Unit]
    Description=Timer for Profile-sync-daemon - 10min

    [Timer]
    # Empty value resets the list of timers
    OnUnitActiveSec=
    OnUnitActiveSec=10min

See `man systemd.timer` for additional options.

## Caveats for Firefox and Heftig's Aurora ONLY

The way psd keeps track of browser profiles and sync targets requires users to have a unique name as the last directory for all profiles in their respective `$HOME/.mozilla/browser/profiles.ini` files. psd will check when it is called to run for this and refuse if this rule is not satisfied. The following is an example of a BAD profile that will fail the the test. Note that although each full path is unique, they both end in the same name! Again, the user must modify the `profiles.ini` and the corresponding directory on the filesystem to correct this in order to use psd.

    ~/.mozilla/firefox/profiles.ini

    [General]
    StartWithLastProfile=1

    [Profile0 for user facade]
    Name=normal
    IsRelative=0
    Path=/mnt/data/docs/facade/mozilla/firefox/myprofile.abc
    Default=1

    [Profile1 for user happy]
    Name=proxy
    IsRelative=0
    Path=/mnt/data/docs/happy/mozilla/firefox/myprofile.abc

## FAQ

Note: The first three questions apply to versions of psd equal to or greater than v5.40 only.

### Q1. My system crashed and didn't sync back. What do I do?

Odds are the "last good" backup of your browser profiles is just fine still sitting happily on your filesystem. Upon restarting `psd` (on a reboot for example), a check is preformed to see if the symlink to the tmpfs copy of your profile is invalid. If it is invalid, psd will snapshot the "last good" backup before it rotates it back into place. This is more for a sanity check that psd did no harm and that any data loss was a function of something else.

### Q2. Where can I find this snapshot?

It depends on the browser. You will find the snapshot in the same directory as the browser profile and it will contain a date-time-stamp that corresponds to the time at which the recovery took place. For example, chromium will be `~/.config/chromium-backup-crashrecovery-20130912_153310` -- of course, the date_time suffix will be different for you.

### Q3. How can I restore the snapshot?

- Stop `psd`.
- Confirm that there is no symlink to the tmpfs browser profile directory. If there is, psd did not stop correctly for other reasons.
- Move the "bad" copy of the profile to a backup (don't blindly delete anything).
- Copy the snapshot directory to the name that browser expects.

Example using Chromium:

    mv ~/.config/chromium ~/.config/chromium-bad
    cp -a ~/.config/chromium-backup-crashrecovery-20130912_153310 ~/.config/chromium

At this point you can launch chromium which will use the backup snapshot you just copied into place. If all is well, close the browser and restart psd and psd-resync (if using systemd). You may safely delete `~/.config/chromium-backup-crashrecovery-20130912_153310` at this point.

## Support

Post in the discussion thread with comments or concerns.

## PSD on other distros

psd is a bash script and should therefore run on any Linux distro. See the official website for installation instructions.

## See also

- http://www.webupd8.org/2013/02/keep-your-browser-profiles-in-tmpfs-ram.html
- http://bernaerts.dyndns.org/linux/250-ubuntu-tweaks-ssd

Categories:

- Web Browser
- Scripts