MemChaser is a Firefox extension which keeps track of the garbage collector activity and memory usage.

You can install the currently released version of MemChaser by visiting the addon page and following the prompts.

MemChaser adds a widget to the addons bar, which dynamically displays the resident memory usage, the length of the last interactive GC and CC, and the time elapsed between the two most recent of these. For more information on each component simple hover over for a handy tooltip.

By clicking the widget you will activate a menu. From here you can trigger a CC or GC, or reduce the memory currently in use. You can also start/stop the logging from here, or open the log folder.

The logging uses the Statistics API to write full details of each GC.

First you will need to clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/mozilla/memchaser.git

You will then have to init the Add-ons SDK submodule.

git submodule update --init

To run tests against the extension:

ant test

To manually test the extension:

ant run

To specify the Firefox binary include -Dbinary=path/to/firefox on the command line.

To build simply run ant and the default build script/target will be invoked:

ant

You can override the build number used in the filename:

ant -Dbuild.number=1

To build for release (no build number in filename):

ant release

You can also use the Add-ons SDK directly using cfx:

cd addon-sdk
source bin/activate
cd ../extension
cfx docs