UPDATED POST 05-30-2021
This is the hardest question that I have every tried to answer on Stack Overflow. Because it involved the interactions of several code bases written in multiple languages (Java, Rust and C++). This complexity made the question potentially unsolvable.
My last crack at this likely unsolvable question:
Within the code in your question you are modifying the file user.js This file is still used by Selenium.
public FirefoxProfile() {
this(null);
}
/**
* Constructs a firefox profile from an existing profile directory.
* <p>
* Users who need this functionality should consider using a named profile.
*
* @param profileDir The profile directory to use as a model.
*/
public FirefoxProfile(File profileDir) {
this(null, profileDir);
}
@Beta
protected FirefoxProfile(Reader defaultsReader, File profileDir) {
if (defaultsReader == null) {
defaultsReader = onlyOverrideThisIfYouKnowWhatYouAreDoing();
}
additionalPrefs = new Preferences(defaultsReader);
model = profileDir;
verifyModel(model);
File prefsInModel = new File(model, "user.js");
if (prefsInModel.exists()) {
StringReader reader = new StringReader("{\"frozen\": {}, \"mutable\": {}}");
Preferences existingPrefs = new Preferences(reader, prefsInModel);
acceptUntrustedCerts = getBooleanPreference(existingPrefs, ACCEPT_UNTRUSTED_CERTS_PREF, true);
untrustedCertIssuer = getBooleanPreference(existingPrefs, ASSUME_UNTRUSTED_ISSUER_PREF, true);
existingPrefs.addTo(additionalPrefs);
} else {
acceptUntrustedCerts = true;
untrustedCertIssuer = true;
}
// This is not entirely correct but this is not stored in the profile
// so for now will always be set to false.
loadNoFocusLib = false;
try {
defaultsReader.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
throw new WebDriverException(e);
}
}
So in theory you should be able to modify capabilities.rs in the geckodriver source code. That file contains the temp_dir.
As I stated this in only a theory, because when I looked at the Firefox source, which has temp_dir spread throughout the code base.
ORIGINAL POST 05-26-2021
I'm not sure that you can prevent Selenium from creating a temporary Firefox Profile.
From the gecko documents:
"Profiles are created in the systems temporary folder. This is also where the encoded profile is extracted when profile is provided. By default geckodriver will create a new profile in this location."
The only solution that I see at the moment would require you modify the Geckodriver source files to prevent the creation of temporary folders/profiles.
I'm currently looking at the source. These files might be the correct ones, but I need to look at the source more:
Here are some other files that need to be combed through:
https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/search?q=tempfile&path=
This looks promising:
https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/testing/geckodriver/doc/Profiles.md
"geckodriver uses [profiles] to instrument Firefox’ behaviour. The
user will usually rely on geckodriver to generate a temporary,
throwaway profile. These profiles are deleted when the WebDriver
session expires.
In cases where the user needs to use custom, prepared profiles,
geckodriver will make modifications to the profile that ensures
correct behaviour. See [Automation preferences] below on the
precedence of user-defined preferences in this case.
Custom profiles can be provided two different ways:
1. by appending --profile /some/location to the [args capability],
which will instruct geckodriver to use the profile in-place;
I found this question on trying to do this: how do I use an existing profile in-place with Selenium Webdriver?
Also here is an issue that was raised in selenium on Github concerning the temp directory. https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/issues/8645
Looking through the source of geckodriver v0.29.1 I found a file where the profile is loaded.
source: capabilities.rs
fn load_profile(options: &Capabilities) -> WebDriverResult<Option<Profile>> {
if let Some(profile_json) = options.get("profile") {
let profile_base64 = profile_json.as_str().ok_or_else(|| {
WebDriverError::new(ErrorStatus::InvalidArgument, "Profile is not a string")
})?;
let profile_zip = &*base64::decode(profile_base64)?;
// Create an emtpy profile directory
let profile = Profile::new()?;
unzip_buffer(
profile_zip,
profile
.temp_dir
.as_ref()
.expect("Profile doesn't have a path")
.path(),
)?;
Ok(Some(profile))
} else {
Ok(None)
}
}
source: marionette.rs
fn start_browser(&mut self, port: u16, options: FirefoxOptions) -> WebDriverResult<()> {
let binary = options.binary.ok_or_else(|| {
WebDriverError::new(
ErrorStatus::SessionNotCreated,
"Expected browser binary location, but unable to find \
binary in default location, no \
'moz:firefoxOptions.binary' capability provided, and \
no binary flag set on the command line",
)
})?;
let is_custom_profile = options.profile.is_some();
let mut profile = match options.profile {
Some(x) => x,
None => Profile::new()?,
};
self.set_prefs(port, &mut profile, is_custom_profile, options.prefs)
.map_err(|e| {
WebDriverError::new(
ErrorStatus::SessionNotCreated,
format!("Failed to set preferences: {}", e),
)
})?;
let mut runner = FirefoxRunner::new(&binary, profile);
runner.arg("--marionette");
if self.settings.jsdebugger {
runner.arg("--jsdebugger");
}
if let Some(args) = options.args.as_ref() {
runner.args(args);
}
// https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Environment_variables_affecting_crash_reporting
runner
.env("MOZ_CRASHREPORTER", "1")
.env("MOZ_CRASHREPORTER_NO_REPORT", "1")
.env("MOZ_CRASHREPORTER_SHUTDOWN", "1");
let browser_proc = runner.start().map_err(|e| {
WebDriverError::new(
ErrorStatus::SessionNotCreated,
format!("Failed to start browser {}: {}", binary.display(), e),
)
})?;
self.browser = Some(Browser::Host(browser_proc));
Ok(())
}
pub fn set_prefs(
&self,
port: u16,
profile: &mut Profile,
custom_profile: bool,
extra_prefs: Vec<(String, Pref)>,
) -> WebDriverResult<()> {
let prefs = profile.user_prefs().map_err(|_| {
WebDriverError::new(
ErrorStatus::UnknownError,
"Unable to read profile preferences file",
)
})?;
for &(ref name, ref value) in prefs::DEFAULT.iter() {
if !custom_profile || !prefs.contains_key(name) {
prefs.insert((*name).to_string(), (*value).clone());
}
}
prefs.insert_slice(&extra_prefs[..]);
if self.settings.jsdebugger {
prefs.insert("devtools.browsertoolbox.panel", Pref::new("jsdebugger"));
prefs.insert("devtools.debugger.remote-enabled", Pref::new(true));
prefs.insert("devtools.chrome.enabled", Pref::new(true));
prefs.insert("devtools.debugger.prompt-connection", Pref::new(false));
}
prefs.insert("marionette.log.level", logging::max_level().into());
prefs.insert("marionette.port", Pref::new(port));
prefs.write().map_err(|e| {
WebDriverError::new(
ErrorStatus::UnknownError,
format!("Unable to write Firefox profile: {}", e),
)
})
}
}
After looking through the gecko source it looks like mozprofile::profile::Profile is coming from FireFox and not geckodriver
It seems that you might have issues with profiles when you migrate to Selenium 4.
ref: https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/issues/9417
For Selenium 4 we have deprecated the use of profiles as there are other mechanisms that we can do to make the start up faster.
Please use the Options class to set preferences that you need and if you need to use an addon use the driver.install_addon("path/to/addon")
you can install selenium 4, which is in beta, via pip install selenium --pre
I noted in your code you were writing to user.js, which is a custom file for FireFox. Have you considered creating on these files manually outside of Gecko?
Also have you looked at mozprofile?
