[tor-bugs] #13247 [Tor Browser]: meek profile error after browser restarts (e.g., after update or add-on installation)

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#13247: meek profile error after browser restarts (e.g., after update or add-on
installation)
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     Reporter:  mcs          |      Owner:  tbb-team
         Type:  defect       |     Status:  new
     Priority:  normal       |  Milestone:
    Component:  Tor Browser  |    Version:
   Resolution:               |   Keywords:  meek, tbb-usability
Actual Points:               |  Parent ID:
       Points:               |
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Comment (by dcf):

 Replying to [comment:13 mcs]:
 > My best guess is still that this bug is caused by the invisible browser
 that meek uses not shutting down quickly enough (or at all) during restart
 of the main browser.

 I checked and everything is getting new PIDs after restart, everything
 from the main firefox on down.

 If I add an artificial delay to meek-client-torbrowser
 (`time.Sleep(50*time.Second)`) before the call to runFirefox, the error
 occurs as always, after waiting for 50 seconds. Here is the mysterious
 part: If I manually run the meek-http-helper profile during those 50
 seconds, the headless browser and extension runs and produces output with
 no problems!
 {{{
 $ ./firefox -no-remote -profile Browser/TorBrowser/Data/Browser/profile
 .meek-http-helper
 meek-http-helper: listen 127.0.0.1:42056
 }}}
 But then as soon as the 50 seconds elapse, the firefox that is started by
 meek-client-torbrowser fails with the profile error. Even while the
 profile error is being shown, I can run the headless browser manually with
 no problem.

 I wish I knew how to trace the code path that leads to the "profile cannot
 be loaded" error, to know what is going wrong in Firefox's opinion.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/13247#comment:16>
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