Explain how Firefox uses user profiles

[Ozoniuss]

User description

Description

This extends the Firefox profile documentation by explaining how Selenium works when supplying an existing profile directory. Since profiles are not cleaned up by Selenium, it also describes how they can be explicitly removed by the user.

Note that I think that rather than telling the user to look up the code on how to find the exposed profile path, it may be more appropriate to provide code samples on how to delete it (in addition to code samples on how to use an existing profile, which I didn't find). I may do a PR for that (including moving from the inline code samples), but since I have to test it in several langauges including some I never worked it, it would take a while.

Motivation and Context

While developing and debugging my application, I ran out of space on my system because I was using a large profile, and it took a while to figure out where exactly the problem was.

Types of changes

• Change to the site (I have double-checked the Netlify deployment, and my changes look good)
• Code example added (and I also added the example to all translated languages)
• Improved translation
• Added new translation (and I also added a notice to each document missing translation)

Checklist

• I have read the contributing document.
• I have used hugo to render the site/docs locally and I am sure it works.

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PR Type

Documentation

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Description

• Added explanation on using existing Firefox profiles in Selenium.

• Highlighted that Selenium does not clean up profile copies.

• Provided instructions for explicitly removing profile copies.

• Linked to official Firefox documentation for profile directory guidance.

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Changes walkthrough 📝

Relevant files

Documentation

firefox.en.md Added Firefox profile usage and cleanup details (English) website_and_docs/content/documentation/webdriver/browsers/firefox.en.md Added note on using existing Firefox profiles. Explained Selenium's handling of profile copies. Included guidance for explicit profile cleanup. Linked to Firefox documentation for profile directory details. +8/-0      firefox.zh-cn.md Added Firefox profile usage and cleanup details (Chinese) website_and_docs/content/documentation/webdriver/browsers/firefox.zh-cn.md Added note on using existing Firefox profiles. Explained Selenium's handling of profile copies. Included guidance for explicit profile cleanup. Linked to Firefox documentation for profile directory details. +9/-0

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PR Reviewer Guide 🔍

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⏱️ Estimated effort to review: 1 🔵⚪⚪⚪⚪

🧪 No relevant tests

🔒 No security concerns identified

⚡ Recommended focus areas for review Translation Needed The added note about Firefox profiles in the Chinese version is in English rather than Chinese. This content should be translated to maintain consistency with the rest of the document. **Note**: If you want to use an existing firefox profile, you can pass in the path to that profile. Every time you run your program, Selenium will make a new copy of the profile and use it instead of your original one. The copies are not cleaned up explicitly by Selenium, they should eventually be cleaned up by the operating system. However, if you want to remove the copy explicitly, the path of the copy will be exposed by the `FirefoxProfile` object. Check the language specific implementation to see how to retrieve that location. Please refer to the official [Firefox documentation](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data#w_how-do-i-find-my-profile) for instructions on how to find the directory of your profile.

[qodo-merge-pro]

PR Code Suggestions ✨

Explore these optional code suggestions:

Category	Suggestion	Impact
General	Translate content to Chinese The content in the Chinese version file is in English. Since this is a Chinese localization file (as indicated by the .zh-cn suffix), the added note should be translated to Chinese to maintain consistency with the rest of the document. website_and_docs/content/documentation/webdriver/browsers/firefox.zh-cn.md [142-146] -**Note**: If you want to use an existing firefox profile, you can pass in the path to that profile. Every time you -run your program, Selenium will make a new copy of the profile and use it instead of your original one. The copies -are not cleaned up explicitly by Selenium, they should eventually be cleaned up by the operating system. However, -if you want to remove the copy explicitly, the path of the copy will be exposed by the `FirefoxProfile` object. -Check the language specific implementation to see how to retrieve that location. +**注意**：如果您想使用现有的Firefox配置文件，您可以传入该配置文件的路径。每次运行程序时，Selenium都会创建配置文件的新副本并使用它，而不是使用您的原始配置文件。这些副本不会被Selenium显式清理，它们最终应该由操作系统清理。但是，如果您想明确删除副本，可以通过`FirefoxProfile`对象获取副本的路径。请查看特定语言的实现，了解如何获取该位置。 Apply this suggestion Suggestion importance[1-10]: 9 __ Why: This suggestion correctly identifies that English content was added to a Chinese localization file. Translating the content to Chinese is essential for maintaining proper localization and ensuring Chinese-speaking users can understand the documentation. This is a high-impact suggestion that addresses a clear inconsistency in the PR.	High
Update

[shbenzer]

Thanks for the PR! Could you please add this to each translation?

[cgoldberg]

Just a small note.. this not only happens when you reuse an existing profile, but also if you use FirefoxProfile to generate a new profile (by not supplying a path).

[Ozoniuss]

Thanks for the PR! Could you please add this to each translation?

@shbenzer You mean just adding the content in English? I don't speak those languages so wouldn't be able to translate them. If I add them in English, would they be picked up by a translator?

I only updated the zh-cn version because I saw it was also in English:)

[titusfortner]

The way the translations currently work is that we put all the information in English on each of the translations and one of our translators will go through and update it with the translation.

[Ozoniuss]

Should be ready for review again

[cgoldberg]

This looks good to me... but I don't have merge access in this repo.

[harsha509]

Thank you @Ozoniuss !

[harsha509]

Thank you @shbenzer , @cgoldberg , @titusfortner for the review!

[harsha509]

Congratulations on you first contribution to Selenium Docs @Ozoniuss 🎉 🎉 🎉 !