Comment 126 for bug 93546

(In reply to comment #92)

> my idea is, when the the profile is locked, to copy the needed files (or use a
> copy-on-write) to a new dir (say a folder named ip-data-time) and work over
> there, write and read...

Probably not adequate because the profile is in use when the second instance starts, and so is not necessarily in a consistent state. The second instance needs to be able to reconstruct the profile as it was when the first instance started, or preferably as it would be if the first instance were to finish.

(Arguably this is no worse than the case in which Firefox crashes or is terminated leaving the profile potentially inconsistent, so the risk might be tolerable. However it would make it more difficult to progress the solution beyond the most primitive level.)

> -sockets!! why not create a socket in the first instance and new instances
> would ask the first one to do the updates in their name...

Wouldn't work in general across machines because of firewalls, and wouldn't really solve the underlying problem that each instance would (potentially) get confused by the changes the other was making. A more straightforward solution of this general class would be for the second instance to be a remote window of the first instance.