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I need to start and stop Firefox remotely on a linux system by running a script

  • 3 replies
  • 8 have this problem
  • 29 views
  • Last reply by ryanb

bfranek
bfranek
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I want to run Firefox on linux system that will locally display some monitoring type information. The problem is, that the display is not physically accessible (i.e. no mouse) and so I have to start/stop Firefox remotely. I thing I know how to start it by "firefox -P...". The problem seems to be how to kill it cleanly. What I really need is a command line version of File->Exit mouse click. Any help welcomed

I want to run Firefox on linux system that will locally display some monitoring type information. The problem is, that the display is not physically accessible (i.e. no mouse) and so I have to start/stop Firefox remotely. I thing I know how to start it by "firefox -P...". The problem seems to be how to kill it cleanly. What I really need is a command line version of File->Exit mouse click. Any help welcomed

All Replies (3)

the-edmeister
the-edmeister
  • Moderator
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https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Command_Line_Options

See Other options need to be documented near the bottom of that page.

bfranek
bfranek Question owner
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Hi, thanks for your prompt reply. However my real problem is not starting it but stopping it cleanly. I am forced to restart the display from time to time (once/per hour) because it is getting 'stuck' for some reason and the web page is out of my control. I tried simply killing the firefox process using kill command and then starting a new one but it works one or two times and then the next firefox process demands mouse communication. And that is not available. Also this has to work without any expert present as the display is in a public area.

ryanb
ryanb
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it looks like firefox shuts down cleanly on SIGTERM, so if you just `pkill firefox`, that should do it.

if multiple instances are running and you only want to shut down one instance, you can use something like `pgrep -f [PROFILE] | xargs kill`.