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No browser AFAIK has the ability to patch a running process (it's very hard to do in general, but there are some ways to do it to a linux kernel for example). S
by azakai 14y ago
No browser AFAIK has the ability to patch a running process (it's very hard to do in general, but there are some ways to do it to a linux kernel for example). So you must restart to actually run the downloaded updates. Which means until you restart, you are running an unpatched browser which might have known exploits.
- tedunangst 14y agoIf each tab is a separate process, they could be upgraded one by one. You could even signal to each tab that it should open all links in a new process. Browsers are probably the app you could most easily transparently upgrade.
- kevingadd 14y agoNot correct. Multiprocess browsers like Chrome don't actually run an entire browser in each process (that isn't realistically possible) because the individual tabs need to collaborate for the proper functioning of things like caches, cookies, etc.
- tedunangst 14y agoIf. If I can restart a web server without restarting memcache and have a new process handle new requests while the old process handles existing requests, it's clearly possible for a browser to change its rendering engine for new tabs.