"Top Sites" database

Der_Pit

What exactly is the "Top Sites" database, and how can I change/edit it?
It consumes 142MB in my $HOME/.config directory, about a third of all data in there (of all installed programs, not of vivaldi!), and I wonder if it's of any use to me.....

Pathduck

@Der_Pit I belive this is a database ranking the most visited sites from your browsing history. In Chromium this is used for the "start page" showing your most popular sites. I also think Vivaldi does not use this database at the moment, since it does not use the ranking to determine what URLs to display first in the address bar - they should though.

It really should not grow that large though - how old is your history? I keep mine for 3 months and the file is 8.5 MB.

It's in SQLite format and you can examine it with for instance DB Browser for SQLite (has a Linux/Mac version).

kahukura

There were some discussions in the forum regarding that file as it has caused some performance issues in the past. A search should reveal something ..

Der_Pit

Hmm, my history is set to 3 nmonths (I assume that's the default?), and the History file is 5.7MB..... And I think I started with a scratch configuration some 1 1/2 years ago.

I had searched here a bit, and found entries relating it to Speed Dial. But I only have 6 fixed entries there.

I'll have a look at sqlitebrowser. I had tried with sqlite, but that is not really userfriendly
And in doubt empty it (after backup) and see what breaks...

Pathduck

@Der_Pit said in "Top Sites" database:

And in doubt empty it (after backup) and see what breaks...

That's the spirit!
In fact I belive you can delete this file with no consequence for Vivaldi, I just tried. But do a backup anyway

BTW what version are you on? A search revealed there was a bug a long time ago that would make this file grow very large.

Der_Pit

@Pathduck I'm regularly updating snapshots, currently 2.9.1697.4.
But might be I'm carrying configs around since longer.
I had a look with sqlitebrowser, and all I could see there was a table with 60 history entries. I tried some fancier commands that I ran across in the wiki to optimize/reduce memory, but that didn't change anything.

So I just quit the browser, moved the file away, and restarted. That re-created the file. Looking at it again with the sqlitebrowser showed exactly the same 60 history entries, seems it it creating that from the file 'History'? But the files size now is: 36k

iAN CooG

@Der_Pit said in "Top Sites" database:

I'm regularly updating snapshots, currently 2.9.1697.4.

you are 2 snapshots releases behind then. Vivaldi 2.9.1705.4 released today and 1699.4 was 6 days ago

Der_Pit

So, just for fun and those interested:
It turnes out that the database is created with 'Auto Vacuum = None', which means that it will never shrink. So something must have blown it up at some point, and it stayed there.
So I opened the saved copy in the sqlite browser, executed the VACUUM; command, and saved again. Now also that one is 36k....

Der_Pit

@iAN-CooG
I do count updates about once a week as 'regular'.
(Even once a year would, by the name, be 'regular', is it?)
But I'm only updateing the browser when I update the whole system (Tumbleweed, so that usually is after 3-7 days). Uptime right now indeed is 7d 0:50

Pathduck

@Der_Pit That is interesting - at least to me, learned something new today

https://www.sqlite.org/pragma.html#pragma_auto_vacuum

I believe these are flags set on the connection, not on the database itself? Might be wrong though. So maybe the connection from Vivaldi was set to the wrong value back when it grew a lot.

I probably had the same thing myself - even 8MB seems way too much for 60 rows, which is all it will ever contain it seems...

Uptime right now indeed is 7d 0:50

alt text

I'm one of those Windows people who turn off the machine every night, but hey, good for the environment, right?

iAN CooG

@Pathduck said in "Top Sites" database:

I'm one of those Windows people who turn off the machine every night

exactly, unless torrenting, my pc is shut down when not in use.

Der_Pit

@Pathduck Yes, same here. I'm not really doing stuff with databases. So I don't know if those settings are from within the DB structure.
But seeing that Vivaldi never changed it, or VACUUMed by itself, suggests it either always uses that setting, or it's in the file (or both..)

As for the uptime: Mine is a laptop, and suspended if I don't need it. I really only reboot after a larger system upgrade (kernel, systemd,
glibc).

And yes, xkcd rules