Native messaging host communication

Add-ons Development
#1

Hello!
We have a Firefox extension which communicates to a native messaging host declared in its manifest. We’ve noticed one weird moment about how the browser sends messages to the native host. For some reason, it spawns a new process for each new message. Is that expected behavior?
The flow looks something like this on the extension side:

  • background script initiates port by calling “browser.runtime.connectNative”
  • native messaging host process starts up
  • and then the extension uses “browser.runtime.sendNativeMessage” to send messages. Each of these calls result in a new native host process (with a new uid, this is occurring on macOS).

Is this supposed to happen or it it possible to send messages to the existing instance on native messaging host?
This is mainly a concern for optimization. not to start all the routines on the native messaging host side.
Thanks!

#2

If you use runtime.connectNative you would use the Port it returns to then send messages to the instance that started. runtime.sendNativeMessage is essentially a shorthand for doing connectNative and then sending a single message.

1 Like
#3

Hey, @freaktechnik. thanks for a prompt response! Indeed, this works as intended with this correction. It keeps the process alive and reuses the first instance spawned after establishing the connection.