I often rely on Firefox's cache to reopen pages I've previously visited while offline and more quickly load webpages. However, when Firefox is improperly terminated (such as by a hard computer shutdown caused by a power failure), the cache becomes empty. Why? Does it become corrupt, or is there some other technical reason? This question is platform-agnostic.
I'm not asking for speculation or opinion here, but an objective reason for this behavior. If this is by design, I'd like to see relevant references to discussions by Firefox developers or comments in the source code.
Best Answer
If there was an improper shutdown then firefox has no way to know if it was an attack or a hijack attempt, so if the cache is flushed, any viruses dependant on the cache to complete the install after a shutdown are gone.
its a security/safety feature.