enable mounting tmpfs volume on start

README.md

@@ -242,6 +242,10 @@ save_clips:
   # NOTE: If an object is being tracked for longer than this amount of time, the cache
   #       will begin to expire and the resulting clip will be the last x seconds of the event.
   max_seconds: 300
+  # Optional: size of tmpfs mount to create for cache files (default: not set)
+  # mount -t tmpfs -o size={tmpfs_cache_size} tmpfs /tmp/cache
+  # Notice: If you have mounted a tmpfs volume through docker, this value should not be set in your config
+  tmpfs_cache_size: 256m
   # Optional: Retention settings for clips (default: shown below)
   retain:
     # Required: Default retention days (default: shown below)

frigate/app.py

@@ -38,6 +38,13 @@ class FrigateApp():
         self.camera_metrics = {}
 
     def ensure_dirs(self):
+        tmpfs_size = self.config.save_clips.tmpfs_cache_size
+        if tmpfs_size:
+             logger.info(f"Creating tmpfs of size {tmpfs_size}")
+             rc = os.system(f"mount -t tmpfs -o size={tmpfs_size} tmpfs /tmp/cache")
+             if rc != 0:
+                 logger.error(f"Failed to create tmpfs, error code: {rc}")
+
         for d in [RECORD_DIR, CLIPS_DIR, CACHE_DIR]:
             if not os.path.exists(d) and not os.path.islink(d):
                 logger.info(f"Creating directory: {d}")
@@ -173,19 +180,20 @@ class FrigateApp():
     def start(self):
         self.init_logger()
         try:
-            self.ensure_dirs()
             try:
                 self.init_config()
             except Exception as e:
                 logger.error(f"Error parsing config: {e}")
                 self.log_process.terminate()
                 sys.exit(1)
+            self.ensure_dirs()
             self.check_config()
             self.set_log_levels()
             self.init_queues()
             self.init_database()
             self.init_mqtt()
         except Exception as e:
+            print(e)
             logger.error(e)
             self.log_process.terminate()
             sys.exit(1)

frigate/config.py

@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ SAVE_CLIPS_RETAIN_SCHEMA = vol.Schema(
 SAVE_CLIPS_SCHEMA = vol.Schema(
     {
         vol.Optional('max_seconds', default=300): int,
+        'tmpfs_cache_size': str,
         vol.Optional('retain', default={}): SAVE_CLIPS_RETAIN_SCHEMA
     }
 )
@@ -410,11 +411,16 @@ class SaveClipsRetainConfig():
 class SaveClipsConfig():
     def __init__(self, config):
         self._max_seconds = config['max_seconds']
+        self._tmpfs_cache_size = config.get('tmpfs_cache_size', '').strip()
         self._retain = SaveClipsRetainConfig(config['retain'], config['retain'])
     
     @property
     def max_seconds(self):
         return self._max_seconds
+    
+    @property
+    def tmpfs_cache_size(self):
+        return self._tmpfs_cache_size
 
     @property
     def retain(self):
@@ -423,6 +429,7 @@ class SaveClipsConfig():
     def to_dict(self):
         return {
             'max_seconds': self.max_seconds,
+            'tmpfs_cache_size': self.tmpfs_cache_size,
             'retain': self.retain.to_dict()
         }