Firewall Rules WebGUI pagination row count persistence for large rule sets

Question

The pfSense WebGUI Firewall > Rules view presents rules in a paginated table with a configurable rows-per-page control. The documented default is 20 entries per page and the control is intended to help navigate large rule sets without loading the entire table at once.

The row count preference is described as per-user PHP session storage, which suggests behavior may differ between browsers, sessions and users. The relationship between the chosen row count and server-side data retrieval for large rule sets, and whether any system-wide limits apply, is not clearly documented for pfSense 2.6 versus 2.7+.

Clarification is needed on the scope and persistence of the pagination setting:

Is the rows-per-page preference stored per user session only, or can it be set system-wide for all administrators?
Does changing the row count change the amount of data fetched server-side for the Firewall > Rules view?
Are there documented limits or version-dependent differences for pagination behavior in the WebGUI?

Tasadduq Burney · Answer

Pagination Scope and Persistence
The rows-per-page preference in the pfSense WebGUI (Firewall > Rules) is stored per user session. It is not a system-wide setting and cannot be enforced globally for all administrators. Because this preference is tied to the PHP session (linked to the session cookie), it will reset once the session expires or if the administrator logs in from a different browser.

Server-Side Data Retrieval
Changing the row count does not reduce the amount of data fetched server-side. The WebGUI parses the full ruleset from config.xml and renders the table regardless of the pagination setting. Pagination is applied as a display filter; therefore, the server still incurs the full processing cost to generate the page, and the browser still receives the data for the entire ruleset.

Version Differences and Limits
There are no documented functional changes to the pagination mechanism between pfSense 2.6 and 2.7+. While 2.7 introduced PHP 8.x, the session-based persistence and client-side rendering logic remain consistent. There is no hard-coded upper limit for rows-per-page, though practical limits are dictated by browser rendering performance and PHP memory limits during page generation.

Verification Steps
To verify these behaviors on your specific installation, use the following methods:

Verify Session Scope: Change the row count, then log out and log back in, or open the GUI in an Incognito/Private window. The setting should revert to the default (20), confirming it is not stored in the system configuration.
Verify Data Fetching: Open Browser Developer Tools (F12), go to the Network tab, and reload the Rules page. Inspect the response body; you will find that the HTML contains the full list of rules even if the UI only displays a small subset.
Verify Config Storage: Navigate to Diagnostics > Backup > Config Backup. Search the XML for pagination keywords; you will find no entries, confirming the setting is not persistent across reboots or backups.

Diagnostic Detail Required: Are you experiencing specific page timeouts or "Out of Memory" errors when increasing the row count? This would indicate you are hitting PHP memory_limit boundaries rather than a pagination restriction.

Firewall Rules WebGUI pagination row count persistence for large rule sets

1 answer

Pagination Scope and Persistence

Server-Side Data Retrieval

Version Differences and Limits

Verification Steps

Your perspective belongs here.

0 question comments