OSX support?

[yhslai]

On ubuntu you can install xvfb by apt-get install. On OSX, the xvfb is inclued in XQuartz. Though I have installed XQuartz, the headless gem still doesn't work:

Headless::Exception: Xvfb not found on your system

How to tell Headless where is my xvfb?

[leonid-shevtsov]

Make sure that xvfb is available in PATH. Headless just calls which xvfb to locate the executable.

Still, this isn't really "OSX support", since xvfb will only work with X applications, which are a very small subset of (ususally non-native) OS X applications.

[kmb89144]

I followed your guide, and am using headless in object mode, however whenever I launch chrome, it's not actually running headless. I've verified that xvfb is installed (path is /usr/X11/bin/xvfb). I'm using OS X (version 10.7.4).

headless = Headless.new
headless.start
driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :chrome
driver.navigate.to 'http://www.google.com'

Thanks!

[introvert]

I have the same problem on OS X Lion (10.8.2). I installed XQuartz and I have xvfb on my hd. When I run the demo code the browser doesn't run headless.
I get no error.

Any idea?

[leonid-shevtsov]

I'm sorry, but Headless would only work with applications using the X Server on OSX. Practically any native OSX application uses Quartz, the OSX graphics subsystem, and not X. That includes Chrome and Firefox on OSX.

The X Windowing System is the primary graphics subsystem for Linux, thus most, if not all, graphical Linux apps use the X Server and can be ran "headlessly" with Headless. That includes Chrome and Firefox on Linux.

On OSX the X Server is only included for compatibility (that's why it's not even packaged with 10.8). For example, Wine apps on OSX use the X Server, and some utilities from Linux land do.

If there is a way to run Quartz applications headlessly, then I know nothing about it and supporting Quartz is not a goal of Headless.

Read up here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_server
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz_(graphics_layer)

[introvert]

Thanks for explanation.
Is there any way to run Firefox headlessly on OS X?

[leonid-shevtsov]

If you want to avoid the window popping up when you are running tests, maybe pinning it to a separate Space will help. Or starting it in the background (open --hide /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox)

[introvert]

Leonid, thanks for this.
Do you maybe know how its possible to launch firefox in the background / in silent mode with Watir?
It doesn't appear that it supports passing arguments to the browser..

[ultrageek]

PhantomJS runs headlessly on Mac OS X using an agnostic WebKit-based browser. I believe it uses Xvfb to accomplish this? It's been a while, so I'm not 100% sure of the details.

I understand someone has a capybara/phantomjs gem. Not sure if there's a hybrid solution in there for Headless

[tispratik]

Should we put it in the readme, that headless gem does not support mac osx? As, its confusing people and searching all over to find an answer.

[leonid-shevtsov]

But it is right there in the 5th paragraph of the readme. In bold. :)

[tispratik]

Oh ok, its probably not direct. Headless will not hide :). We can probably say it directly, "headless" is not for mac osx in the very first paragraph.

[leehambley]

Could it possibly be made not to require XVfb on OSX? it's a bit annoying to have to install a 1.5Gb package, in order to not use it. I'm sure the answer is "Don't use headless on OSX", but building an implementation that swaps out Headless for NotHeadless based on RUBY_PLATFORM seems like something that might be more widely useful than just at my client's place?

[leonid-shevtsov]

@leehambley could you elaborate on the problem you're having? If you're not using Headless, why do you need to install Xvfb?

The 1.5G package can't be avoided, because Xvfb is just a small slice of the entire X Server layer, all of which is required for the apps to work.

[leehambley]

We use headless in the test helper for the city server, so its always
loaded, and in all setup and teardown blocks.

Ideally headless would switch on RUBY_PLATFORM and just do nothing on osx
(ie not even check for xvfb)

On Sep 12, 2013 10:03 AM, "Leonid Shevtsov" notifications@github.com
wrote:

@leehambley could you elaborate on the problem you're having? If you're
not using Headless, why do you need to install Xvfb?

The 1.5G package can't be avoided, because Xvfb is just a small slice of
the entire X Server layer, all of which is required for the apps to work.

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