I carefully revised the list of switches at http://peter.sh/experiments/chromium-command-line-switches/#chrome-frame and I couldn't find anything that would launch Chrome in a hidden background process.
The closest I was able to is --keep-alive-for-test + custom packaged app, but the app fails to execute any passed code because (the way it reports) "no window - ChromeHidden".
TL;DR
google-chrome --headless --remote-debugging-port=9222 http://example.com
You'd also need --disable-gpu temporarily.
Tutorial:
https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/04/headless-chrome
There's a work in progress: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=546953
The main deliverables are:
A library which headless applications can link to to.
A sample application which demonstrates the use of headless APIs.
So it would be possible to create a simple application that runs in console without connecting to display.
Update Apr 18 '16: The work is mainly done. There's a public forum now:
https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!forum/headless-dev
Documentation is being in progress:
https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/headless/README.md
Update Sep 20 '16: It looks like chrome will eventually get the "--headless" parameter:
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=612904
There was a presentation on BlinkOn 6 (June 16/17, 2016)
Update Nov 29 '16: Design doc for --headless flag: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aIJUzQr3eougZQp90bp4mqGr5gY6hdUice8UPa-Ys90/edit#heading=h.qxqfzv2lj12s
Update Dec 13 '16: --headless flag is expected to be available in Canary builds soon
Update Mar 12 '17: Chrome 57 has a --headless flag working. Waiting for Selenium and other tools to catch up. User guide: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/lkgr/headless/README.md
This guy managed to run Chrome headlessly by using Xvfb (X virtual frame buffer) to trick Chrome into thinking it was displaying a window:
http://e-method.blogspot.fr/2010/11/google-chrome-with-xvfb-headless-server.html
If you're on Linux you could try that.
So basically you need to install X virtual frame buffer and Google Chrome via:
root#localhost: ~# apt-get install xvfb imagemagick
root#localhost: ~# apt-get install google-chrome
Then run the browser on the display:
root#localhost: ~# xvfb-run --server-args='-screen 0, 1024x768x24' \
google-chrome -start-maximized http://www.example.com \
> & /dev/null &
root#localhost: ~# DISPLAY=:99 import -window root myimage.png
Or you can look at PhantomJS project which is a headless WebKit implementation.
You could set up a linux VM and use xvfb in it.
Installation on debian / ubuntu:
sudo aptitude install xvfb
Start Chrome headless and visit http://example.com :
xvfb-run --server-args='-screen 0, 1024x768x16' google-chrome
-start-maximized http://example.com > /dev/null &
Turns out it starts in headless mode if you start it as a child subprocess. Besides that:
nircmd.exe can do win hide on chrome based on its PID
Autohotkey_L can also start Chrome hidden without a taskbar button
The Chromium Embedded Framework project seems like it might fit your usecase. I don't have personal experience with the project, but I've heard good things, and it has a solid API that you should be able to exploit for your purposes.
I don't have enough reputation to comment yet, but want to let you guys know that the chrome headless mode which Vanuan mentions actually works with Selenium webdriver.
In Java you can pass the flag to chrome through chromeDriver with the following code:
ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
options.addArguments("--headless");
ChromeDriver chromeDriver = new ChromeDriver(options);
I've recently found this article which mentions several commandline options that seem to do it. Using these keywords I googled out this piece of code which seem to confirm that these options exist.
// Does not automatically open a browser window on startup (used when
// launching Chrome for the purpose of hosting background apps).
const char kNoStartupWindow[] = "no-startup-window";
// Causes Chrome to launch without opening any windows by default. Useful if
// one wishes to use Chrome as an ash server.
const char kSilentLaunch[] = "silent-launch";
I managed to successfuly run Chrome with --no-startup-window and indeed it launched without any windows. It looked like it launched properly, it spawned all typical children, but the website I tried to make it load inside didn't seem to be actually visited. It maybe possible that this headless mode is only for running apps and not for visiting sites headless*), but it looks very promising as the normal worker tree is set up, just no windows.
The second option --silent-launch made chrome process very silent. I didn't notice any children spawned and the process exited promptly. I doubt it'll be usable for this case.
After I failed my attempts with these options, I focused on less sophisticated ways. On the bottom of the list there are two options:
// Specify the initial window position: --window-position=x,y
const char kWindowPosition[] = "window-position";
// Specify the initial window size: --window-size=w,h
const char kWindowSize[] = "window-size";
I ran Chrome with options to move it completely out of the working area:
--window-size=800,600 --window-position=-800,0
and as dirty as it feels, sure it's no true headless, but still the window is out of my sight, and everything done just with chrome's startup options, without external tools sending low-level window-hide messages.
*) yes, I know try to do weird things. Essentially I tried to get rid of Chrome window that's kept by Karma during tests. I know I can switch to PhantomJS, but I specifically needed to run them in Chrome, and the window popping out was.. eh.. disturbing in the long run.
It is currently under development, you can read more information about it from here:
https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/headless/README.md
Headless Chromium is a library for running Chromium in a
headless/server environment. Expected use cases include loading web
pages, extracting metadata (e.g., the DOM) and generating bitmaps from
page contents -- using all the modern web platform features provided
by Chromium and Blink.
It currently works on Linux, there is a nice presentation.
I was also able to make chrome headless work with NightwatchJS. Here is the config that let me use it:
"chromeHeadless": {
"desiredCapabilities": {
"browserName": "chrome",
"chromeOptions": {
"args": ["--headless"],
"binary": "/Applications/Google Chrome Canary.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome Canary"
}
}
}
Chrome 59 has the ability to create instance as headless.
Find the below tutorial
https://www.automation99.com/2017/07/how-to-use-chrome-headless-using.html?m=1
Related
I want to use Chrome browser in headless mode to produce images (PNG, JPEG) out of SVG graphic. Code works in normal interactive mode, but I have problems to use it in headless mode.
My main problem is that headless Chrome exits before drawing of HTML page is completed. As I understand, if I start Chrome with following arguments:
chromium --headless http://myserver.org
It exits together with document.onload event. But at this moment not all data fetched from the server (I using XMLHttpRequest) and therefore drawing is not complete.
I found workaround if I start chrome with debugging port enabled like:
chromium --headless --remote-debugging-port=7777 http://myserver.org
But this is not that I want, especially when I do not have privileges to open http ports on the node. Is there possibility to let Chrome running longer with other flags? I check a lot of them, but did not found appropriate one. Or is there any other methods to postpone exit of the headless Chrome?
You could try this answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/46424041/4830701
Copy pasted here for reference
Use the binary /opt/google/chrome/chrome directly not google-chrome which points to bash script /usr/bin/google-chrome.
Taken from comments in
https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/04/headless-chrome#screenshots
I'm trying to decrypt SSL packages with Wireshark as described here. I have already created a SSLKEYLOGFILE System and User variable and the log file. I have restarted my computer (running Windows 10), and opened https urls with Chrome and Firefox, but none write to the ssl log file. My Chrome version is 56.0.2924.87 (64-bit) and my Firefox version is 51.0.1 (32-bit). Any idea how can I make any of the two browsers write to that file? Or is there any way to get the SSL key to be able to decrypt SSL packages in Wireshark?
You are doing something wrong. Tested on version 58 & you do not need to reboot. To activate either:
set environment variable e.g. SSLKEYLOGFILE to %USERPROFILE%\sslkeysENV.pms
run chrome with argument e.g.:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --ssl-key-log-file=%USERPROFILE%\sslkeysARG.pms
With Firefox the features seems to be disabled by default and is only available in debug builds. With Chrome this might have been vanished by switching the underlying SSL engine from NSS (which implemented this feature and is also used in Firefox) to BoringSSL (which maybe does not have this feature).
Update: according to #Lekensteyn (see comment) the feature is again available in current Firefox and Chrome builds.
I have solved it!
You MUST be sure chrome totally be closed. And then reopen a fresh new chrome instance.
Chrome has a default options let chrome run in background enabled.
Double check your taskbar of windows or processes lists to make sure there's no chrome instance exists.
That's why --ssl-key-log-file don't working, chrome stills alive after you click exit button.
Try Firefox Developer edition, the above mentioned feature is turned on by default. I tested yesterday only.
Some antiviruses (like Avast) inject the SSLKEYLOGFILE environment variable into well-known processes like firefox.exe and chrome.exe. If you rename the browser executable file and launch that, then the environment variable won't be overridden.
Try to close your current browsing session, it behave like you just add a new path to PATH, only work from the new session and so on.
Besides what they have already pointed out, I want to show three points that may help. These are tips for Linux (CentOS)
Make sure the file that related to SSLKEYLOGFILE can be written and read, to make sure you can use:
chmod -R 777 sslkey.txt
Make sure your Firefox or Chrome is opened under the same user with the file mentioned, for example under root.
Find some useful comments here
I'm trying to run Google Chrome from terminal, and while it's running (my chrome extension will be navigating and extracting data) I want it to be invisible to the user. some kind of headless running.
Xvfb doesn't work in that case (the window is opening and visible to the user)
the google-chrome arg --no-startup-window just starts the process but not the browser.
could you please help?
As far as I know, runnig Chrome headless is impossible. You should run Chrome inside any display. I confused a bit by your statement
Xvfb doesn't work in that case (the window is opening and visible to
the user)
Because we are also using Xvfb for this purpose, and it is NOT visible for user - simply because this display is not known for the user. Maybe you are running Chrome not inside of Xvfb, but inside of user's display? Did you export DISPLAY variable for newly created Xvfb display? This code should work perfectly:
Xvfb :99 -ac -screen 0 1280x1024x16
export DISPLAY=:99
chromium
after that, you will have chromium opened on display :99 (inside Xvbf) and not visible for user.
I know how to enable chrome's crash reporting interactively:
Menu > Settings > Show advanced settings > Tick "Automatically send usage statistics and crash reports to Google"
However, I'm using chrome in an automated testing setup where we set a new --user-data-dir for each run (so there are no persisted settings, we just get the defaults). Chrome is crashing occasionally (running our javascript/html application) and I would like to be able to report these crashes.
I thought I could add --enable-crash-reporter (according to the List of Chromium Command Line Switches), but that doesn't seem to do anything. (We already pass --enable-logging and a couple other flags on the command line.)
I have a test that triggered an "Aw, Snap":
But if I download the user-data-dir for that run and and point chrome at it, and then visit chrome://crashes, it says crash dumps are not enabled.
(The chrome_debug.log does not say anything about the Aw-Snap either.)
We're running chrome under Xvfb on Debian. We're driving chrome via the direct webdriver (from Protractor).
According to the "crashpad with content shell" docs, the steps for using crashpad with content shell (a stripped down version of Chrome):
Create some directory for your crash dumps to go to (the docs suggest tmp/crashes on Linux and Mac, %TEMP%\crashes on Windows, and /data/local/tmp/crashes on Android)
Start Chrome with --enable-crash-reporter --crash-dumps-dir=<your_dump_dir> (looks like you got half of this)
So I'd try adding the --crash-dumps-dir flag.
I am having a hard time to find how to save the page as html or .txt using command line in Chrome Browser,
This is what I've done so far,
C:\Users\Cipher\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application>chrome.exe --new-window
http://google.com
This command will open a new window of Chrome browser and visit google.com but i couldn't be able to figure our how can i save google.com as html or as txt file ,
is there anyway to do so using command prompt ?
You cannot perform the task you describe manually, but you can perform it using WebDriver automation.
Chrome can be remote controlled using an API called WebDriver (part of Selenium 2 automating suite). WebDrive has bindings for various programming languages, including e.g. JavaScript and Python.
Here is example code for Python (not tested):
from selenium import webdriver
driver = webdriver.Chrome('/path/to/chromedriver') # Optional argument, if not specified will search path.
driver.get('http://www.google.com/');
html = driver.page_source
f = open("myhtml", "wt")
f.write(html)
f.close()
Orignal example
Do you really need to open Google Chrome? You can get the page source using Wget (available for UNIX systems or for Windows in this post on SuperUser). Once installed, just use the following command:
wget http://google.com -O yourfilename.html
And this should be all :) I don't think there's a way to tell Chrome to download the HTML from the command line though :(
UPDATE: There's a repo on GitHub called chrome-cli that allows the user to control Chrome from the command line. Downside is that it only works on Mac OS X.
I created a small script to do perform exactly this task: https://github.com/abiyani/automate-save-page-as . See the demo gif in the README.
It automates the keyboard actions you would otherwise perform to save the page manually (literally sends those key signals to OS). As a side effect of it being used in another project of mine, it's been tested on various linux flavors: Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, etc - and works fine on all of them. It probably won't work (at least without modifications) on Mac, and certainly not on Windows.
This should work :
cd c:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application
c:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application>chrome.exe --headless --dump-dom --enable-logging --disable-gpu https://www.google.com >c:\yourpath\yourfile.html