Playwright Host validation warning when running core performance tests

[johnbillion]

When the core performance tests run on GitHub Actions, the following warning is shown:

Playwright Host validation warning: 
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ Host system is missing dependencies to run browsers. ║
║ Please install them with the following command:      ║
║                                                      ║
║     sudo npx playwright install-deps                 ║
║                                                      ║
║ Alternatively, use apt:                              ║
║     sudo apt-get install libwoff1\                   ║
║         libvpx9\                                     ║
║         libevent-2.1-7t64\                           ║
║         libopus0\                                    ║
║         libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0\              ║
║         libgstreamer-gl1.0-0\                        ║
║         libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0\               ║
║         libharfbuzz-icu0\                            ║
║         libsecret-1-0\                               ║
║         libhyphen0\                                  ║
║         libmanette-0.2-0\                            ║
║         libflite1\                                   ║
║         libgles2\                                    ║
║         gstreamer1.0-libav                           ║
║                                                      ║
║ <3 Playwright Team                                   ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

Here's an example workflow run: ​https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/actions/runs/12837240085/job/35800503468 (expand the "Run performance tests" section.

Is this something to be concerned about?

[swissspidy]

@mukesh27 recently mentioned this too, but these are for video codecs and specific fonts, so not really relevant for these tests IMO

[euthelup]

What is interesting tho is that in the initial steps, the browser dependencies are being installed with npx playwright install --with-deps chromium and the step seems to be completed successfully.

I suspect this might be caused by the --with-deps chromium argument because in the tests we are using Chromium and Firefox.

Should I try a PR with only npx playwright install --with-deps? Or maybe the video codecs are not very useful and we can live with the warning.

[mukesh27]

Replying to swissspidy:

@mukesh27 recently mentioned this too, but these are for video codecs and specific fonts, so not really relevant for these tests IMO

See ​https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/6515#issuecomment-2558969836

[swissspidy]

We don‘t use Firefox though

[euthelup]

Replying to swissspidy:

We don‘t use Firefox though

Oh, got it, so basically wp-scripts is downloading Firefox even though we already downloaded the browser deps.

I took a look over wp-scripts, and it seems PLAYWRIGHT_SKIP_BROWSER_DOWNLOAD was added exactly for this case.

I'll try to give it a stab tonight if no one else is in a rush for it.

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/62822

[euthelup]

I've provided a PR that adds the PLAYWRIGHT_SKIP_BROWSER_DOWNLOAD environment to the performance tests, and the warning will disappear.

There is still a catch! Because the performance GitHub action uses an ​absolute link to the reusable-perfomance.yml step, the changes in my PR won't have an effect, and the warning will still be shown.

To demonstrate this change fixes the issue I've created two separate PRs in my own fork to trigger the performance GitHub action with my own .yml files.

• This ​PR workflow was triggered with PLAYWRIGHT_SKIP_BROWSER_DOWNLOAD: true and the warning is gone

• This ​PR workflow was triggered with PLAYWRIGHT_SKIP_BROWSER_DOWNLOAD: false and it does have the warning

PLEASE DO NOT REVIEW.

[mukesh27]

@euthelup I’ve opened PR ​https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/8151 to validate this ​https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/actions/runs/12880328016/job/35909167990?pr=8151#step:25:22. It’s working fine—the notice is gone, and no Firefox browser is being downloaded now.

The PR you raised makes sense and looks good to me.

[swissspidy]

In 59669:

Build/Test Tools: Do not download extra browsers in performance tests.

Props euthelup, johnbillion, mukesh27.
Fixes #62822.

https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/59669 Committed