xvfbwrapper

Manage headless displays with Xvfb (X virtual framebuffer)

Info:

Dev: https://github.com/cgoldberg/xvfbwrapper
Releases: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/xvfbwrapper
Author: Corey Goldberg - 2012-2017
License: MIT

About xvfbwrapper:

xvfbwrapper is a python module for controlling virtual displays with Xvfb.

What is Xvfb?:

Xvfb (X virtual framebuffer) is a display server implementing the X11 display server protocol. It runs in memory and does not require a physical display. Only a network layer is necessary.

Xvfb is useful for running acceptance tests on headless servers.

Install xvfbwrapper from PyPI:

pip install xvfbwrapper

System Requirements:

X11 Windowing System
Xvfb (sudo apt-get install xvfb, yum install xorg-x11-server-Xvfb, etc)
Python 2.7 or 3.3+

Examples

Basic Usage:

from xvfbwrapper import Xvfb

vdisplay = Xvfb()
vdisplay.start()

# launch stuff inside virtual display here.

vdisplay.stop()

Basic Usage, specifying display geometry:

from xvfbwrapper import Xvfb

vdisplay = Xvfb(width=1280, height=740)
vdisplay.start()

# launch stuff inside virtual display here.

vdisplay.stop()

Usage as a Context Manager:

from xvfbwrapper import Xvfb

with Xvfb() as xvfb:
    # launch stuff inside virtual display here.
    # Xvfb will stop when this block completes

Testing Example: Headless Selenium WebDriver Tests:

This test class uses selenium webdriver and xvfbwrapper to run test cases on Firefox with a headless display.

import unittest

from selenium import webdriver
from xvfbwrapper import Xvfb


class TestPages(unittest.TestCase):

    def setUp(self):
        self.xvfb = Xvfb(width=1280, height=720)
        self.addCleanup(self.xvfb.stop)
        self.xvfb.start()
        self.browser = webdriver.Firefox()
        self.addCleanup(self.browser.quit)

    def testUbuntuHomepage(self):
        self.browser.get('http://www.ubuntu.com')
        self.assertIn('Ubuntu', self.browser.title)

    def testGoogleHomepage(self):
        self.browser.get('http://www.google.com')
        self.assertIn('Google', self.browser.title)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main()

virtual display is launched
Firefox launches inside virtual display (headless)
browser is not shown while tests are run
conditions are asserted in each test case
browser quits during cleanup
virtual display stops during cleanup

Look Ma', no browser!

(You can also take screenshots inside the virtual display to help diagnose test failures)

ehlertjd/xvfbwrapper