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 3.4+

---

Examples

Basic Usage:

fromxvfbwrapperimportXvfbvdisplay=Xvfb()
vdisplay.start()
try:
# launch stuff inside virtual display here.finally:
# always either wrap your usage of Xvfb() with try / finally,# or alternatively use Xvfb as a context manager.# If you don't, you'll probably end up with a bunch of junk in /tmpvdisplay.stop()

---

Basic Usage, specifying display geometry:

fromxvfbwrapperimportXvfbvdisplay=Xvfb(width=1280, height=740)
vdisplay.start()
try:
# launch stuff inside virtual display here.finally:
vdisplay.stop()

---

Usage as a Context Manager:

fromxvfbwrapperimportXvfbwithXvfb() asxvfb:
# 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.

importunittestfromseleniumimportwebdriverfromxvfbwrapperimportXvfbclassTestPages(unittest.TestCase):
defsetUp(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)
deftestUbuntuHomepage(self):
self.browser.get('http://www.ubuntu.com')
self.assertIn('Ubuntu', self.browser.title)
deftestGoogleHomepage(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)