feat(install): use shared installation folder by default (#2044)

docs/installation.md

@@ -3,12 +3,13 @@
 <!-- GEN:toc -->
 - [System requirements](#system-requirements)
 - [Managing browser binaries](#managing-browser-binaries)
-  * [Download from artifact repository](#download-from-artifact-repository)
-  * [Share browser binaries across projects](#share-browser-binaries-across-projects)
-  * [Skip browser downloads](#skip-browser-downloads)
+- [Download from artifact repository](#download-from-artifact-repository)
+- [Skip browser downloads](#skip-browser-downloads)
 - [Download single browser binary](#download-single-browser-binary)
 <!-- GEN:stop -->
 
+<br>
+
 ## System requirements
 
 Playwright requires Node.js version 10.15 or above. The browser binaries for Chromium,
@@ -21,28 +22,56 @@ Firefox and WebKit work across the 3 platforms (Windows, macOS, Linux):
   * For Ubuntu 18.04, the additional dependencies are defined in [our Docker image](docker/Dockerfile.bionic),
     which is based on Ubuntu.
 
+<br>
+
 ## Managing browser binaries
 
-Each version of Playwright needs specific versions of browser binaries to operate.
+Each version of Playwright needs specific versions of browser binaries to operate. By default Playwright downloads Chromium, WebKit and Firefox browsers into the OS-specific cache folders:
 
-By default it downloads Chromium, WebKit and Firefox browsers into the `node_modules/` folder. This way no extra steps are needed to get playwright up and running:
+- `HOME\AppData\Local\ms-playwright` on Windows
+- `~/Library/Caches/ms-playwright` on MacOS
+- `~/.cache/playwright/ms-playwright` on Linux
 
 ```sh
 npm i playwright
 ```
 
-These browsers will take hundreds of megabytes of the disk space when installed:
+These browsers will take few hundreds of megabytes of the disk space when installed:
 
 ```sh
-du -hs ./node_modules/playwright/.local-browsers/*
-281M	.local-browsers/chromium-XXXXXX
-187M	.local-browsers/firefox-XXXX
-180M	.local-browsers/webkit-XXXX
+du -hs ./Library/Caches/ms-playwright/*
+281M  chromium-XXXXXX
+187M	firefox-XXXX
+180M	webkit-XXXX
 ```
 
-To mitigate that, Playwright has a rich set of options to control browser management.
+You can override default behavior using environment variables. When installing Playwright, ask it to download browsers into a specific location:
 
-### Download from artifact repository
+```sh
+$ PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=$HOME/pw-browsers npm i playwright
+```
+
+When running Playwright scripts, ask it to search for browsers in a shared location:
+
+```sh
+$ PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=$HOME/pw-browsers node playwright-script.js
+```
+
+Or you can opt into the hermetic install and place binaries under the `node_modules/` folder:
+
+```sh
+$ PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=0 node playwright-script.js
+```
+
+Playwright keeps track of packages that need those browsers and will garbage collect them as you update Playwright to the newer versions.
+
+<br>
+
+> **NOTE** Developers can opt-in in this mode via exporting `PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=$HOME/pw-browsers` in their `.bashrc`.
+
+<br>
+
+## Download from artifact repository
 
 By default, Playwright downloads browsers from Microsoft and Google public CDNs.
 
@@ -54,30 +83,9 @@ location using the `PLAYWRIGHT_DOWNLOAD_HOST` env variable.
 $ PLAYWRIGHT_DOWNLOAD_HOST=192.168.1.78 npm i playwright
 ```
 
-### Share browser binaries across projects
+<br>
 
-Often times, developers work with multiple NPM projects that all use Playwright.
-By default, every project will have browser binaries in its own `node_modules/` folder.
-To save the disk space and to speedup installation, Playwright can re-use
-these binaries.
-
-Sharing browser binaries is a two-step process:
-
-1. When installing Playwright, ask it to download browsers into a shared location:
-
-```sh
-$ PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=$HOME/pw-browsers npm i playwright
-```
-
-2. When running Playwright scripts, ask it to search for browsers in a shared location:
-
-```sh
-$ PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=$HOME/pw-browsers node playwright-script.js
-```
-
-> **NOTE** Developers can opt-in in this mode via exporting `PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=$HOME/pw-browsers` in their `.bashrc`.
-
-### Skip browser downloads
+## Skip browser downloads
 
 In certain cases, it is desired to avoid browser downloads altogether because
 browser binaries are managed separately.
@@ -88,6 +96,8 @@ This can be done by setting `PLAYWRIGHT_SKIP_BROWSER_DOWNLOAD` variable before i
 $ PLAYWRIGHT_SKIP_BROWSER_DOWNLOAD=1 npm i playwright
 ```
 
+<br>
+
 ## Download single browser binary
 
 Playwright ships three packages that bundle only a single browser:
@@ -99,13 +109,13 @@ Playwright ships three packages that bundle only a single browser:
 
 Using these packages is as easy as using a regular Playwright:
 
-1. Install a specific package
+Install a specific package
 
 ```sh
 $ npm i playwright-webkit
 ```
 
-2. Require package
+Require package
 
 ```js
 // Notice a proper package name in require

src/install/browserPaths.ts

@@ -77,9 +77,27 @@ export function executablePath(browserPath: string, browser: BrowserDescriptor):
   return tokens ? path.join(browserPath, ...tokens) : undefined;
 }
 
+function cacheDirectory() {
+  if (process.platform === 'linux')
+    return process.env.XDG_CACHE_HOME || path.join(os.homedir(), '.cache');
+
+  if (process.platform === 'darwin')
+    return path.join(os.homedir(), 'Library', 'Caches');
+
+  if (process.platform === 'win32')
+    return process.env.LOCALAPPDATA || path.join(os.homedir(), 'AppData', 'Local');
+  throw new Error('Unsupported platform: ' + process.platform);
+}
+
+const defaultBrowsersPath = ((): string | undefined => {
+  const envDefined = getFromENV('PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH');
+  if (envDefined === '0')
+    return undefined;
+  return envDefined || path.join(cacheDirectory(), 'ms-playwright');
+})();
+
 export function browsersPath(packagePath: string): string {
-  const result = getFromENV('PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH');
-  return result || path.join(packagePath, '.local-browsers');
+  return defaultBrowsersPath || path.join(packagePath, '.local-browsers');
 }
 
 export function browserDirectory(browsersPath: string, browser: BrowserDescriptor): string {

src/install/installer.ts

@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ import * as browserPaths from '../install/browserPaths';
 import * as browserFetcher from '../install/browserFetcher';
 
 const fsMkdirAsync = util.promisify(fs.mkdir.bind(fs));
-const fsExistsAsync = (path: string) => new Promise(f => fs.exists(path, f));
 const fsReaddirAsync = util.promisify(fs.readdir.bind(fs));
 const fsReadFileAsync = util.promisify(fs.readFile.bind(fs));
 const fsUnlinkAsync = util.promisify(fs.unlink.bind(fs));
@@ -39,11 +38,7 @@ export async function installBrowsersWithProgressBar(packagePath: string) {
     logPolitely('Skipping browsers download because `PLAYWRIGHT_SKIP_BROWSER_DOWNLOAD` env variable is set');
     return false;
   }
-  if (!await fsExistsAsync(browsersPath))
-    await fsMkdirAsync(browsersPath);
-  if (!await fsExistsAsync(linksDir))
-    await fsMkdirAsync(linksDir);
-
+  await fsMkdirAsync(linksDir,  { recursive: true });
   await fsWriteFileAsync(path.join(linksDir, sha1(packagePath)), packagePath);
   await validateCache(browsersPath, linksDir);
 }

test/installation-tests/installation-tests.sh

@@ -19,8 +19,8 @@ npm pack ../../../packages/playwright-firefox
 
 # cleanup environment
 unset PLAYWRIGHT_DOWNLOAD_HOST
-unset PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH
 unset PLAYWRIGHT_SKIP_BROWSER_DOWNLOAD
+export PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=0
 
 # There is no option to specify output for `npm pack`, but the format is
 # fixed.