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@progrium progrium released this 24 Oct 19:12
v0.1
7cf9536

webframe

The webframe command runs a web page like a program: it loads a URL in a hidden web view, keeps it running, and connects it to your terminal. console output goes to stdout, exceptions go to stderr, and -c evaluates JavaScript in the page from stdin.

$ webframe examples/hello.html
Hello, world!

$ webframe -c about:blank
> 40 + 2
42

It uses the webview your OS already has (WebKit, WebKitGTK or WebView2) through glaze, so it's a single ~5 MB binary with no bundled browser.

Features

  • Console output to stdout. console.log prints as-is. Other methods are prefixed ([warn], [error], ...).
  • Exceptions to stderr. These cover uncaught errors, unhandled promise rejections, failed resource loads, and failed page loads.
  • Console mode (-c). Evaluates stdin line by line in any page, awaits promises, and keeps globals between lines. Exits when stdin closes.
  • Exit control. -e exits 1 on the first exception. window.close() exits 0.
  • Quiet modes. -s silences exceptions, and -S silences all output.
  • Reload on SIGHUP. Re-navigates to the original URL.
  • Page globals from the environment. WF_FOO=bar sets window.FOO before any page script runs.
  • Window mode (-w [WxH]). Shows the page in a window. -d enables the web inspector.
  • No display setup on Linux. With no display available, webframe starts its own Xvfb.
  • Go library. tractor.dev/webframe exposes the same engine with callbacks.

Downloads

Platform arm64 amd64
macOS webframe_v0.1_darwin_arm64.zip webframe_v0.1_darwin_amd64.zip
Windows webframe_v0.1_windows_arm64.zip webframe_v0.1_windows_amd64.zip
Linux (glibc) webframe_v0.1_linux_arm64.zip webframe_v0.1_linux_amd64.zip
Linux (musl/Alpine) webframe_v0.1_linux-musl_arm64.zip webframe_v0.1_linux-musl_amd64.zip

There's also a Dockerfile for an Alpine-based image: docker build -t webframe .

macOS

The macOS binaries aren't signed with a Developer ID or notarized yet, so if you download a zip with a browser, macOS will block webframe the first time you run it. Remove the quarantine flag after unzipping:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ./webframe

Or right-click the binary in Finder, choose Open, and confirm. On recent macOS, go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click "Open Anyway". Downloads with curl or wget aren't quarantined and run as-is.

Requirements

  • macOS: nothing.
  • Windows: the Edge WebView2 Runtime, which comes preinstalled on Windows 10/11.
  • Linux: WebKitGTK and Xvfb if you have no display.
    • Debian/Ubuntu: apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-0 xvfb
    • Alpine: apk add webkit2gtk-4.1 xvfb, plus the linux-musl build

Known limitations

  • Throttling is only disabled on macOS. Other platforms may slow down timers in the hidden page.
  • Windows doesn't report failed page loads, so -e won't catch a bad URL there.
  • Windows window size: -w WxH sizes the outer window, so the page's viewport is a little smaller.
  • Hidden error details: errors from file:// pages and cross-origin scripts show only Script error. because the engine hides the details.
    • Serve the page over http to see them.
  • Web Workers: console output from workers isn't captured.
  • about:blank has an opaque origin, so cross-origin fetch and localStorage need a real page.
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