What are the system requirements for installing Playwright?

Playwright is a powerful browser automation library by Microsoft that enables web scraping, testing, and automation across multiple browsers. Here's a comprehensive guide to the system requirements for installing Playwright.

Core Requirements

1. Node.js

Minimum Version: Node.js v18.0.0 or higher (recommended: latest LTS)
Check version: node --version
Download: nodejs.org

2. Package Manager

npm: Comes bundled with Node.js
Yarn: Alternative package manager (optional)
pnpm: Also supported for faster installs

3. Operating System Support

Windows - Windows 10 (1809+) or Windows 11 - Windows Server 2019 or 2022 - x64 and ARM64 architectures supported

macOS - macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or later - Intel and Apple Silicon (M1/M2) Macs supported

Linux - Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04, 22.04 - Debian 10, 11 - CentOS 7, 8 - Fedora 36+ - Alpine Linux 3.13+

System Dependencies

Windows & macOS

Dependencies are automatically installed during Playwright installation.

Linux

Manual installation of system dependencies is required:

Ubuntu/Debian:

# Install system dependencies
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y \
  libnss3 \
  libatk-bridge2.0-0 \
  libdrm2 \
  libxkbcommon0 \
  libxcomposite1 \
  libxdamage1 \
  libxrandr2 \
  libgbm1 \
  libxss1 \
  libasound2

# For older Ubuntu versions (18.04)
sudo apt-get install -y \
  libgtk-3-0 \
  libnss3 \
  libasound2 \
  libgbm-dev

CentOS/RHEL/Fedora:

sudo yum install -y \
  nss \
  atk \
  at-spi2-atk \
  gtk3 \
  alsa-lib \
  libdrm \
  libxkbcommon \
  libxcomposite \
  libxdamage \
  libxrandr \
  mesa-libgbm \
  libXScrnSaver

Alpine Linux:

apk add --no-cache \
  chromium \
  nss \
  freetype \
  freetype-dev \
  harfbuzz \
  ca-certificates \
  ttf-freefont

Browser Requirements

Playwright automatically downloads and manages browser binaries:

Chromium: Latest stable version
Firefox: Latest stable version
WebKit: Latest stable version (Safari engine)
Storage: ~300MB per browser (~900MB total)

Installation

Standard Installation

# Using npm
npm install playwright

# Using Yarn
yarn add playwright

# Using pnpm
pnpm add playwright

Install with Browsers

# Install browsers automatically
npx playwright install

# Install specific browser
npx playwright install chromium
npx playwright install firefox
npx playwright install webkit

# Install system dependencies (Linux)
npx playwright install-deps

Development Installation

# Install as dev dependency
npm install --save-dev playwright

# Install with test runner
npm install --save-dev @playwright/test

Hardware Requirements

Minimum Requirements

RAM: 2GB available memory
Storage: 1GB free space (for browsers)
CPU: Any modern x64 or ARM64 processor

Recommended Requirements

RAM: 4GB+ for parallel test execution
Storage: 2GB+ for multiple browser versions
CPU: Multi-core processor for faster execution

Verification

After installation, verify Playwright is working:

# Check Playwright version
npx playwright --version

# Verify browser installations
npx playwright install --dry-run

# Run a simple test
node -e "const { chromium } = require('playwright'); (async () => { const browser = await chromium.launch(); console.log('Playwright is working!'); await browser.close(); })();"

Docker Support

Playwright provides official Docker images:

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/playwright:v1.40.0-focal

WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm install
COPY . .

CMD ["npm", "test"]

Troubleshooting

Common Issues: - Missing system dependencies on Linux - Insufficient disk space for browser downloads - Firewall blocking browser downloads - Old Node.js version compatibility

Solutions:

# Clear Playwright cache
npx playwright install --force

# Install with verbose logging
DEBUG=pw:install npx playwright install

# Check system dependencies
npx playwright install-deps --dry-run

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