App::BrowserUtils - Utilities related to browsers, particularly modern GUI ones
This document describes version 0.017 of App::BrowserUtils (from Perl distribution App-BrowserUtils), released on 2022-07-24.
This distribution includes several utilities related to browsers:
browsers-are-paused
kill-browsers
pause-and-unpause-browsers
pause-browsers
ps-browsers
restart-browsers
start-browsers
terminate-browsers
unpause-browsers
Supported browsers: Firefox on Linux, Opera on Linux, Chrome on Linux, and Vivaldi on Linux.
Usage:
browsers_are_paused(%args) -> [$status_code, $reason, $payload, \%result_meta]
Check whether browsers are paused.
Browser is defined as paused if all of its processes are in 'stop' state.
This function is not exported.
Arguments ('*' denotes required arguments):
quiet => true
users => array[unix::uid::exists]
Kill browser processes that belong to certain user(s) only.
Returns an enveloped result (an array).
First element ($status_code) is an integer containing HTTP-like status code (200 means OK, 4xx caller error, 5xx function error). Second element ($reason) is a string containing error message, or something like "OK" if status is 200. Third element ($payload) is the actual result, but usually not present when enveloped result is an error response ($status_code is not 2xx). Fourth element (%result_meta) is called result metadata and is optional, a hash that contains extra information, much like how HTTP response headers provide additional metadata.
Return value: (any)
pause_and_unpause_browsers(%args) -> [$status_code, $reason, $payload, \%result_meta]
Pause and unpause browsers alternately.
A modern browser now runs complex web pages and applications. Despite browser's power management feature, these pages/tabs on the browser often still eat considerable CPU cycles even though they only run in the background. Pausing (kill -STOP) the browser processes is a simple and effective way to stop CPU eating on Unix and prolong your laptop battery life. It can be performed whenever you are not using your browser for a little while, e.g. when you are typing on an editor or watching a movie. When you want to use your browser again, simply unpause (kill -CONT) it.
The pause-and-unpause action pause and unpause browser in an alternate fashion, by default every 5 minutes and 30 seconds. This is a compromise to save CPU time most of the time but then give time for web applications in the browser to catch up during the unpause window (e.g. for WhatsApp Web to display new messages and sound notification.) It can be used when you are not browsing but still want to be notified by web applications from time to time.
pause-and-unpause
If you run this routine, it will start pausing and unpausing browser. When you want to use the browser, press Ctrl-C to interrupt the routine. Then after you are done with the browser and want to pause-and-unpause again, you can re-run this routine.
You can customize the periods via the periods option.
periods
See also the separate pause_browsers and the unpause_browsers routines.
pause_browsers
unpause_browsers
periods => array[duration]
Pause and unpause times, in seconds.
For example, to pause for 5 minutes, then unpause 10 seconds, then pause for 2 minutes, then unpause for 30 seconds (then repeat the pattern), you can use:
300,10,120,30
pause_browsers(%args) -> [$status_code, $reason, $payload, \%result_meta]
Pause (kill -STOP) browsers.
See also the unpause_browsers and the pause_and_unpause_browsers routines.
pause_and_unpause_browsers
ps_browsers(%args) -> [$status_code, $reason, $payload, \%result_meta]
List browser processes.
restart_browsers(%args) -> [$status_code, $reason, $payload, \%result_meta]
Restart browsers.
For each of the requested browser, first check whether browser processes (that run the current user) exist. If they do then terminate the browser first. After that, start the browser again.
Example on the CLI:
% restart-browsers --restart-firefox
To customize command:
% restart-browsers --start-firefox --firefox-cmd 'firefox -P myprofile'
when starting each browser, console output will be captured and returned in function metadata. Will wait for 2/5/10 seconds and check if the browsers have been started. If all browsers can't be started, will return 500; otherwise will return 200 but report the browsers that failed to start to the STDERR.
This function supports dry-run operation.
chrome_cmd => array[str]|str (default: "google-chrome")
firefox_cmd => array[str]|str (default: "firefox")
opera_cmd => array[str]|str (default: "opera")
restart_chrome => bool
restart_firefox => bool
restart_opera => bool
restart_vivaldi => bool
vivaldi_cmd => array[str]|str (default: "vivaldi")
Special arguments:
-dry_run => bool
Pass -dry_run=>1 to enable simulation mode.
start_browsers(%args) -> [$status_code, $reason, $payload, \%result_meta]
Start browsers.
For each of the requested browser, check whether browser processes (that run as the current user) exist and if not then start the browser. If browser processes exist, even if all are paused, then no new instance of the browser will be started.
% start-browsers --start-firefox
To customize command to use to start:
% start-browsers --start-firefox --firefox-cmd 'firefox -P myprofile'
start_chrome => bool
start_firefox => bool
start_opera => bool
start_vivaldi => bool
terminate_browsers(%args) -> [$status_code, $reason, $payload, \%result_meta]
Terminate browsers (by default with -KILL).
signal => unix::signal
unpause_browsers(%args) -> [$status_code, $reason, $payload, \%result_meta]
Unpause (resume, continue, kill -CONT) browsers.
See also the pause_browsers and the pause_and_unpause_browsers routines.
Please visit the project's homepage at https://metacpan.org/release/App-BrowserUtils.
Source repository is at https://github.com/perlancar/perl-App-BrowserUtils.
Utilities using this distribution: App::FirefoxUtils, App::ChromeUtils, App::OperaUtils, App::VivaldiUtils
App::BrowserOpenUtils
perlancar <perlancar@cpan.org>
Steven Haryanto <stevenharyanto@gmail.com>
To contribute, you can send patches by email/via RT, or send pull requests on GitHub.
Most of the time, you don't need to build the distribution yourself. You can simply modify the code, then test via:
% prove -l
If you want to build the distribution (e.g. to try to install it locally on your system), you can install Dist::Zilla, Dist::Zilla::PluginBundle::Author::PERLANCAR, and sometimes one or two other Dist::Zilla plugin and/or Pod::Weaver::Plugin. Any additional steps required beyond that are considered a bug and can be reported to me.
This software is copyright (c) 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 by perlancar <perlancar@cpan.org>.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.
Please report any bugs or feature requests on the bugtracker website https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=App-BrowserUtils
When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch to an existing test-file that illustrates the bug or desired feature.
To install App::BrowserUtils, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm App::BrowserUtils
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install App::BrowserUtils
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.