What is a headless browser? How do you run Headless Chrome?

A headless browser is the same as a regular web browser but the headless browser doesn’t have a graphical user interface (or GUI). Instead of navigating visually through the website, you navigate the headless browser via code or via a command-line interface. In this video, Matthew from Elementive walks through what a headless browser is and how you can run a headless version of Chrome.

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[KhalidTubing]

Thanks, my first bit of knowledge about this, hello from 1337, Benguerir, Morocco (a 42-Network school)

[kulakov]

Regular Chrome seems to work for me, no need to install Canary (I have Windows 8, Canary doesn't support it anyway). That way, it also works without the enable-logging and disable-gpu options.

enable-logging results in outputting html to console, but when you save html to a file, you don't need it.
Also, you might have noticed that when you save html to a file another console window is opened for a while (on Windows 8 I also get 2 error messages). If you don't use enable-logging the window is not opened and there's no errors.

[JoeSchliewe]

Excellent information, exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much!

[libinemmanuel]

Is that a chrome instance will be there in background for headless testing? I mean whether an instance can be seen under process tab in task manager

[apristen]

my latest chrome on windows 10 doesn't recognize "--repl" option 😞 maybe you know how to evaluate javascript from command line (cmd.exe) like form chrome dev console under windows 10 ?

[deltakid]

How do I do a regular POST request? There are websites blocking cURL from executing PHP files and I think this headless approach is the workaround I need. How do I do that?

[apristen]

thanks! why "--disable-gpu" option used?

[thomasslone]

isn't it all just http for the most part, I'm one of those implement it your self kind of guys, right now im stuck with Java script checks but it doesn't seem unsolvable it's just usually loading the page on things like Craig's list isn't a one get interaction