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plum117 merged 2 commits into from
Oct 9, 2026
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docs: safaridriver has no CLI; copy the cached binary for selenium on Windows #40

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docs: safaridriver has no CLI; copy the cached binary for selenium on…
plum117 Oct 9, 2026
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docs: copy one exact geckodriver version on Windows
plum117 Oct 9, 2026
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17 changes: 11 additions & 6 deletions README.md
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Expand Up @@ -70,11 +70,10 @@ npx geckodriver --port=4444
# Start Edgedriver
npx edgedriver --port=4444

# Start Safaridriver (macOS)
npx safaridriver --port=4444

```

The `safaridriver` package has no CLI: Safaridriver is part of macOS, so run `/usr/bin/safaridriver --port=4444` directly (once, run `safaridriver --enable` to allow remote automation).

### Environment Variables & Global Installation Setup

#### Auto-Installation Flags
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -103,13 +102,19 @@ By default, binaries download when initialized via CLI or API. To download them

#### Windows Setup (`selenium-webdriver` note)

When installing `geckodriver` or `edgedriver` globally on Windows, `selenium-webdriver` expects the `.exe` extension in PATH. You can create a symlink in your global npm binary directory:
A global install on Windows adds `geckodriver.cmd` and `edgedriver.cmd` to your `PATH`, but `selenium-webdriver` looks for `geckodriver.exe` and `msedgedriver.exe`. The packages download the binary into their cache folder, not into the package folder: `geckodriver-<version>.exe` in `GECKODRIVER_CACHE_DIR`, `msedgedriver.exe` in `EDGEDRIVER_CACHE_DIR` (both default to the system temporary folder). Set the cache folder and the version, run the driver once, then copy the binary to a folder on your `PATH`:

```cmd
mklink %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\npm\geckodriver.exe %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\geckodriver\geckodriver.exe

set GECKODRIVER_CACHE_DIR=%USERPROFILE%\geckodriver
set GECKODRIVER_VERSION=0.37.1
geckodriver --version
copy /Y %GECKODRIVER_CACHE_DIR%\geckodriver-%GECKODRIVER_VERSION%.exe %APPDATA%\npm\geckodriver.exe
```

Name the exact version: with a wildcard, `copy` joins all cached versions into one broken file.

Recent `selenium-webdriver` versions can also download the drivers themselves with Selenium Manager.

---

## Programmatic Usage
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11 changes: 8 additions & 3 deletions packages/node-geckodriver/README.md
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Expand Up @@ -19,12 +19,17 @@ Or install it globally:
npm install -g geckodriver
```

__Note:__ This installs a `geckodriver` shell script that runs the executable, but on Windows, [`selenium-webdriver`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/selenium-webdriver) looks for `geckodriver.exe`. To use a global installation of this package with [`selenium-webdriver`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/selenium-webdriver) on Windows, copy or link `geckodriver.exe` to a location on your `PATH` (such as the npm bin directory) after installing this package:
__Note:__ This installs a `geckodriver` shell script that runs the executable, but on Windows, [`selenium-webdriver`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/selenium-webdriver) looks for `geckodriver.exe`. The package downloads the binary into its cache folder (`GECKODRIVER_CACHE_DIR`, by default the system temporary folder) as `geckodriver-<version>.exe`, not into the package folder. Set the cache folder and the version, run the driver once, then copy the binary to a folder on your `PATH` (such as the npm bin directory):

```sh
mklink %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\npm\geckodriver.exe %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\geckodriver\geckodriver.exe
```cmd
set GECKODRIVER_CACHE_DIR=%USERPROFILE%\geckodriver
set GECKODRIVER_VERSION=0.37.1
geckodriver --version
copy /Y %GECKODRIVER_CACHE_DIR%\geckodriver-%GECKODRIVER_VERSION%.exe %APPDATA%\npm\geckodriver.exe
```

Name the exact version: with a wildcard, `copy` joins all cached versions into one broken file.

Once installed you can start Geckodriver via:

```sh
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