Poltergeist/PhantomJS crashing in Gitlab CI

Question

Background:

My testing suite did not handle any JS functionality until recently. I started out only on my machine with a selenium-webdriver javascript driver and firefox 47.0.1 with no issues. I then migrated over to poltergeist supporting PhantomJS as my javascript driver. I had to make a few changes to some broken tests, but have very much enjoyed the changeover and am 'sold' on PhantomJS/poltergeist.

Expected Behavior:

I anticipated the tests to pass on my Gitlab-ci just as they had on my machine (hey, we can dream), with maybe a few configuration tweaks needed.

Versions:

Ruby - 2.3.1

Rails - 5.0.0.1

poltergeist - 1.12.0

rspec - 3.5.0

rspec-rails - 3.5.1

capybara - 2.11.0

cliver - 0.3.2

factory_girl_rails - 4.7.0

phantomjs - 2.1.1 (on both my machine and CI server)

Capybara Config:

require 'capybara/rspec'
require 'capybara/poltergeist'

Capybara.default_driver = :rack_test
Capybara.register_driver :poltergeist do |app|
   options = {
     :js_errors => false,
     :timeout => 360,
     :phantomjs_options => ['--load-images=no', '--ignore-ssl-errors=yes', '--disk-cache=false']
   }
   Capybara::Poltergeist::Driver.new(app, options)
 end
 Capybara.javascript_driver = :poltergeist

DatabaseCleaner Config

  config.before(:suite) do
    DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
  end

  config.before(:each) do
    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = Capybara.current_driver == :rack_test ? :transaction : :truncation
    DatabaseCleaner.clean
    DatabaseCleaner.start
  end


  config.after(:each) do |example|
    puts 'RAM USAGE: ' + `pmap #{Process.pid} | tail -1`[10,40].strip

    if defined?(page)
      Capybara.reset_sessions!
      page.driver.restart
    end
    DatabaseCleaner.clean
  end

Actual Behavior/Backtraces:

1. Failing Tests, PhantomJS Crash

To get a full stacktrace on my failing tests before I ate up all of my memory I used the rspec --fail-fast option to kick back results for me on my first error. This is what I returned:

 ArgumentError:
                The detector #<struct Cliver::Detector command_arg=nil, version_pattern=nil> failed to detect theversion of the executable at '/usr/bin/phantomjs'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/cliver-0.3.2/lib/cliver/dependency.rb:191:in `detect_version'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/cliver-0.3.2/lib/cliver/dependency.rb:87:in `block in installed_versions'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/cliver-0.3.2/lib/cliver/dependency.rb:214:in `block in find_executables'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/cliver-0.3.2/lib/cliver/dependency.rb:208:in `map'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/cliver-0.3.2/lib/cliver/dependency.rb:208:in `find_executables'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/cliver-0.3.2/lib/cliver/dependency.rb:86:in `each'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/cliver-0.3.2/lib/cliver/dependency.rb:86:in `installed_versions'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/cliver-0.3.2/lib/cliver/dependency.rb:108:in `each'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/cliver-0.3.2/lib/cliver/dependency.rb:108:in `detect!'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/cliver-0.3.2/lib/cliver/dependency.rb:97:in `detect'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/cliver-0.3.2/lib/cliver.rb:35:in `detect'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/poltergeist-1.12.0/lib/capybara/poltergeist/client.rb:47:in `initialize'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/poltergeist-1.12.0/lib/capybara/poltergeist/client.rb:14:in `new'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/poltergeist-1.12.0/lib/capybara/poltergeist/client.rb:14:in `start'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/poltergeist-1.12.0/lib/capybara/poltergeist/driver.rb:44:in `client'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/poltergeist-1.12.0/lib/capybara/poltergeist/driver.rb:25:in `browser'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/poltergeist-1.12.0/lib/capybara/poltergeist/driver.rb:183:in `reset!'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/capybara-2.11.0/lib/capybara/session.rb:110:in `reset!'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/capybara-2.11.0/lib/capybara.rb:335:in `block in reset_sessions!'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/capybara-2.11.0/lib/capybara.rb:335:in `reverse_each'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/capybara-2.11.0/lib/capybara.rb:335:in `reset_sessions!'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/capybara-2.11.0/lib/capybara/rspec.rb:21:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:443:in `instance_exec'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:443:in `instance_exec'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/hooks.rb:357:in `run'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/hooks.rb:507:in `block in run_owned_hooks_for'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/hooks.rb:506:in `each'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/hooks.rb:506:in `run_owned_hooks_for'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/hooks.rb:593:in `block in run_example_hooks_for'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/hooks.rb:592:in `each'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/hooks.rb:592:in `run_example_hooks_for'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/hooks.rb:463:in `run'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:503:in `run_after_example'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:269:in `block in run'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:496:in `block in with_around_and_singleton_context_hooks'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:453:in `block in with_around_example_hooks'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/hooks.rb:464:in `block in run'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/hooks.rb:604:in `block in run_around_example_hooks_for'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:338:in `call'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-rails-3.5.1/lib/rspec/rails/adapters.rb:127:in `block (2 levels) in <module:MinitestLifecycleAdapter>'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:443:in `instance_exec'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:443:in `instance_exec'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/hooks.rb:375:in `execute_with'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/hooks.rb:606:in `block (2 levels) in run_around_example_hooks_for'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:338:in `call'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-retry-0.4.5/lib/rspec/retry.rb:98:in `block in run'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-retry-0.4.5/lib/rspec/retry.rb:88:in `loop'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-retry-0.4.5/lib/rspec/retry.rb:88:in `run'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-retry-0.4.5/lib/rspec_ext/rspec_ext.rb:12:in `run_with_retry'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-retry-0.4.5/lib/rspec/retry.rb:22:in `block (2 levels) in setup'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:443:in `instance_exec'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:443:in `instance_exec'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/hooks.rb:375:in `execute_with'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/hooks.rb:606:in `block (2 levels) in run_around_example_hooks_for'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:338:in `call'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/hooks.rb:607:in `run_around_example_hooks_for'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/hooks.rb:464:in `run'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:453:in `with_around_example_hooks'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:496:in `with_around_and_singleton_context_hooks'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:251:in `run'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/example_group.rb:627:in `block in run_examples'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/example_group.rb:623:in `map'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/example_group.rb:623:in `run_examples'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/example_group.rb:589:in `run'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:113:in `block (3 levels) in run_specs'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:113:in `map'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:113:in `block (2 levels) in run_specs'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/configuration.rb:1835:in `with_suite_hooks'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:112:in `block in run_specs'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/reporter.rb:77:in `report'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:111:in `run_specs'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:87:in `run'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:71:in `run'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:45:in `invoke'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.4/exe/rspec:4:in `<top (required)>'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/bin/rspec:23:in `load'
              # /home/gitlab-runner/builds/wow_such_build/0/schwad_project/redacted/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.3.0/bin/rspec:23:in `<main>'
              #
              #   Showing full backtrace because every line was filtered out.
              #   See docs for RSpec::Configuration#backtrace_exclusion_patterns and
              #   RSpec::Configuration#backtrace_inclusion_patterns for more information.

Also, in my gitlab-ci.yml file, if I call phantomjs --version in before_script I receive:

QXcbConnection: Could not connect to display
PhantomJS has crashed. Please read the bug reporting guide at
<http://phantomjs.org/bug-reporting.html> and file a bug report.

Any help on this would be much appreciated.

2. Memory Blowup SOLVED: see update 2

The tests would eat up the memory, even after we increased memory capacity on the servers, and crash the test suite before it would finish. To track memory usage in my RSpec configuration after each test I ran:

puts 'enter code hereRAM USAGE: ' +pmap #{Process.pid} | tail -1[10,40].strip

The memory would be minimally affected under the model tests, but grow rapidly under the integration tests. Like so:

Model Test-
RAM USAGE: 567800K
Model Test-
RAM USAGE: 567800K
Model Test-
RAM USAGE: 567800K
Model Test-
RAM USAGE: 568220K
Model Test-
RAM USAGE: 568220K
Model Test-
RAM USAGE: 568360K
Model Test-
RAM USAGE: 568500K
Model Test-
RAM USAGE: 568652K
Model Test-
RAM USAGE: 568788K

First Feature Test:
RAM USAGE: 1100628K

And blowing up from there.

To handle this I have made sure to use appropriate DatabaseCleaner strategies, also cycled through trying tools such as Capybara.reset_sessions!, Capybara.current_session.driver.quit, page.driver.quit, page.driver.restart with no real joy.

UPDATE:

5:06 PM UTC, 15/12/16

1. Crashes

Gitlab support has suggested investigating whether our packages and dependencies are resulting in a non-headless situation with PhantomJS. We are investigating this now.

2. Memory

I've run a memory tracker against a few different iterations here, and it seems to be simply enabling our js: true feature tests with a javascript driver to be eating up the memory, going from 1G for about 1,750 tests to surpassing our 4G limit on 1,800-1,850 tests. This seems to occur, I believe, with either selenium-webdriver OR poltergeist as the js driver.

UPDATE 2:

11:45 PM UTC, 16/12/16

1. Crashing

Still awaiting proper installation of packages on our server. Will update and award answer if this is the issue.

2. Memory

On the branch where we were migrating over to the Javascript-driver enabled batch of tests, part of the configuration to speed up the tests implemented a DeferredGarbageCollector which had settings that gobbled up the memory. PhantomJS and Poltergeist are not leaking. SOLVED

Answer 1

http://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/issues/14240 is the cause of your PhantomJS crashing - The version of PhantomJS shipped by Ubuntu requires X to run.

Download the official release build and use that to cure your crashing issue.

You may want to add the memory issue as a separate question.