Fix browser hanging during cleanup by not waiting for browser.close() to complete

[Copilot]

Motivation/Description of the PR

Tests hang for 5 seconds after completion in CodeceptJS 4.x when using the default restart: false configuration for Playwright helper.

Resolves #5317

Applicable helpers:

• Playwright
• Puppeteer
• WebDriver
• REST
• FileHelper
• Appium

Applicable plugins:

• allure
• autoDelay
• autoLogin
• customLocator
• pauseOnFail
• coverage
• retryFailedStep
• screenshotOnFail
• selenoid
• stepByStepReport
• stepTimeout
• wdio
• subtitles

Type of change

• 🔥 Breaking changes
• 🚀 New functionality
• 🐛 Bug fix
• 🧹 Chore
• 📋 Documentation changes/updates
• ♨️ Hot fix
• 🔨 Markdown files fix - not related to source code
• 💅 Polish code

Root Cause

The browser.close() operation in _stopBrowser() hangs indefinitely in certain scenarios, causing a 5-second timeout. Even after attempting to close all pages and contexts first, the browser.close() operation itself still hangs due to internal Playwright/browser process state that prevents clean shutdown.

Changes

lib/helper/Playwright.js

• Modified _stopBrowser() method to use "fire and forget" approach:
  1. Remove all browser event listeners
  2. Close browserContext if recordHar is enabled
  3. Call browser.close() without await - don't wait for it to complete
  4. Catch and silently ignore any errors during async close
  5. Set browser to null and mark as not running

This approach initiates browser cleanup but doesn't wait for it, allowing the test execution to complete immediately. The browser process will be cleaned up when the Node process exits.

Example

With default config:

helpers: {
  Playwright: {
    browser: "chromium",
    url: "http://localhost",
    // restart: false (default)
  }
}

Before: Test completes in 4ms, hangs 5s before exit
After: Test completes in 4ms, exits immediately

Benefits

• Immediate completion: No hanging or waiting - test execution completes instantly
• Clean process exit: Browser process still gets cleaned up when Node process exits
• Simplified code: Removed complex timeout and retry logic for closing pages/contexts
• No race conditions: Eliminates issues with double-closing or timing conflicts
• Works with all restart configurations: false, true, 'context', 'session', 'browser'

Checklist:

• Tests have been added
• Documentation has been added (Run npm run docs)
• Lint checking (Run npm run lint)
• Local tests are passed (Run npm test)

Original prompt

---

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>CodeceptJS 4.x: Test hangs for a few seconds before end</issue_title>
<issue_description>Only 4.x is affected. It doesn't matter if you use tsx or ts-node.
3.x works fine

config codecept.conf.ts:

export const config: CodeceptJS.MainConfig = {
  tests: "./*_test.ts",
  output: "./output",
  helpers: {
    Playwright: {
      browser: "chromium",
      url: "http://localhost",
      show: true
    }
  },
  name: "esm",
  require: ["tsx/esm"]
};

test

Feature("My");

const {I} = inject();

Scenario("test something",  () => {
    I.say("Hello World" );
});

Expected result:

• The test is fast

Actual result:

• The test hangs for 5 secs before the end

[email protected]

mirao@rog:~/workspace/codeceptjs/esm$ codeceptjs run --verbose|ts
Nov 19 08:57:27 ***************************************
Nov 19 08:57:27 nodeInfo:  20.19.5
Nov 19 08:57:27 osInfo:  Linux 6.14 Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS 24.04.3 LTS (Noble Numbat)
Nov 19 08:57:27 cpuInfo:  (16) x64 AMD Ryzen 7 9700X 8-Core Processor
Nov 19 08:57:27 chromeInfo:  142.0.7444.175
Nov 19 08:57:27 edgeInfo:  "N/A"
Nov 19 08:57:27 firefoxInfo:  145.0
Nov 19 08:57:27 safariInfo:  N/A
Nov 19 08:57:27 playwrightBrowsers:  "chromium: 141.0.7390.37, firefox: 142.0.1, webkit: 26.0"
Nov 19 08:57:27 If you need more detailed info, just run this: npx codeceptjs info
Nov 19 08:57:27 ***************************************
Nov 19 08:57:27 CodeceptJS v4.0.1-beta.12 #StandWithUkraine
Nov 19 08:57:27 Using test root "/home/mirao/workspace/codeceptjs/esm"
Nov 19 08:57:27 
Nov 19 08:57:27 Helpers: Playwright
Nov 19 08:57:27 Plugins: screenshotOnFail
Nov 19 08:57:27 My --
Nov 19 08:57:27 /home/mirao/workspace/codeceptjs/esm/My_test.ts
Nov 19 08:57:27     [1]  Starting recording promises
Nov 19 08:57:27     Timeouts: 
Nov 19 08:57:27  › [Session] Starting singleton browser session
Nov 19 08:57:27   test something
Nov 19 08:57:27  › [New Session] {"ignoreHTTPSErrors":false,"acceptDownloads":true}
Nov 19 08:57:27   Scenario()
Nov 19 08:57:27     I say "Hello World"
Nov 19 08:57:27    Hello World
Nov 19 08:57:27   ✔ OK in 4ms
Nov 19 08:57:27 
Nov 19 08:57:32 
Nov 19 08:57:32   OK  | 1 passed   // 5s

With [email protected] it's fast:

mirao@rog:~/workspace/codeceptjs/esm$ codeceptjs run --verbose|ts
Nov 19 09:00:18 ***************************************
Nov 19 09:00:18 nodeInfo:  20.19.5
Nov 19 09:00:18 osInfo:  Linux 6.14 Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS 24.04.3 LTS (Noble Numbat)
Nov 19 09:00:18 cpuInfo:  (16) x64 AMD Ryzen 7 9700X 8-Core Processor
Nov 19 09:00:18 chromeInfo:  142.0.7444.175
Nov 19 09:00:18 edgeInfo:  "N/A"
Nov 19 09:00:18 firefoxInfo:  undefined
Nov 19 09:00:18 safariInfo:  N/A
Nov 19 09:00:18 playwrightBrowsers:  "chromium: 141.0.7390.37, firefox: 142.0.1, webkit: 26.0"
Nov 19 09:00:18 If you need more detailed info, just run this: npx codeceptjs info
Nov 19 09:00:18 ***************************************
Nov 19 09:00:18 CodeceptJS v3.7.5 #StandWithUkraine
Nov 19 09:00:18 Using test root "/home/mirao/workspace/codeceptjs/esm"
Nov 19 09:00:18 Helpers: Playwright
Nov 19 09:00:18 Plugins: screenshotOnFail
Nov 19 09:00:18 
Nov 19 09:00:18 My --
Nov 19 09:00:18 /home/mirao/workspace/codeceptjs/esm/My_test.ts
Nov 19 09:00:18     [1]  Starting recording promises
Nov 19 09:00:18     Timeouts: 
Nov 19 09:00:18  › [Session] Starting singleton browser session
Nov 19 09:00:18   test something
Nov 19 09:00:18  › [New Session] {"ignoreHTTPSErrors":false,"acceptDownloads":true}
Nov 19 09:00:18   Scenario()
Nov 19 09:00:18     I say "Hello World"
Nov 19 09:00:18    Hello World
Nov 19 09:00:18   ✔ OK in 3ms
Nov 19 09:00:18 
Nov 19 09:00:18 
Nov 19 09:00:18   OK  | 1 passed   // 219ms

Used SW:

• CodeceptJS 4.0.1-beta.12
• Playwright 1.56.1</issue_description>

<agent_instructions>- Investigate the issue why we add extra times before printing out the test status. Here is 5 seconds.

• fix the issue, consider many scenarios to make sure we cover the most. </agent_instructions>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

• Fixes CodeceptJS 4.x: Test hangs for a few seconds before end #5317

---

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[kobenguyent]

@copilot workflows got timeout like playwright tests. It's likely the process hangs.

[Copilot]

@copilot workflows got timeout like playwright tests. It's likely the process hangs.

I've identified and fixed the issue. The previous approach of mapping restart: false to context restart caused the context close logic to run in _after(), which was also hanging with a 5-second timeout.

The root cause is that browser.close() hangs when there are open pages/contexts. The new fix (commit f5682e7) ensures all pages and contexts are properly closed before closing the browser in _stopBrowser().

Changes:

• Reverted the restart strategy mapping changes
• Added logic to close all pages in all contexts before closing the browser
• Uses Promise.allSettled to ensure cleanup continues even if individual operations fail

This should resolve the timeout issue in both the test execution and CI workflows.

[kobenguyent]

@copilot still got 5-sec hang after text execution with latest changes

Nov 19 15:32:06   Scenario()
Nov 19 15:32:06     I open page "http://codecept.io"
Nov 19 15:32:11     I say "Hello World"
Nov 19 15:32:11    Hello World
Nov 19 15:32:11   ✔ OK in 4410ms
Nov 19 15:32:11 
Nov 19 15:32:16 
Nov 19 15:32:16   OK  | 1 passed   // 12s

[Copilot]

@copilot still got 5-sec hang after text execution with latest changes

...

Fixed in commit c91d94c. The issue was that browser.close() was still timing out after 5 seconds despite closing pages and contexts first.

The new approach uses "fire and forget" - we call browser.close() without waiting for it to complete. The browser process will be cleaned up when the Node process exits naturally. This eliminates the hang entirely.

Changes:

• Removed the complex page/context closing logic with timeouts
• Call browser.close() asynchronously without await
• Catch and ignore any errors silently
• Let OS handle browser process cleanup on exit

This should eliminate the 5-second hang completely.

[kobenguyent]

verified it worked

Nov 19 17:06:12     [1]  Starting recording promises
Nov 19 17:06:12     Timeouts: 
Nov 19 17:06:12  › [Session] Starting singleton browser session
Nov 19 17:06:14   test something
Nov 19 17:06:14  › [New Session] {"ignoreHTTPSErrors":false,"acceptDownloads":true}
Nov 19 17:06:15   Scenario()
Nov 19 17:06:15     I open page "http://codecept.io"
Nov 19 17:06:18     I say "Hello World"
Nov 19 17:06:18    Hello World
Nov 19 17:06:18   ✔ OK in 2764ms
Nov 19 17:06:18 
Nov 19 17:06:18 
Nov 19 17:06:18   OK  | 1 passed   // 6s