[Docs]: Clarify the use of a custom install path for browsers in Docker image

[nielsdB97]

Page(s)

• https://playwright.dev/docs/next/docker
• https://playwright.dev/docs/next/ci

Description

I encountered an issue where our Playwright tests stopped working in the pipeline. After some investigation, I discovered that the problem was due to updating to Turborepo version 2, which now enforces strict checking of environment variables by default. This means that all environment variables must be explicitly listed for use.

I eventually realized that the browsers in the Docker image could no longer be found because they rely on a custom environment variable (PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH), which I had not listed. To prevent others from facing the same issue, I suggest we update the documentation to mention that a custom browser install location is specified via this environment variable. I'm also open to other ideas to make this information more prominent and accessible to Turbo users.

[yury-s]

The ultimate source of truth would be the Docker file where you can find all custom environment variables defined in our image. I'm not sure putting this in the docs will help much, we already documented this behavior in general.

[gauravkhuraana]

I faced this issue. Though we say browsers are already installed in image . I thikn we should clarify if we need to install ourself if yes how ?

  `pool:
      vmImage: ubuntu-latest
   container: mcr.microsoft.com/playwright/dotnet:v1.44.0-jammy

if I add a command to install chrome.. it does not find playwright.ps1

There is no bin / debug getting created in container if i run ls command

Below command fails to run

projectfolder/bin/Debug/net8.0/playwright.ps1 install chrome 

 Error Message:
   Microsoft.Playwright.PlaywrightException : Chromium distribution 'chrome' is not found at /opt/google/chrome/chrome
Run "pwsh bin/Debug/netX/playwright.ps1 install chrome`