Bug 256358

Summary:	Minibrowser cannot find network web processes, no env vars information on website or docs
Product:	WebKit	Reporter:	Mero <p357htrnomet>
Component:	WebKitGTK	Assignee:	Nobody <webkit-unassigned>
Status:	RESOLVED WONTFIX
Severity:	Normal	CC:	bugs-noreply, mcatanzaro
Priority:	P2
Version:	WebKit Local Build
Hardware:	PC
OS:	Linux

Description Mero 2023-05-05 03:11:53 PDT

Minibrowser has a hard coded location of network and web processes and looks for them in /usr/libexec. No information how this can be changed and make relocatable and start it locally without writing to the system. No information about environment variables set for the dependent packages either. I build all packages from source, but there is no information how their variables should be set locally so that the browser finds all. LD_LIBRARY_PATH works only.

Comment 1 Michael Catanzaro 2023-05-05 06:51:22 PDT

You can change the installed path using CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBEXECDIR (documentation: https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/module/GNUInstallDirs.html). I don't think it would make sense for it to be relocatable because the version needs to exactly match the UI process.

You're going to have to install to somewhere if you want to use WebKitGTK, but if you're trying to avoid writing to the system you could set the install prefix to be under your home directory, for example, by using CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX (documentation: https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/variable/CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX.html).

Comment 2 Mero 2023-05-05 08:21:51 PDT

It took me 3 days to build only the webkitgtk so it is impossible to rebuild it. I cannot write to home folder since I run it on live usb, need it as a lightweight browser  and it will crash the usb if I write to system. You understand why I need it totally relocatable. You didn't answer about the other package dependencies. What are the env variables for GTK 3 Mesa etc. Please write it on the website help so we can find it easily. Is it possible to relocate the already built webkitgtk with env variables, patch it or whatever. This is a big big problem. I didn't know that if I build it I cannot run it.

Comment 3 Michael Catanzaro 2023-05-05 08:30:03 PDT

(In reply to Mero from comment #2)
> It took me 3 days to build only the webkitgtk so it is impossible to rebuild
> it. I cannot write to home folder since I run it on live usb, need it as a
> lightweight browser  and it will crash the usb if I write to system. You
> understand why I need it totally relocatable.

This is not possible, sorry. Installation prefix needs to be determined at build time, same as for all the other software on your system.

Trying to build WebKit using a live USB is not advisable, but I suppose it's not impossible if you have sufficient RAM. Good luck.

> You didn't answer about the
> other package dependencies. What are the env variables for GTK 3 Mesa etc.

You're not intended to specify locations to load dependencies via environment variable at runtime, but you can do so using LD_LIBRARY_PATH I suppose.

> Please write it on the website help so we can find it easily. Is it possible
> to relocate the already built webkitgtk with env variables, patch it or
> whatever. This is a big big problem. I didn't know that if I build it I
> cannot run it.

None of this is possible, sorry.

Comment 4 Mero 2023-05-05 08:39:55 PDT

It turns out it is useless and cannot be used in my case. I don't know in advance where I should run it in a specific folder no matter if it is on  a usb or in another place and I have to rebuild every time when I change the folder or the usb. I only wanted to run it portable on a usb and not to build it on a usb.

Comment 5 Michael Catanzaro 2023-05-05 08:56:18 PDT

Indeed, WebKit is a shared library, not a statically-linked executable that you can copy around and expect to work. Sorry.