Error 4058: Can't even run the Getting started example

[nicolatournay]

Which package is this bug report for? If unsure which one to select, leave blank

@crawlee/playwright (PlaywrightCrawler)

Issue description

When I run the "Getting started" crawler ("npm start"), I get this obscure error message related to a tool that is deprecated (WMIC) :

my-crawler@0.0.1 start
npm run start:dev

ERROR Memory snapshot failed.
spawn wmic.exe ENOENT
at ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:286:19)
at onErrorNT (node:internal/child_process:484:16)
at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:82:21)
INFO PlaywrightCrawler: Starting the crawler.
node:internal/child_process:286
const err = new ErrnoException(exitCode, syscall);
^

Error: spawn wmic.exe ENOENT
at ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:286:19)
at onErrorNT (node:internal/child_process:484:16)
at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:82:21) {
errno: -4058,
code: 'ENOENT',
syscall: 'spawn wmic.exe',
path: 'wmic.exe',
spawnargs: [ 'PROCESS', 'GET', 'ProcessId,ParentProcessId,WorkingSetSize,Name' ]
}

Node.js v20.18.0

Code sample

// For more information, see https://crawlee.dev/
import { PlaywrightCrawler } from 'crawlee';

// PlaywrightCrawler crawls the web using a headless
// browser controlled by the Playwright library.
const crawler = new PlaywrightCrawler({
    // Use the requestHandler to process each of the crawled pages.
    async requestHandler({ request, page, enqueueLinks, log, pushData }) {
        const title = await page.title();
        log.info(`Title of ${request.loadedUrl} is '${title}'`);

        // Save results as JSON to ./storage/datasets/default
        await pushData({ title, url: request.loadedUrl });

        // Extract links from the current page
        // and add them to the crawling queue.
        await enqueueLinks();
    },
    // Comment this option to scrape the full website.
    maxRequestsPerCrawl: 20,
    // Uncomment this option to see the browser window.
    // headless: false,
});

// Add first URL to the queue and start the crawl.
await crawler.run(['https://crawlee.dev']);

Package version

crawlee@3.12.1

Node.js version

v20.18.0

Operating system

Windows 11

Apify platform

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I have tested this on the next release

No response

Other context

No response

[janbuchar]

Hello @nicolatournay and thank you for your interest in Crawlee! I tried the following steps on windows 11:

scoop install nodejs@20.18.0
npx crawlee create my-crawler
cd my-crawler
npx playwright install
npm start

This worked as expected, without any error. I selected the getting started - typescript template. Then I rechecked with the javascript template and everything worked fine as well.

Is there any other step that I'm missing?

[nicolatournay]

Hi Jan,

Now that I have added the path to wmic.exe (in my case, C:\Windows\System32\wbem) to my environment variables, it's working as expected.

You might want to include WMIC in the list of prerequisites in the "Setting up" section of your documentation, since it is deprecated for most Windows 11 users.

Anyway, thank you for your quick reply. I’m already enjoying the rest of the tutorial!