[🐛 Bug]: "Error: Invalid URL: http:/" with Node.js v18

What happened?

Using selenium-webdriver with Node.js v18 is not possible, as an error is thrown.

Error: Invalid URL: http:/
    at getRequestOptions (/Users/werner/Desktop/selenium-node-test/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/http/index.js:51:11)

To reproduce, install Node.js v18 or higher (e.g. via nvm install node).

Given the following package.json:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "selenium-webdriver": "^4.1.2"
  }
}

Run the sample code in index.js with node index.js:

const { Builder, By, Key, until } = require("selenium-webdriver");
(async function example() {
  let driver = await new Builder().forBrowser("chrome").build();
  try {
    await driver.get("http://www.google.com/ncr");
    await driver.findElement(By.name("q")).sendKeys("webdriver", Key.RETURN);
    await driver.wait(until.titleIs("webdriver - Google Search"), 1000);
  } finally {
    await driver.quit();
  }
})();

With Node.js v18, I get:

➜ node index.js  
/Users/werner/Desktop/selenium-node-test/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/http/index.js:51
    throw new Error('Invalid URL: ' + aUrl)
          ^

Error: Invalid URL: http:/
    at getRequestOptions (/Users/werner/Desktop/selenium-node-test/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/http/index.js:51:11)
    at new HttpClient (/Users/werner/Desktop/selenium-node-test/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/http/index.js:90:21)
    at getStatus (/Users/werner/Desktop/selenium-node-test/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/http/util.js:38:18)
    at checkServerStatus (/Users/werner/Desktop/selenium-node-test/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/http/util.js:76:14)
    at /Users/werner/Desktop/selenium-node-test/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/http/util.js:74:5
    at new Promise (<anonymous>)
    at Object.waitForServer (/Users/werner/Desktop/selenium-node-test/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/http/util.js:57:10)
    at /Users/werner/Desktop/selenium-node-test/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/remote/index.js:251:24
    at new Promise (<anonymous>)
    at /Users/werner/Desktop/selenium-node-test/node_modules/selenium-webdriver/remote/index.js:246:20

Node.js v18.1.0

With Node.js v16 (the current LTS release), it works fine. It should be noted though that with v18, the variables for the .format call are:

serverUrl: http:/, hostname: undefined, port: 52511, self.path_: /

Whereas for v16, the variables are:

serverUrl: http://127.0.0.1:52535/, hostname: 127.0.0.1, port: 52535, self.path_: /

Notably, the hostname is undefined in Node.js v18. This leads me to the function os.networkInterfaces() whose output is different in v18 compared to v16.

Here is v16:

> os.networkInterfaces()
{
  lo0: [
    {
      address: '127.0.0.1',
      netmask: '255.0.0.0',
      family: 'IPv4',
      mac: '00:00:00:00:00:00',
      internal: true,
      cidr: '127.0.0.1/8'
    }
   ...

And here is v18:

> os.networkInterfaces()
{
  lo0: [
    {
      address: '127.0.0.1',
      netmask: '255.0.0.0',
      family: 4,
      mac: '00:00:00:00:00:00',
      internal: true,
      cidr: '127.0.0.1/8'
    },
    ...

See that the family property now reads 4 and not IPv4.

How can we reproduce the issue?

Shown above.

Relevant log output

Log already shown in reproducible example above.

Operating System

Any

Selenium version

4.1.2

What are the browser(s) and version(s) where you see this issue?

Irrelevant

What are the browser driver(s) and version(s) where you see this issue?

Irrelevant

Are you using Selenium Grid?

No

[titusfortner]

Hoping to have one next week, but no promises, it’ll happen when we can make it happen.

[simonkurtz-MSFT]

I am now successfully running my tests with Node 18.2 with 4.2.0. Very awesome, @titusfortner! Thank you very much!