fix: issue with missing chrome browser instance during tests

[jazpearson]

• Closes Missing browserCriClient in connectToNewSpec #24650

Additional details

Attempts to resolve an issue with cypress that is crippling our tests runs where chrome seems to crash intermittently. This re-creates the chrome instance if it's unexpectedly null. It's a workaround, but nobody seems to know why the instance is null so trying to be pragmatic about it. Also wondering if it's worth trying an experimental feature? Either way - i wanted to see if there was a way we can get this issue fixed.

Steps to test

Really difficult to reproduce, but our cypress tests fail rouhgly 50% of the time now, even with parallelisation.

How has the user experience changed?

PR Tasks

• Have tests been added/updated?
• Has a PR for user-facing changes been opened in cypress-documentation?
• Have API changes been updated in the type definitions?

[cypress-app-bot]

• Create a Draft Pull Request if your PR is not ready for review. Mark the PR as Ready for Review when you're ready for a Cypress team member to review the PR.

[cypress]

1 failed and 30 flaky tests on run #46845 ↗︎

1

27303

1308

0

30

Details:

fix: issue with missing chrome browser instance during tests
Project: cypress	Commit: 3e4edfd573
Status: Failed	Duration: 20:19 💡
Started: May 30, 2023 7:36 PM	Ended: May 30, 2023 7:56 PM

  cypress/e2e/runs.cy.ts • 1 failed test • app-e2e

View Output Video

Test		Artifacts
App: Runs > Runs - Create Project > when a project is created, injects new projectId into the config file, and sends expected UTM params		Output Screenshots Video

  runs.cy.ts • 1 flaky test • app-e2e

View Output Video

Test		Artifacts
App: Runs > Runs - No Runs > displays a copy button and copies correct command in Component Testing		Output Screenshots Video

  specs_list_latest_runs.cy.ts • 1 flaky test • app-e2e

View Output Video

Test		Artifacts
App/Cloud Integration - Latest runs and Average duration > when no runs are recorded > shows placeholders for all visible specs		Output Screenshots Video

  cypress-in-cypress-component.cy.ts • 1 flaky test • app-e2e

View Output Video

Test		Artifacts
Cypress In Cypress CT > default config > redirects to the specs list with error if a spec is not found		Output Screenshots Video

  cypress-origin-communicator.cy.ts • 1 flaky test • app-e2e

View Output Video

Test		Artifacts
Cypress In Cypress Origin Communicator > cy.origin passivity with app interactions > passes upon test reload mid test execution		Output Screenshots Video

  debug.cy.ts • 1 flaky test • app-e2e

View Output Video

Test		Artifacts
App - Debug Page > all tests passed		Output Screenshots Video

The first 5 flaky specs are shown, see all 16 specs in Cypress Cloud.

_{This comment has been generated by cypress-bot as a result of this project's GitHub integration settings.}

[AtofStryker]

Hi @jazpearson . Thank you for opening a PR. Would you be able to add a test in chrome_spec.js to help verify the expected behavior? I'll work on seeing what is going on with the builds for contributors and getting this PR to run in CI

[AtofStryker]

Do we know if this actually addresses the issue that you and others are running into it, or is it difficult to tell because it seems to happen sparingly?

[jazpearson]

I'm not sure at this point because i can't reproduce locally. It only seems to happen in our jenkins build pipeline. So it's more of a hope than a definite fix.

[jazpearson]

Hi @jazpearson . Thank you for opening a PR. Would you be able to add a test in chrome_spec.js to help verify the expected behavior? I'll work on seeing what is going on with the builds for contributors and getting this PR to run in CI

Sure thing. I'll do that as soon as i can.

[jazpearson]

I'll try and get round to adding the test today or tomorrw...... sorry for the delay

[jazpearson]

Sorry, i'm struggling to get any proper time to look at this.

[AtofStryker]

closing in favor of #27116 . see #24650 (comment) more details