Detect Microsoft Edge install (if Google Chrome isn't) on MacOS

[jmhammond]

Bug description

When trying to render documents that include diagrams, we need to have some chrome-based browser installed.
Because of work, I have Microsoft Edge installed, and I don't have Google Chrome, because the two browsers are both really large.

The line of code here:

    path = "/Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome";

looks only for Chrome on MacOS, but checks for Edge when the OS is Windows. Is it possible to also look for /Applications/Microsoft\ Edge.app/Contents/MacOS/Microsoft\ Edge on MacOS?

Steps to reproduce

---
title: "In-Class: Relations - Digraphs"
format: 
  pdf: default
---
Any quarto document that includes a diagram and compiling a PDF; here's a sample:

...

` pretend these are connected... formatted for bugreport ``{dot}
//| fig-width: 2
digraph {
  node [shape = circle, width=0.5];
  rankdir = LR;
  1 -> 1;
  1 -> 2;
  2 -> 4; 
  1 -> 3;
  3 -> 4;
  4 -> 1;
}
` pretend these are connected... formatted for bugreport ``

Expected behavior

Detect Microsoft Edge as my chromium browser (as noted in the documentation).

Actual behavior

It says I need to install chrome.

Your environment

• IDE: VS Code
• OS: MacOS 14.5

Quarto check output

Quarto 1.4.556
[✓] Checking versions of quarto binary dependencies...
      Pandoc version 3.1.11: OK
      Dart Sass version 1.69.5: OK
      Deno version 1.37.2: OK
[✓] Checking versions of quarto dependencies......OK
[✓] Checking Quarto installation......OK
      Version: 1.4.556
      Path: /Applications/quarto/bin

[✓] Checking tools....................OK
      TinyTeX: (not installed)
      Chromium: (not installed)

[✓] Checking LaTeX....................OK
      Using: Installation From Path
      Path: /Library/TeX/texbin
      Version: 2024

[✓] Checking basic markdown render....OK

[✓] Checking Python 3 installation....OK
      Version: 3.12.1 (Conda)
      Path: /opt/homebrew/Caskroom/miniforge/base/envs/pysquirrel/bin/python
      Jupyter: 5.7.1
      Kernels: python3, ir, SageMath-10.1

[✓] Checking Jupyter engine render....OK

[✓] Checking R installation...........OK
      Version: 4.4.1
      Path: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources
      LibPaths:
        - /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.4-arm64/Resources/library
      knitr: 1.46
      rmarkdown: 2.27

[✓] Checking Knitr engine render......OK

[mcanouil]

I don't Quarto should try to detect whatever chromium-based browser is installed.
There are way too many, installation path can be very different from one system to another, etc.

This being said, having a QUARTO_CHROMIUM environment variable would allow users to set whatever they think might work.

Note that chromium is not a full browser and not the same as Chrome.

Quarto needs chromium not a browser.

quarto install chromium

This being said, from the documentation:

Quarto can automatically use an existing version of Chrome or Edge on your system for rendering. Alternatively, if you don’t have either, you can install a minimal version of Chrome for use by Quarto with the following command

So Edge should be detected but maybe only on Windows.

[cscheid]

Note that chromium is not a full browser.

What do you mean?

[mcanouil]

Sorry, I meant Quarto does not use/install the full version of Chromium and that Chromium has a very minimalist user interface without all the features Chrome/Edge/Brave/etc have

[jmhammond]

Having an environment variable would be really helpful.

My issue with the quarto install chromium at the moment is the version it’s pulling crashes every single time with not logging to diagnose the problem.

[cscheid]

We'll add an environment variable. Seems like a good thing to do for 1.6.

[mcanouil]

@cscheid we probably also need to update the documentation as we currently state that both Chrome and Edge are detected by Quarto.

[cderv]

I have opened an macro issue to track a proper solution for all chromium based browser

• Offer a way to configure which chromium to use for feature that rely on it (diagram snapshot) #10170

as this is not the first time this Chromium configuration question is raised

[cderv]

we probably also need to update the documentation as we currently state that both Chrome and Edge are detected by Quarto.

@mcanouil We do detect Edge I believe, but on Windows only it seems

quarto-cli/src/core/puppeteer.ts

Lines 209 to 233 in e8c3cbf

	} else if (Deno.build.os === "windows") {
	// Try the HKLM key
	const programs = ["chrome.exe", "msedge.exe"];
	for (let i = 0; i < programs.length; i++) {
	path = await readRegistryKey(
	"HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\App Paths\\" +
	programs[i],
	"(Default)",
	);
	if (path && existsSync(path)) break;
	}
	// Try the HKCR key
	if (!path) {
	const regKeys = ["ChromeHTML", "MSEdgeHTM"];
	for (let i = 0; i < regKeys.length; i++) {
	path = await readRegistryKey(
	`HKCR\\${regKeys[i]}\\shell\\open\\command`,
	"(Default)",
	);
	path = path?.match(/"(.*)"/);
	path = path ? path[1] : undefined;
	if (path && existsSync(path)) break;
	}
	}

Documentation is not completely incorrect, it is probably just innacurate by not stating it is windows only.

So I believe this is the part of the code that could be fixed easily to indeed also find Edge on Mac as it is done on Windows, as it happens Edge is available on Mac and Windows.

@jmhammond where Edge is located on Mac ? Same place as Google Chrome ?

[mcanouil]

/Applications/Microsoft\ Edge.app/Contents/MacOS/Microsoft\ Edge from the original post.

[cderv]

Ah thanks ! Missed it !