Debugging BrowserPod

Quick explanations for frequent BrowserPod errors

This page maps common BrowserPod error messages to their likely causes and fixes.

Treating pod.run like a shell

• Symptom: errors when using && or | inside pod.run(...)

• Causes:

  - `pod.run` is like `execve` in Linux or `child_process.spawn` in Node.

  It does not support shell features like || or && or builtins.

  - Bash support is on the roadmap.

• Solution: Write complex behavior as a JavaScript script, and execute that.

Missing or hidden terminal element

• Symptoms:

  • The 'terminal' argument is required
  • Output disappears during long runs

• Cause: The terminal element was never created or was unmounted.

• Solution: Keep consoleEl mounted. You can hide it with CSS, but do not remove it.

const terminal = await pod.createDefaultTerminal(consoleEl);
...
pod.run(..., {terminal,...});

Using the wrong file mode

• Symptom: Unsupported 'mode' argument

• Cause: createFile and openFile only accept "binary" or "utf-8".

• Solution: Use "binary" for ArrayBuffer writes and "utf-8" for string writes.

Running native binaries inside the pod

• Symptom: Install failures or runtime crashes for tools like esbuild or rollup

• Cause: Native binaries do not run in the Wasm environment.

• Solution: Use Wasm alternatives and package.json overrides. See the native binaries guide.