IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'geckodriver.log when running Python/Selenium

The errors gives us some hint about what wrong happening as follows :

[Wed Mar 07 03:02:27.719608 2018] [:error] [pid 21555] [client 108.162.250.6:36139]   File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/selenium/webdriver/firefox/webdriver.py", line 151, in __init__
[Wed Mar 07 03:02:27.719611 2018] [:error] [pid 21555] [client 108.162.250.6:36139]     log_path=log_path)

As per the source code the GeckoDriver gets initiated with two default arguments executable_path and log_path=log_path as follows :

    if capabilities.get("marionette"):
        capabilities.pop("marionette")
        self.service = Service(executable_path, log_path=log_path)
        self.service.start()

Your program errors out here as the Value log_path (the log_file) corresponding to Key log_path is not editable (appendable) which finally fails in :

[Wed Mar 07 03:02:27.719617 2018] [:error] [pid 21555] [client 108.162.250.6:36139]     log_file = open(log_path, "a+") if log_path is not None and log_path != "" else None
[Wed Mar 07 03:02:27.719620 2018] [:error] [pid 21555] [client 108.162.250.6:36139] IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'geckodriver.log'

As per the source code, GeckoDriver Service by default is started as follows :

class Service(service.Service): """Object that manages the starting and stopping of the GeckoDriver."""

def __init__(self, executable_path, port=0, service_args=None,
             log_path="geckodriver.log", env=None):
    """Creates a new instance of the GeckoDriver remote service proxy.

    GeckoDriver provides a HTTP interface speaking the W3C WebDriver
    protocol to Marionette.

    :param log_path: Optional path for the GeckoDriver to log to.
        Defaults to _geckodriver.log_ in the current working directory.

    """
    log_file = open(log_path, "a+") if log_path is not None and log_path != "" else None

Which implies that if you do not pass the location of geckodriver.log explicitly through your program, GeckoDriver tends to create a file on it's own in the current working directory and in absence of the required permission it errors out with the message Permission denied: 'geckodriver.log'

Solution

The first and foremost point will be to check the compatibility between the binaries you are using.

• Ensure that you are using Selenium-Python Client v3.10.0, GeckoDriver v0.19.1 and Firefox Quantum v58.0.2

A solution would be to :

• Initialize the GeckoDriver with the required arguments executable_path and log_path with effective values(chmod 777 geckodriver.log) as follows :

  def get_index(api_key):
      if str(api_key)!=the_api_key:
      return 401
      base_url = 'www.google.com'
      browser = webdriver.Firefox(executable_path="/usr/local/bin/geckodriver", log_path="/path/to/geckodriver.log")
      browser.get(base_url)
      html = browser.page_source
      return html         
  

• If you intend to create the geckodriver.log within the Project Workspace ensure the required permission (chmod 777 Project Workspace) as follows :

  def get_index(api_key):
      if str(api_key)!=the_api_key:
      return 401
      base_url = 'www.google.com'
      browser = webdriver.Firefox(executable_path='/usr/local/bin/geckodriver')
      browser.get(base_url)
      html = browser.page_source
      return html