JavaScript: Mark return out of function

[erosman]

I came across a code that had return out of function. It would be good if JSHint could also mark it.

Uncaught SyntaxError: return not in function

[jugglinmike]

Thanks for the report! JSHint has silently tolerated this syntax error for a very long time; I'm a little surprised no one has reported it before.

There's some historical rational behind the behavior. By default, the Node.js runtime "wraps" JavaScript programs in an immediately-invoked function expression. A side-effect of that transformation is that developers can write return statements to interrupt control flow of the "top level" of their Node.js modules.

Unfortunately, it seems likely that many consumers are depending on the ability to use return like this. In an ideal world, JSHint would have only tolerated the apparently-invalid syntax if the node option were set to true. I'm afraid the ship's sailed on that, though.

So while we should certainly correct this, the fix will have to wait until the next major release of JSHint. We have no ETA on that today.

[erosman]

For the time being, instead of changing the default behaviour, which would be a breaking change, what about adding an Enforcing options for return?