Warnings

How to tell closure compiler which warnings you want

Introduction

Closure Compiler has a --warning_level flag that gives you a few high-level options to control what warnings you see. The --warni ng_level flag gives you an easy way to choose the most common options. But even --warning_level=VERBOSE doesn't give you all the warnings that Closure Compiler can emit, and sometimes you want more fine-grained control.

Warnings Level API

Closure Compiler has an API for configuring the errors and warnings that you would like to see, and what level they're emitted at.

Flag API	Java API	Effect
--jscomp_error=<type>	options.setWarningLevel(<type>, CheckLevel.ERROR);	Makes all warnings of the given type to build-breaking error.
--jscomp_warning=<type>	options.setWarningLevel(<type>, CheckLevel.WARNING);	Makes all warnings of the given type a non-breaking warning.
--jscomp_off=<type>	options.setWarningLevel(<type>, CheckLevel.OFF);	Silences all warnings of the given type.

Warnings Categories

In the examples above, <type> is a pre-defined category of warnings.

Flag API	Java API	Effect	Default Value
accessControls	DiagnosticGroups.ACCESS_CONTROLS	Warnings when @deprecated, @private, or @protected are violated.	OFF
ambiguousFunctionDecl	DiagnosticGroups.AMBIGUOUS_FUNCTION_DECL	Warnings about ambiguous definitions of functions	WARNING
checkDebuggerStatement	DiagnosticGroups.DEBUGGER_STATEMENT_PRESENT	Check for the use of the debugger statement	OFF
checkRegExp	DiagnosticGroups.CHECK_REGEXP	Check for regular expression literal problems	OFF
checkTypes	DiagnosticGroups.CHECK_TYPES	Type-checking	OFF by default, WARNING on --warning_level=VERBOSE
checkVars	DiagnosticGroups.CHECK_VARS	Warnings when vars are not declared.	OFF by default, ERROR on --warning_level=VERBOSE
const	DiagnosticGroups.CONST	Warnings when @const annotated properties or variables are reassigned or deleted.	OFF
constantProperty	DiagnosticGroups.CONSTANT_PROPERTY	Warnings when @const annotated properties are reassigned or deleted.	OFF
deprecated	DiagnosticGroups.DEPRECATED	Warnings when non-deprecated code accesses code that's marked @deprecated	OFF by default, WARNING on --warning_level=VERBOSE
duplicate	DiagnosticGroups.DUPLICATE	Warnings when a variable is declared twice in the global scope	OFF by default, ERROR on --warning_level=VERBOSE
es5Strict	DiagnosticGroups.ES5_STRICT	Warnings about code that is invalid in EcmaScript 5 Strict mode	WARNING
externsValidation	DiagnosticGroups.EXTERNS_VALIDATION	Warnings about malformed externs files	WARNING
fileoverviewTags	DiagnosticGroups.FILEOVERVIEW_JSDOC	Warnings about duplicate @fileoverview tags	WARNING
globalThis	DiagnosticGroups.GLOBAL_THIS	Warnings about improper use of the global this.	OFF by default, WARNING on --warning_level=VERBOSE
internetExplorerChecks	DiagnosticGroups.INTERNET_EXPLORER_CHECKS	Warnings about syntax errors on Internet Explorer, like trailing commas.	ERROR
invalidCasts	DiagnosticGroups.INVALID_CASTS	Warnings about invalid type casts.	OFF by default, WARNING when type checking is on
missingProperties	DiagnosticGroups.MISSING_PROPERTIES	Warnings about whether a property will ever be defined on an object. Part of type-checking.	OFF by default, WARNING on --warning_level=VERBOSE
nonStandardJsDocs	DiagnosticGroups.NON_STANDARD_JS_DOCS	Warnings when JSDoc has annotations that the compiler thinks you misspelled.	WARNING
strictModuleDepCheck	DiagnosticGroups.STRICT_MODULE_DEP_CHECK	Warnings about all references potentially violating module dependencies	OFF
suspiciousCode	DiagnosticGroups.SUSPICIOUS_CODE	Warning about things like missing missing semicolons and comparisons to NaN	WARNING
undefinedNames	DiagnosticGroups.UNDEFINED_NAMES	Warnings when properties of global names are undefined.	OFF by default, WARNING on --warning_level=VERBOSE
undefinedVars	DiagnosticGroups.UNDEFINED_VARS	Warnings when variables are undefined.	OFF by default, ERROR on --warning_level=VERBOSE
unknownDefines	DiagnosticGroups.UNKNOWN_DEFINES	Warnings when unknown @define values are specified.	WARNING
uselessCode	DiagnosticGroups.USELESS_CODE	Warnings when the compiler sees useless code that it plans to remove.	WARNING
visibility	DiagnosticGroups.VISIBILITY	Warnings when @private and @protected are violated.	OFF

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Defining Your Own Categories

If there is a category of warnings that you would like to configure but is not listed in the table above, it is easy to define a new one.

1. Find the unique identifier of the warnings that you'd like to configure.
2. Create a new DiagnosticGroup that gives this warning category a human-readable name, and add it to our central repository of warnings categories: http://code.google.com/p/closure-compiler/source/browse/src/com/google/javascript/jscomp/DiagnosticGroups.java
3. Send us a patch!

This is how we "canary" new warnings until we feel they're stable.

@suppress Tags

You can also silence warnings by adding JSDoc annotations to your code. All of the warnings categories above can be used in a @suppress tag in a @fileoverview JSDoc comment or a function JSDoc comment. For example,

/**
 * @fileoverview This is a file where deprecation checks are disabled.
 * @suppress {deprecated}
 */

/**
 * This is a function where type checking is disabled.
 * @suppress {checkTypes}
 */
function f() { /** ... */ }

There is also one warning category that you can suppress with @suppress tags, but is not available from the command-line.

/** @suppress {duplicate} */ foo.prop = ...

Suppresses warnings about a declaration of the same method or property twice in the global scope.