disallow variable and function declarations in the global scope (no-implicit-globals)

When working with browser scripts, developers often forget that variable and function declarations at the top-level scope become global variables on the window object. As opposed to modules which have their own scope. Globals should be explicitly assigned to window or self if that is the intent. Otherwise variables intended to be local to the script should be wrapped in an IIFE.

Rule Details

This rule disallows var and named function declarations at the top-level script scope. This does not apply to ES and CommonJS modules since they have a module scope.

Examples of incorrect code for this rule:

/*eslint no-implicit-globals: "error"*/

var foo = 1;

function bar() {}

Examples of correct code for this rule:

/*eslint no-implicit-globals: "error"*/

// explicitly set on window
window.foo = 1;
window.bar = function() {};

// intended to be scope to this file
(function() {
  var foo = 1;

  function bar() {}
})();

Examples of correct code for this rule with "parserOptions": { "sourceType": "module" } in the ESLint configuration:

/*eslint no-implicit-globals: "error"*/

// foo and bar are local to module
var foo = 1;
function bar() {}

When Not To Use It

If you want to be able to declare variables and functions in the global scope you can safely disable this rule. Or if you are always using module scoped files, this rule will never apply.

Further Reading

• Immediately-Invoked Function Expression (IIFE)

Version

This rule was introduced in ESLint 2.0.0-alpha-1.

Resources

• Rule source
• Documentation source