JSLint is suddenly reporting: Use the function form of "use strict"

I'd suggest to use jshint instead.

It allows to suppress this warning via /*jshint globalstrict: true*/.

If you are writing a library, I would only suggest using global strict if your code is encapsulated into modules as is the case with nodejs.

Otherwise you'd force everyone who is using your library into strict mode.

I started creating a Node.js/browserify application following the Cross Platform JavaScript blog post. And I ran into this issue, because my brand new Gruntfile didn't pass jshint.

Luckily I found an answer in the Leanpub book on Grunt:

If we try it now, we will scan our Gruntfile… and get some errors:

$ grunt jshint

Running "jshint:all" (jshint) task
Linting Gruntfile.js...ERROR
[L1:C1] W097: Use the function form of "use strict".
'use strict';
Linting Gruntfile.js...ERROR
[L3:C1] W117: 'module' is not defined.
module.exports = function (grunt) {

Warning: Task "jshint:all" failed. Use --force to continue.

Both errors are because the Gruntfile is a Node program, and by default JSHint does not recognise or allow the use of module and the string version of use strict. We can set a JSHint rule that will accept our Node programs. Let’s edit our jshint task configuration and add an options key:

jshint: {
  options: {
    node: true
  },
}

Adding node: true to the jshint options, to put jshint into "Node mode", removed both errors for me.

If you're writing modules for NodeJS, they are already encapsulated. Tell JSLint that you've got node by including at the top of your file:

/*jslint node: true */

Include 'use strict'; as the first statement in a wrapping function, so it only affects that function. This prevents problems when concatenating scripts that aren't strict.

See Douglas Crockford's latest blog post Strict Mode Is Coming To Town.

Example from that post:

(function () {
   'use strict';
   // this function is strict...
}());

(function () {
   // but this function is sloppy...
}());

Update: In case you don't want to wrap in immediate function (e.g. it is a node module), then you can disable the warning.

For JSLint (per Zhami):

/*jslint node: true */

For JSHint:

/*jshint strict:false */

or (per Laith Shadeed)

/* jshint -W097 */

To disable any arbitrary warning from JSHint, check the map in JSHint source code (details in docs).

Update 2: JSHint supports node:boolean option. See .jshintrc at github.

/* jshint node: true */