How to perform JS syntax check with v8 or rhino?

Question

I want to use a JS engine such as v8 or rhino to perform a syntax check without actually executing the code. Is it possible with the command line versions, or with the corresponding libraries? Any helpful docs?

Have you ruled out the possibility of tools like [JSHint](http://jshint.com/) or [JSLint](http://jslint.com/)? — Jonathan Lonowski, Aug 22 '13 at 07:38
@JonathanLonowski No, do they catch all syntactic errors or just some? I don't need a style enforcer because the code in question is machine generated. — Alexei Averchenko, Aug 22 '13 at 07:39
Check: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2554519/javascript-parser-in-javascript — jcubic, Aug 22 '13 at 07:42
@jcubic I don't need a JS compiler written in JS, especially if it's not as well-tested as v8 or rhino. — Alexei Averchenko, Aug 22 '13 at 09:32
@AlexeiAverchenko not js compiler but js parser. But if you want to use v8 then you need to read the code and find the parser there. I think it's simpler to use parser writen in javascript. — jcubic, Aug 22 '13 at 09:39

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 22 '13 at 09:31

I had some limited success with v8:

/*
 * main.cpp
 *
 *  Created on: Aug 22, 2013
 *      Author: kallikanzarid
 */

#include <v8.h>
#include <iostream>

int main() {
    using namespace std;
    using namespace v8;

    //
    // See https://developers.google.com/v8/get_started
    //

    // Create a stack-allocated handle scope.
    HandleScope handle_scope;

    // Create a new context.
    Handle<Context> context = Context::New();

    // Here's how you could create a Persistent handle to the context, if needed.
    Persistent<Context> persistent_context(context);

    // Enter the created context for compiling and
    // running the hello world script.
    Context::Scope context_scope(context);

    Local<String> source = String::New("function foo(x { console.log(x); }; foo('bar')");
    Local<Script> script = Script::New(source);

    persistent_context.Dispose();

    return 0;
}

I hope you guys can beat this essentially binary syntax checker. I may try to improve upon it myself by catching exceptions and trying to make the output machine-readable if nothing better comes up.

How to perform JS syntax check with v8 or rhino?

1 Answers1