Error: Attempt to run compile-and-go script on a cleared scope

Question

Since upgrading to Firefox 4.0, I've noticed that I'm occasionally getting an error in the console stating:

attempt to run compile-and-go script on a cleared scope

The only information I can find about this on the net currently is on the mozilla groups forum, where it is suggested that it's something to do with session restoring. In my case, though I haven't been able to reliably reproduce the error, it happens at any time, not just after a restore.

What's the deal? How do I stop the error?

Just a q: do you manipulate child windows in your script with window.open? — Please treat your mods well., Mar 25 '11 at 14:22
From the looks it seems like a genuine bug. There is talk that this will go away in the next bugfix version. — Please treat your mods well., Mar 25 '11 at 17:24
There are some recent bugzilla entries that reference errors like this, such as https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=635548. — Please treat your mods well., Mar 25 '11 at 18:32
This started happening to me when I linked the webpage to itself. — brainjam, Mar 29 '11 at 18:13

score 9 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 02 '12 at 08:08

For me (Firefox 11, Firebug 1.9.1) it happens sometimes after I refresh the page (either F5 or CTRL+F5) while debugger is paused on a breakpoint.

The solution seems to be to continue the execution of the script, and refresh the page only when Firebug is not paused.

Nowaker · Answer 2 · 2011-08-17T15:37:32.463

In my case, it was document.write method causing the problem on Firefox 4, 5, 6 on Windows. Linux versions are unaffected. What I had to do is to overwrite document.write method.

I aware that document.write shouldn't be used these days, but deployJava.js, a standard Java Applet deployment script written by Sun/Oracle, is using it. Google is using it in Google AdSense ads. document.write is everywhere.

<script>
    var documentWriteOutput = '';
    var got = document.write;
    document.write = function(arg) { documentWriteOutput += arg; }
</script>
<script src="badScriptThatIsUsingDocumentWrite.js"></script>
<script>
    runBadScriptThatIsUsingDocumentWrite();
    document.write = got;
    // Do whatever you want with the documentWriteOutput
    // e.g. $('#somewhere').html(documentWriteOutput);
</script>

I hope this helps. However, I saw lots of "solutions" on the Internet that didn't work for me. It may mean that "Attempt to run compile-and-go script on a cleared scope" is a Firefox JavaScript engine problem/bug.

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 08 '11 at 20:05

6

I've noticed that this error can happen if you write to the document with document.write after the document has completed loading (e.g. in a function called from JQuery's $(document).ready() method). When this happens, it seems that Firefox discards the old document and writes a new one. I don't know if this is new behavior or not. It seems that when you try to operate on the old document, e.g. with JQuery selectors, you get this error. For me, fixing the script in question to not call document.write after the document had loaded fixed the error.

answered Aug 08 '11 at 20:05

Nate C-K

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The discarding has always happened when you use `document.write` after load. However, the "cleared scope" error is new (and apparently not only caused by document.write). – Matthew Flaschen Oct 01 '11 at 14:57
I'm having this same problem with events that I'm attaching to the window after a document.write. (See also my answer to this question: http://stackoverflow.com/a/8673541/24197) – sprugman Jan 05 '12 at 21:08

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered May 06 '11 at 15:26

5

I have noticed that if I disable the cache, I no longer get this error in the console.

answered May 06 '11 at 15:26

Liam

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Cleaning of the cache helped me to get rid of this error. I have FF4 also. Thanks for the advice! – podeig May 25 '11 at 11:56
An alternative is to shift-refresh (IE, hold shit and click refresh), which will force a re-download of all content on the page. Not quite as drastic as clearing the entire cache, but seems to work just as well. – shmeeps Jul 22 '11 at 21:03
Ctrl + F5 refreshes the cache. Not shift. – Jonnio Oct 05 '11 at 12:21
Adding Shift (Ctrl+Shift+R or holding Shift while clicking Refresh) initiates a hard refresh, bypassing the cache. – Grault Mar 13 '12 at 08:59

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 31 '11 at 10:19

2

The error doesn't occur if Firebug (in my case 1.8) is disabled.

answered Jul 31 '11 at 10:19

Wolfgang

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yup. I think this is related to Firebug and Firefox – frequent Mar 25 '12 at 22:05

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 14 '12 at 20:17

It has nothing to do with firebug. The reason it "goes away" when firebug is disabled is that you are no longer seeing the exception. The cause of this is having an handler attached to an event that is now null but not properly cleaned up. You need to make sure that handler is properly disposed of, otherwise the event still fires the reference to the handler.

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 20 '11 at 13:44

1

Check your code for duplicated meta cache-control and remove one of them:

<meta http-equiv="cache-control" content="no-cache" />

answered Jul 20 '11 at 13:44

Eneas Gesing

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score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 15 '11 at 04:01

1

i had this problem too but I did a clean re-installation of FireFox.

after that the error was gone.

answered Nov 15 '11 at 04:01

user1046787

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score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Dec 01 '11 at 13:34

1

I got this error when I tried adding events on elements appended from a same domain iframe. Added clone() and errors stopped.

answered Dec 01 '11 at 13:34

kuldar

13
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score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Jun 20 '12 at 20:53

0

It is: menu Firebug -> Console -> Show Chrome Errors

switch off, end of story ;)

answered Jun 20 '12 at 20:53

Error: Attempt to run compile-and-go script on a cleared scope

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