Chrome throws "Receiving end does not exist" exception thrown in background page

[jsonesen]

Environment

MacOS High Sierra, Ubuntu 16.04, Chrome 63
Adlbock Plus 3.0.2.1945

(Not reproducible with Firefox 57.)

How to reproduce

1. Open a console to inspect the extension's background page
2. Open a new Chrome tab, browse to ​https://www.reddit.com
3. Keep refreshing the page

Observed behaviour

The following exception is quite often thrown:

polyfill.js:102 Uncaught (in promise) Error: Could not establish connection. Receiving end does not exist.
    at Object.descriptor.value [as sendMessage] (polyfill.js:78)
    at ext.Page.sendMessage (background.js:100)
    at ext.pages.onLoading.addListener.page (filterComposer.js:312)
    at ext._EventTarget._dispatch (common.js:41)
    at Object.browser.tabs.get [as callback] (background.js:170)
    at safeCallbackApply (extensions::uncaught_exception_handler:27)
    at handleResponse (extensions::sendRequest:67)
func.call.result @ polyfill.js:102
sendResponseAndClearCallback @ extensions::messaging:417
disconnectListener @ extensions::messaging:435
EventImpl.dispatchToListener @ extensions::event_bindings:403
publicClassPrototype.(anonymous function) @ extensions::utils:138
EventImpl.dispatch_ @ extensions::event_bindings:387
EventImpl.dispatch @ extensions::event_bindings:409
publicClassPrototype.(anonymous function) @ extensions::utils:138
dispatchOnDisconnect @ extensions::messaging:378

Expected behaviour

The exception is not thrown.

Notes

• It seems we already ​partially worked around the problem (​see this codereview).

[kzar]

Thanks for filing the issue.

Can you verify if the same happens in Firefox? (Until you check that I've marked the issue as cross platform.)

What makes you think the exception is being thrown only for cached pages? Please could you update the steps for reproduction to demonstrate that?

Are there any other symptoms other than the exception being thrown?

[jsonesen]

No problem, thanks for the quick feedback.

In firefox there is an error thrown Error: Frame not found or missing host permission when navigating to IRCCloud, but this makes me think it is an unrelated issue.

Furthermore, maybe i was misusing cached and rather prerendered is better in that in the Error traceback, the third event from the bottom (which seems to be where the callback resolves after the initial attempt at sending the message in ext/background.js
​https://hg.adblockplus.org/adblockpluschrome/file/tip/ext/background.js#l170
the comment describing this callback has to do with chrome's handling of prerendered tabs.

[kzar]

If you think the problem's only with prerendered tabs we could attempt to verify that. Please could you try:

1. Opening a new tab, slowly typing the address in the address bar, hitting enter and seeing if the exception occurs.
2. Refreshing that page, or loading the page by clicking on a link and confirming the exception doesn't occur.

If the exception appears / doesn't appear consistently it would indicate that you might be right.

[jsonesen]

Replying to kzar:

If you think the problem's only with prerendered tabs we could attempt to verify that. Please could you try:

1. Opening a new tab, slowly typing the address in the address bar, hitting enter and seeing if the exception occurs.
2. Refreshing that page, or loading the page by clicking on a link and confirming the exception doesn't occur.

If the exception appears / doesn't appear consistently it would indicate that you might be right.

So, yeah slowly typing "youtube.com" or "irccloud.com" triggers the error but refreshing does not.

[kzar]

OK it seems Manish already ​partially worked around this issue (​see this codereview), but for some reason it's sometimes still happening on Chrome.

[abpbot]

A commit referencing this issue has landed:
​Issue 6183 - Reduce "Receiving end does not exist" exceptions

[Ross]

This no longer seems to occur with prerendered tabs however it still occurs in the background page every time the Block element functionality is used.

ABP 3.0.2.1968
Chrome 64 / Windows 7

[kzar]

This no longer seems to occur with prerendered tabs however it still occurs in the background page every time the Block element functionality is used.

Good point, I've opened a review to fix that as well.

[abpbot]

A commit referencing this issue has landed:
​Issue 6183 - Avoid attempting to close the composer popup twice

[kzar]

How's that looking now Ross?

[Ross]

Fixed. I haven't seen this exception in at all in recent builds in general browsing or when using the block element functionality.

Block element in Chrome now triggers a different error (#6490) but doesn't break functionality.

ABP 3.0.2.1983
Firefox 53 / Firefox 58 / Windows 7
Chrome 49 / 65 / Windows 7
Chrome 64 / Ubuntu 16.04
Opera 36 / 51 / Windows 7