Chrome extension action on shutdown

Question

I\'m writing a very simple Chrome extension to automatically clear my history as this isn\'t a built in feature. I\'ve got it functional but just want to confirm I\'ve done

Answer 1

you are right, there's no way to execute anything on Chrome shutdown. Chrome doesn't have an onClose event. Not only literally, but metaphorically speaking: When Chrome closes, it doesn't wait for any extension to close.

You can hang from chrome.windows.onRemoved and wait for the last window to close, but if Chrome is shutting down, it's not guaranteed your extension will have time to run it. Same thing with onSuspend, or whatever you find.

So, if your implementation works, it won't be guaranteed to work in other Chrome.

About chrome.history.deleteAll, I have the same problem, and will try with chrome.browsingData, a more modern and complete way to deal with browsing data, including history.

Answer 2

This document lists an onSuspend event:

Clean-up before app closes

The app runtime sends the onSuspend() event to the event page before unloading it. Your event page can listen out for this event and do clean-up tasks before the app closes.

Once this event is fired, the app runtime starts the process of closing the app: all events stop firing and JavaScript execution is halted. Any asynchronous operations started while handling this event are not guaranteed to complete. Keep the clean-up tasks synchronous and simple.

chrome.runtime.onSuspend.addListener(function() { // Do some simple clean-up tasks. });

This document says the onSuspend is also available for extensions