The terser npm package is a tool for minifying and compressing JavaScript files. It removes unnecessary whitespace, shortens variable names, and performs various optimizations to reduce the size of your JavaScript files, which can lead to faster load times in web browsers.
Code Minification
Minifies JavaScript code by removing unnecessary characters without changing its functionality.
const Terser = require('terser');
const code = 'function add(x, y) { return x + y; }';
Terser.minify(code).then(result => {
console.log(result.code); // Output could be 'function add(n,d){return n+d}'
});Compressing Code
Compresses code by applying various transformations, such as removing unreachable code and simplifying if-statements.
const Terser = require('terser');
const code = 'if (true) { console.log('Hello World!'); }';
const options = { compress: true };
Terser.minify(code, options).then(result => {
console.log(result.code); // Output could be 'console.log('Hello World!');'
});Mangling Variable Names
Shortens variable and function names to reduce file size and potentially obfuscate code.
const Terser = require('terser');
const code = 'const longVariableName = 5; console.log(longVariableName);';
const options = { mangle: true };
Terser.minify(code, options).then(result => {
console.log(result.code); // Output could be something like 'const a=5;console.log(a);'
});Source Map Support
Generates source maps to help debug minified JavaScript by mapping the minified code back to the original source code.
const Terser = require('terser');
const code = 'function example() { console.log('Hello World!'); }';
const options = {
sourceMap: {
filename: 'out.js',
url: 'out.js.map'
}
};
Terser.minify(code, options).then(result => {
console.log(result.code); // Minified code
console.log(result.map); // Source map
});uglify-js is another JavaScript minifier that predates terser. Terser was originally forked from uglify-js v3. Uglify-js has similar minification and compression features but does not support the ES6+ syntax, while terser does.
babel-minify is a minifier based on the Babel toolchain. It leverages Babel's understanding of ES6+ syntax to minify code. It is similar to terser but is integrated into the Babel ecosystem, which might be beneficial for projects already using Babel.
The Google Closure Compiler is a tool for making JavaScript download and run faster. It compiles from JavaScript to better JavaScript. It is more than just a minifier; it also checks code quality, and it can perform more aggressive optimizations than terser, but it has a steeper learning curve.
esbuild is an extremely fast JavaScript bundler and minifier. It performs similar tasks to terser but is focused on speed and also includes features like bundling and transpilation. It's a more comprehensive build tool compared to terser, which is primarily focused on minification.
A JavaScript parser and mangler/compressor toolkit for ES6+.
note: You can support this project on patreon: 
. Check out PATRONS.md for our first-tier patrons.
Terser recommends you use RollupJS to bundle your modules, as that produces smaller code overall.
Beautification has been undocumented and is being removed from terser, we recommend you use prettier.
Find the changelog in CHANGELOG.md
uglify-es is no longer maintained and uglify-js does not support ES6+.
terser is a fork of uglify-es that mostly retains API and CLI compatibility
with uglify-es and uglify-js@3.
First make sure you have installed the latest version of node.js (You may need to restart your computer after this step).
From NPM for use as a command line app:
npm install terser -g
From NPM for programmatic use:
npm install terser
terser [input files] [options]
Terser can take multiple input files. It's recommended that you pass the input files first, then pass the options. Terser will parse input files in sequence and apply any compression options. The files are parsed in the same global scope, that is, a reference from a file to some variable/function declared in another file will be matched properly.
If no input file is specified, Terser will read from STDIN.
If you wish to pass your options before the input files, separate the two with a double dash to prevent input files being used as option arguments:
terser --compress --mangle -- input.js
-h, --help Print usage information.
`--help options` for details on available options.
-V, --version Print version number.
-p, --parse <options> Specify parser options:
`acorn` Use Acorn for parsing.
`bare_returns` Allow return outside of functions.
Useful when minifying CommonJS
modules and Userscripts that may
be anonymous function wrapped (IIFE)
by the .user.js engine `caller`.
`expression` Parse a single expression, rather than
a program (for parsing JSON).
`spidermonkey` Assume input files are SpiderMonkey
AST format (as JSON).
-c, --compress [options] Enable compressor/specify compressor options:
`pure_funcs` List of functions that can be safely
removed when their return values are
not used.
-m, --mangle [options] Mangle names/specify mangler options:
`reserved` List of names that should not be mangled.
--mangle-props [options] Mangle properties/specify mangler options:
`builtins` Mangle property names that overlaps
with standard JavaScript globals and DOM
API props.
`debug` Add debug prefix and suffix.
`keep_quoted` Only mangle unquoted properties, quoted
properties are automatically reserved.
`strict` disables quoted properties
being automatically reserved.
`regex` Only mangle matched property names.
`reserved` List of names that should not be mangled.
-b, --beautify [options] Specify output options:
`preamble` Preamble to prepend to the output. You
can use this to insert a comment, for
example for licensing information.
This will not be parsed, but the source
map will adjust for its presence.
`quote_style` Quote style:
0 - auto
1 - single
2 - double
3 - original
`wrap_iife` Wrap IIFEs in parenthesis. Note: you may
want to disable `negate_iife` under
compressor options.
`wrap_func_args` Wrap function arguments in parenthesis.
-o, --output <file> Output file path (default STDOUT). Specify `ast` or
`spidermonkey` to write Terser or SpiderMonkey AST
as JSON to STDOUT respectively.
--comments [filter] Preserve copyright comments in the output. By
default this works like Google Closure, keeping
JSDoc-style comments that contain "@license" or
"@preserve". You can optionally pass one of the
following arguments to this flag:
- "all" to keep all comments
- `false` to omit comments in the output
- a valid JS RegExp like `/foo/` or `/^!/` to
keep only matching comments.
Note that currently not *all* comments can be
kept when compression is on, because of dead
code removal or cascading statements into
sequences.
--config-file <file> Read `minify()` options from JSON file.
-d, --define <expr>[=value] Global definitions.
--ecma <version> Specify ECMAScript release: 5, 2015, 2016, etc.
-e, --enclose [arg[:value]] Embed output in a big function with configurable
arguments and values.
--ie8 Support non-standard Internet Explorer 8.
Equivalent to setting `ie8: true` in `minify()`
for `compress`, `mangle` and `output` options.
By default Terser will not try to be IE-proof.
--keep-classnames Do not mangle/drop class names.
--keep-fnames Do not mangle/drop function names. Useful for
code relying on Function.prototype.name.
--module Input is an ES6 module. If `compress` or `mangle` is
enabled then the `toplevel` option will be enabled.
--name-cache <file> File to hold mangled name mappings.
--safari10 Support non-standard Safari 10/11.
Equivalent to setting `safari10: true` in `minify()`
for `mangle` and `output` options.
By default `terser` will not work around
Safari 10/11 bugs.
--source-map [options] Enable source map/specify source map options:
`base` Path to compute relative paths from input files.
`content` Input source map, useful if you're compressing
JS that was generated from some other original
code. Specify "inline" if the source map is
included within the sources.
`filename` Name and/or location of the output source.
`includeSources` Pass this flag if you want to include
the content of source files in the
source map as sourcesContent property.
`root` Path to the original source to be included in
the source map.
`url` If specified, path to the source map to append in
`//# sourceMappingURL`.
--timings Display operations run time on STDERR.
--toplevel Compress and/or mangle variables in top level scope.
--verbose Print diagnostic messages.
--warn Print warning messages.
--wrap <name> Embed everything in a big function, making the
“exports” and “global” variables available. You
need to pass an argument to this option to
specify the name that your module will take
when included in, say, a browser.
Specify --output (-o) to declare the output file. Otherwise the output
goes to STDOUT.
Terser can generate a source map file, which is highly useful for
debugging your compressed JavaScript. To get a source map, pass
--source-map --output output.js (source map will be written out to
output.js.map).
Additional options:
--source-map "filename='<NAME>'" to specify the name of the source map.
--source-map "root='<URL>'" to pass the URL where the original files can be found.
--source-map "url='<URL>'" to specify the URL where the source map can be found.
Otherwise Terser assumes HTTP X-SourceMap is being used and will omit the
//# sourceMappingURL= directive.
For example:
terser js/file1.js js/file2.js \
-o foo.min.js -c -m \
--source-map "root='http://foo.com/src',url='foo.min.js.map'"
The above will compress and mangle file1.js and file2.js, will drop the
output in foo.min.js and the source map in foo.min.js.map. The source
mapping will refer to http://foo.com/src/js/file1.js and
http://foo.com/src/js/file2.js (in fact it will list http://foo.com/src
as the source map root, and the original files as js/file1.js and
js/file2.js).
When you're compressing JS code that was output by a compiler such as CoffeeScript, mapping to the JS code won't be too helpful. Instead, you'd like to map back to the original code (i.e. CoffeeScript). Terser has an option to take an input source map. Assuming you have a mapping from CoffeeScript → compiled JS, Terser can generate a map from CoffeeScript → compressed JS by mapping every token in the compiled JS to its original location.
To use this feature pass --source-map "content='/path/to/input/source.map'"
or --source-map "content=inline" if the source map is included inline with
the sources.
You need to pass --compress (-c) to enable the compressor. Optionally
you can pass a comma-separated list of compress options.
Options are in the form foo=bar, or just foo (the latter implies
a boolean option that you want to set true; it's effectively a
shortcut for foo=true).
Example:
terser file.js -c toplevel,sequences=false
To enable the mangler you need to pass --mangle (-m). The following
(comma-separated) options are supported:
toplevel (default false) -- mangle names declared in the top level scope.
eval (default false) -- mangle names visible in scopes where eval or with are used.
When mangling is enabled but you want to prevent certain names from being
mangled, you can declare those names with --mangle reserved — pass a
comma-separated list of names. For example:
terser ... -m reserved=['$','require','exports']
to prevent the require, exports and $ names from being changed.
--mangle-props)Note: THIS WILL BREAK YOUR CODE. A good rule of thumb is not to use this unless you know exactly what you're doing and how this works and read this section until the end.
Mangling property names is a separate step, different from variable name mangling. Pass
--mangle-props to enable it. The least dangerous
way to use this is to use the regex option like so:
terser example.js -c -m --mangle-props regex=/_$/
This will mangle all properties that end with an underscore. So you can use it to mangle internal methods.
By default, it will mangle all properties in the input code with the exception of built in DOM properties and properties in core JavaScript classes, which is what will break your code if you don't:
defineProperty or hasOwnProperty, because they refer to object properties using strings and will break your code if you don't know what you are doing.An example:
// example.js
var x = {
baz_: 0,
foo_: 1,
calc: function() {
return this.foo_ + this.baz_;
}
};
x.bar_ = 2;
x["baz_"] = 3;
console.log(x.calc());
Mangle all properties (except for JavaScript builtins) (very unsafe):
$ terser example.js -c passes=2 -m --mangle-props
var x={o:3,t:1,i:function(){return this.t+this.o},s:2};console.log(x.i());
Mangle all properties except for reserved properties (still very unsafe):
$ terser example.js -c passes=2 -m --mangle-props reserved=[foo_,bar_]
var x={o:3,foo_:1,t:function(){return this.foo_+this.o},bar_:2};console.log(x.t());
Mangle all properties matching a regex (not as unsafe but still unsafe):
$ terser example.js -c passes=2 -m --mangle-props regex=/_$/
var x={o:3,t:1,calc:function(){return this.t+this.o},i:2};console.log(x.calc());
Combining mangle properties options:
$ terser example.js -c passes=2 -m --mangle-props regex=/_$/,reserved=[bar_]
var x={o:3,t:1,calc:function(){return this.t+this.o},bar_:2};console.log(x.calc());
In order for this to be of any use, we avoid mangling standard JS names and DOM
API properties by default (--mangle-props builtins to override).
A regular expression can be used to define which property names should be
mangled. For example, --mangle-props regex=/^_/ will only mangle property
names that start with an underscore.
When you compress multiple files using this option, in order for them to
work together in the end we need to ensure somehow that one property gets
mangled to the same name in all of them. For this, pass --name-cache filename.json
and Terser will maintain these mappings in a file which can then be reused.
It should be initially empty. Example:
$ rm -f /tmp/cache.json # start fresh
$ terser file1.js file2.js --mangle-props --name-cache /tmp/cache.json -o part1.js
$ terser file3.js file4.js --mangle-props --name-cache /tmp/cache.json -o part2.js
Now, part1.js and part2.js will be consistent with each other in terms
of mangled property names.
Using the name cache is not necessary if you compress all your files in a single call to Terser.
--mangle-props keep_quoted)Using quoted property name (o["foo"]) reserves the property name (foo)
so that it is not mangled throughout the entire script even when used in an
unquoted style (o.foo). Example:
// stuff.js
var o = {
"foo": 1,
bar: 3
};
o.foo += o.bar;
console.log(o.foo);
$ terser stuff.js --mangle-props keep_quoted -c -m
var o={foo:1,o:3};o.foo+=o.o,console.log(o.foo);
You can also pass --mangle-props debug in order to mangle property names
without completely obscuring them. For example the property o.foo
would mangle to o._$foo$_ with this option. This allows property mangling
of a large codebase while still being able to debug the code and identify
where mangling is breaking things.
$ terser stuff.js --mangle-props debug -c -m
var o={_$foo$_:1,_$bar$_:3};o._$foo$_+=o._$bar$_,console.log(o._$foo$_);
You can also pass a custom suffix using --mangle-props debug=XYZ. This would then
mangle o.foo to o._$foo$XYZ_. You can change this each time you compile a
script to identify how a property got mangled. One technique is to pass a
random number on every compile to simulate mangling changing with different
inputs (e.g. as you update the input script with new properties), and to help
identify mistakes like writing mangled keys to storage.
Assuming installation via NPM, you can load Terser in your application like this:
var Terser = require("terser");
Browser loading is also supported:
<script src="node_modules/source-map/dist/source-map.min.js"></script>
<script src="dist/bundle.min.js"></script>
There is a single high level function, minify(code, options),
which will perform all minification phases in a configurable
manner. By default minify() will enable the options compress
and mangle. Example:
var code = "function add(first, second) { return first + second; }";
var result = Terser.minify(code);
console.log(result.error); // runtime error, or `undefined` if no error
console.log(result.code); // minified output: function add(n,d){return n+d}
You can minify more than one JavaScript file at a time by using an object
for the first argument where the keys are file names and the values are source
code:
var code = {
"file1.js": "function add(first, second) { return first + second; }",
"file2.js": "console.log(add(1 + 2, 3 + 4));"
};
var result = Terser.minify(code);
console.log(result.code);
// function add(d,n){return d+n}console.log(add(3,7));
The toplevel option:
var code = {
"file1.js": "function add(first, second) { return first + second; }",
"file2.js": "console.log(add(1 + 2, 3 + 4));"
};
var options = { toplevel: true };
var result = Terser.minify(code, options);
console.log(result.code);
// console.log(3+7);
The nameCache option:
var options = {
mangle: {
toplevel: true,
},
nameCache: {}
};
var result1 = Terser.minify({
"file1.js": "function add(first, second) { return first + second; }"
}, options);
var result2 = Terser.minify({
"file2.js": "console.log(add(1 + 2, 3 + 4));"
}, options);
console.log(result1.code);
// function n(n,r){return n+r}
console.log(result2.code);
// console.log(n(3,7));
You may persist the name cache to the file system in the following way:
var cacheFileName = "/tmp/cache.json";
var options = {
mangle: {
properties: true,
},
nameCache: JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(cacheFileName, "utf8"))
};
fs.writeFileSync("part1.js", Terser.minify({
"file1.js": fs.readFileSync("file1.js", "utf8"),
"file2.js": fs.readFileSync("file2.js", "utf8")
}, options).code, "utf8");
fs.writeFileSync("part2.js", Terser.minify({
"file3.js": fs.readFileSync("file3.js", "utf8"),
"file4.js": fs.readFileSync("file4.js", "utf8")
}, options).code, "utf8");
fs.writeFileSync(cacheFileName, JSON.stringify(options.nameCache), "utf8");
An example of a combination of minify() options:
var code = {
"file1.js": "function add(first, second) { return first + second; }",
"file2.js": "console.log(add(1 + 2, 3 + 4));"
};
var options = {
toplevel: true,
compress: {
global_defs: {
"@console.log": "alert"
},
passes: 2
},
output: {
beautify: false,
preamble: "/* minified */"
}
};
var result = Terser.minify(code, options);
console.log(result.code);
// /* minified */
// alert(10);"
To produce warnings:
var code = "function f(){ var u; return 2 + 3; }";
var options = { warnings: true };
var result = Terser.minify(code, options);
console.log(result.error); // runtime error, `undefined` in this case
console.log(result.warnings); // [ 'Dropping unused variable u [0:1,18]' ]
console.log(result.code); // function f(){return 5}
An error example:
var result = Terser.minify({"foo.js" : "if (0) else console.log(1);"});
console.log(JSON.stringify(result.error));
// {"message":"Unexpected token: keyword (else)","filename":"foo.js","line":1,"col":7,"pos":7}
Note: unlike uglify-js@2.x, the Terser API does not throw errors.
To achieve a similar effect one could do the following:
var result = Terser.minify(code, options);
if (result.error) throw result.error;
ecma (default undefined) - pass 5, 2015, 2016, etc to override parse,
compress and output's ecma options.
warnings (default false) — pass true to return compressor warnings
in result.warnings. Use the value "verbose" for more detailed warnings.
parse (default {}) — pass an object if you wish to specify some
additional parse options.
compress (default {}) — pass false to skip compressing entirely.
Pass an object to specify custom compress options.
mangle (default true) — pass false to skip mangling names, or pass
an object to specify mangle options (see below).
mangle.properties (default false) — a subcategory of the mangle option.
Pass an object to specify custom mangle property options.module (default false) — Use when minifying an ES6 module. "use strict"
is implied and names can be mangled on the top scope. If compress or
mangle is enabled then the toplevel option will be enabled.
output (default null) — pass an object if you wish to specify
additional output options. The defaults are optimized
for best compression.
sourceMap (default false) - pass an object if you wish to specify
source map options.
toplevel (default false) - set to true if you wish to enable top level
variable and function name mangling and to drop unused variables and functions.
nameCache (default null) - pass an empty object {} or a previously
used nameCache object if you wish to cache mangled variable and
property names across multiple invocations of minify(). Note: this is
a read/write property. minify() will read the name cache state of this
object and update it during minification so that it may be
reused or externally persisted by the user.
ie8 (default false) - set to true to support IE8.
keep_classnames (default: undefined) - pass true to prevent discarding or mangling
of class names. Pass a regular expression to only keep class names matching that regex.
keep_fnames (default: false) - pass true to prevent discarding or mangling
of function names. Pass a regular expression to only keep class names matching that regex.
Useful for code relying on Function.prototype.name. If the top level minify option
keep_classnames is undefined it will be overridden with the value of the top level
minify option keep_fnames.
safari10 (default: false) - pass true to work around Safari 10/11 bugs in
loop scoping and await. See safari10 options in mangle
and output for details.
{
parse: {
// parse options
},
compress: {
// compress options
},
mangle: {
// mangle options
properties: {
// mangle property options
}
},
output: {
// output options
},
sourceMap: {
// source map options
},
ecma: 5, // specify one of: 5, 2015, 2016, etc.
keep_classnames: false,
keep_fnames: false,
ie8: false,
module: false,
nameCache: null, // or specify a name cache object
safari10: false,
toplevel: false,
warnings: false,
}
To generate a source map:
var result = Terser.minify({"file1.js": "var a = function() {};"}, {
sourceMap: {
filename: "out.js",
url: "out.js.map"
}
});
console.log(result.code); // minified output
console.log(result.map); // source map
Note that the source map is not saved in a file, it's just returned in
result.map. The value passed for sourceMap.url is only used to set
//# sourceMappingURL=out.js.map in result.code. The value of
filename is only used to set file attribute (see the spec)
in source map file.
You can set option sourceMap.url to be "inline" and source map will
be appended to code.
You can also specify sourceRoot property to be included in source map:
var result = Terser.minify({"file1.js": "var a = function() {};"}, {
sourceMap: {
root: "http://example.com/src",
url: "out.js.map"
}
});
If you're compressing compiled JavaScript and have a source map for it, you
can use sourceMap.content:
var result = Terser.minify({"compiled.js": "compiled code"}, {
sourceMap: {
content: "content from compiled.js.map",
url: "minified.js.map"
}
});
// same as before, it returns `code` and `map`
If you're using the X-SourceMap header instead, you can just omit sourceMap.url.
If you happen to need the source map as a raw object, set sourceMap.asObject to true.
bare_returns (default false) -- support top level return statements
ecma (default: 2017) -- specify one of 5, 2015, 2016 or 2017. Note: this setting
is not presently enforced except for ES8 optional trailing commas in function
parameter lists and calls with ecma 2017.
html5_comments (default true)
shebang (default true) -- support #!command as the first line
defaults (default: true) -- Pass false to disable most default
enabled compress transforms. Useful when you only want to enable a few
compress options while disabling the rest.
arrows (default: true) -- Class and object literal methods are converted
will also be converted to arrow expressions if the resultant code is shorter:
m(){return x} becomes m:()=>x. To do this to regular ES5 functions which
don't use this or arguments, see unsafe_arrows.
arguments (default: false) -- replace arguments[index] with function
parameter name whenever possible.
booleans (default: true) -- various optimizations for boolean context,
for example !!a ? b : c → a ? b : c
booleans_as_integers (default: false) -- Turn booleans into 0 and 1, also
makes comparisons with booleans use == and != instead of === and !==.
collapse_vars (default: true) -- Collapse single-use non-constant variables,
side effects permitting.
comparisons (default: true) -- apply certain optimizations to binary nodes,
e.g. !(a <= b) → a > b (only when unsafe_comps), attempts to negate binary
nodes, e.g. a = !b && !c && !d && !e → a=!(b||c||d||e) etc.
computed_props (default: true) -- Transforms constant computed properties
into regular ones: {["computed"]: 1} is converted to {computed: 1}.
conditionals (default: true) -- apply optimizations for if-s and conditional
expressions
dead_code (default: true) -- remove unreachable code
directives (default: true) -- remove redundant or non-standard directives
drop_console (default: false) -- Pass true to discard calls to
console.* functions. If you wish to drop a specific function call
such as console.info and/or retain side effects from function arguments
after dropping the function call then use pure_funcs instead.
drop_debugger (default: true) -- remove debugger; statements
ecma (default: 5) -- Pass 2015 or greater to enable compress options that
will transform ES5 code into smaller ES6+ equivalent forms.
evaluate (default: true) -- attempt to evaluate constant expressions
expression (default: false) -- Pass true to preserve completion values
from terminal statements without return, e.g. in bookmarklets.
global_defs (default: {}) -- see conditional compilation
hoist_funs (default: false) -- hoist function declarations
hoist_props (default: true) -- hoist properties from constant object and
array literals into regular variables subject to a set of constraints. For example:
var o={p:1, q:2}; f(o.p, o.q); is converted to f(1, 2);. Note: hoist_props
works best with mangle enabled, the compress option passes set to 2 or higher,
and the compress option toplevel enabled.
hoist_vars (default: false) -- hoist var declarations (this is false
by default because it seems to increase the size of the output in general)
if_return (default: true) -- optimizations for if/return and if/continue
inline (default: true) -- inline calls to function with simple/return statement:
false -- same as 00 -- disabled inlining1 -- inline simple functions2 -- inline functions with arguments3 -- inline functions with arguments and variablestrue -- same as 3join_vars (default: true) -- join consecutive var statements
keep_classnames (default: false) -- Pass true to prevent the compressor from
discarding class names. Pass a regular expression to only keep class names matching
that regex. See also: the keep_classnames mangle option.
keep_fargs (default: true) -- Prevents the compressor from discarding unused
function arguments. You need this for code which relies on Function.length.
keep_fnames (default: false) -- Pass true to prevent the
compressor from discarding function names. Pass a regular expression to only keep
function names matching that regex. Useful for code relying on Function.prototype.name.
See also: the keep_fnames mangle option.
keep_infinity (default: false) -- Pass true to prevent Infinity from
being compressed into 1/0, which may cause performance issues on Chrome.
loops (default: true) -- optimizations for do, while and for loops
when we can statically determine the condition.
module (default false) -- Pass true when compressing an ES6 module. Strict
mode is implied and the toplevel option as well.
negate_iife (default: true) -- negate "Immediately-Called Function Expressions"
where the return value is discarded, to avoid the parens that the
code generator would insert.
passes (default: 1) -- The maximum number of times to run compress.
In some cases more than one pass leads to further compressed code. Keep in
mind more passes will take more time.
properties (default: true) -- rewrite property access using the dot notation, for
example foo["bar"] → foo.bar
pure_funcs (default: null) -- You can pass an array of names and
Terser will assume that those functions do not produce side
effects. DANGER: will not check if the name is redefined in scope.
An example case here, for instance var q = Math.floor(a/b). If
variable q is not used elsewhere, Terser will drop it, but will
still keep the Math.floor(a/b), not knowing what it does. You can
pass pure_funcs: [ 'Math.floor' ] to let it know that this
function won't produce any side effect, in which case the whole
statement would get discarded. The current implementation adds some
overhead (compression will be slower).
pure_getters (default: "strict") -- If you pass true for
this, Terser will assume that object property access
(e.g. foo.bar or foo["bar"]) doesn't have any side effects.
Specify "strict" to treat foo.bar as side-effect-free only when
foo is certain to not throw, i.e. not null or undefined.
reduce_funcs (legacy option, safely ignored for backwards compatibility).
reduce_vars (default: true) -- Improve optimization on variables assigned with and
used as constant values.
sequences (default: true) -- join consecutive simple statements using the
comma operator. May be set to a positive integer to specify the maximum number
of consecutive comma sequences that will be generated. If this option is set to
true then the default sequences limit is 200. Set option to false or 0
to disable. The smallest sequences length is 2. A sequences value of 1
is grandfathered to be equivalent to true and as such means 200. On rare
occasions the default sequences limit leads to very slow compress times in which
case a value of 20 or less is recommended.
side_effects (default: true) -- Pass false to disable potentially dropping
function calls marked as "pure". A function call is marked as "pure" if a comment
annotation /*@__PURE__*/ or /*#__PURE__*/ immediately precedes the call. For
example: /*@__PURE__*/foo();
switches (default: true) -- de-duplicate and remove unreachable switch branches
toplevel (default: false) -- drop unreferenced functions ("funcs") and/or
variables ("vars") in the top level scope (false by default, true to drop
both unreferenced functions and variables)
top_retain (default: null) -- prevent specific toplevel functions and
variables from unused removal (can be array, comma-separated, RegExp or
function. Implies toplevel)
typeofs (default: true) -- Transforms typeof foo == "undefined" into
foo === void 0. Note: recommend to set this value to false for IE10 and
earlier versions due to known issues.
unsafe (default: false) -- apply "unsafe" transformations
(details).
unsafe_arrows (default: false) -- Convert ES5 style anonymous function
expressions to arrow functions if the function body does not reference this.
Note: it is not always safe to perform this conversion if code relies on the
the function having a prototype, which arrow functions lack.
This transform requires that the ecma compress option is set to 2015 or greater.
unsafe_comps (default: false) -- Reverse < and <= to > and >= to
allow improved compression. This might be unsafe when an at least one of two
operands is an object with computed values due the use of methods like get,
or valueOf. This could cause change in execution order after operands in the
comparison are switching. Compression only works if both comparisons and
unsafe_comps are both set to true.
unsafe_Function (default: false) -- compress and mangle Function(args, code)
when both args and code are string literals.
unsafe_math (default: false) -- optimize numerical expressions like
2 * x * 3 into 6 * x, which may give imprecise floating point results.
unsafe_symbols (default: false) -- removes keys from native Symbol
declarations, e.g Symbol("kDog") becomes Symbol().
unsafe_methods (default: false) -- Converts { m: function(){} } to
{ m(){} }. ecma must be set to 6 or greater to enable this transform.
If unsafe_methods is a RegExp then key/value pairs with keys matching the
RegExp will be converted to concise methods.
Note: if enabled there is a risk of getting a "<method name> is not a
constructor" TypeError should any code try to new the former function.
unsafe_proto (default: false) -- optimize expressions like
Array.prototype.slice.call(a) into [].slice.call(a)
unsafe_regexp (default: false) -- enable substitutions of variables with
RegExp values the same way as if they are constants.
unsafe_undefined (default: false) -- substitute void 0 if there is a
variable named undefined in scope (variable name will be mangled, typically
reduced to a single character)
unused (default: true) -- drop unreferenced functions and variables (simple
direct variable assignments do not count as references unless set to "keep_assign")
warnings (default: false) -- display warnings when dropping unreachable
code or unused declarations etc.
eval (default false) -- Pass true to mangle names visible in scopes
where eval or with are used.
keep_classnames (default false) -- Pass true to not mangle class names.
Pass a regular expression to only keep class names matching that regex.
See also: the keep_classnames compress option.
keep_fnames (default false) -- Pass true to not mangle function names.
Pass a regular expression to only keep class names matching that regex.
Useful for code relying on Function.prototype.name. See also: the keep_fnames
compress option.
module (default false) -- Pass true an ES6 modules, where the toplevel
scope is not the global scope. Implies toplevel.
reserved (default []) -- Pass an array of identifiers that should be
excluded from mangling. Example: ["foo", "bar"].
toplevel (default false) -- Pass true to mangle names declared in the
top level scope.
safari10 (default false) -- Pass true to work around the Safari 10 loop
iterator bug
"Cannot declare a let variable twice".
See also: the safari10 output option.
Examples:
// test.js
var globalVar;
function funcName(firstLongName, anotherLongName) {
var myVariable = firstLongName + anotherLongName;
}
var code = fs.readFileSync("test.js", "utf8");
Terser.minify(code).code;
// 'function funcName(a,n){}var globalVar;'
Terser.minify(code, { mangle: { reserved: ['firstLongName'] } }).code;
// 'function funcName(firstLongName,a){}var globalVar;'
Terser.minify(code, { mangle: { toplevel: true } }).code;
// 'function n(n,a){}var a;'
builtins (default: false) — Use true to allow the mangling of builtin
DOM properties. Not recommended to override this setting.
debug (default: false) — Mangle names with the original name still present.
Pass an empty string "" to enable, or a non-empty string to set the debug suffix.
keep_quoted (default: false) — Only mangle unquoted property names.
true -- Quoted property names are automatically reserved and any unquoted
property names will not be mangled."strict" -- Advanced, all unquoted property names are mangled unless
explicitly reserved.regex (default: null) — Pass a RegExp literal or pattern string to only mangle property matching the regular expression.
reserved (default: []) — Do not mangle property names listed in the
reserved array.
undeclared (default: false) - Mangle those names when they are accessed
as properties of known top level variables but their declarations are never
found in input code. May be useful when only minifying parts of a project.
See #397 for more details.
The code generator tries to output shortest code possible by default. In
case you want beautified output, pass --beautify (-b). Optionally you
can pass additional arguments that control the code output:
ascii_only (default false) -- escape Unicode characters in strings and
regexps (affects directives with non-ascii characters becoming invalid)
beautify (default true) -- whether to actually beautify the output.
Passing -b will set this to true, but you might need to pass -b even
when you want to generate minified code, in order to specify additional
arguments, so you can use -b beautify=false to override it.
braces (default false) -- always insert braces in if, for,
do, while or with statements, even if their body is a single
statement.
comments (default "some") -- by default it keeps JSDoc-style comments
that contain "@license" or "@preserve", pass true or "all" to preserve all
comments, false to omit comments in the output, a regular expression string
(e.g. /^!/) or a function.
ecma (default 5) -- set output printing mode. Set ecma to 2015 or
greater to emit shorthand object properties - i.e.: {a} instead of {a: a}.
The ecma option will only change the output in direct control of the
beautifier. Non-compatible features in the abstract syntax tree will still
be output as is. For example: an ecma setting of 5 will not convert
ES6+ code to ES5.
indent_level (default 4)
indent_start (default 0) -- prefix all lines by that many spaces
inline_script (default true) -- escape HTML comments and the slash in
occurrences of </script> in strings
keep_numbers (default false) -- keep number literals as it was in original code
(disables optimizations like converting 1000000 into 1e6)
keep_quoted_props (default false) -- when turned on, prevents stripping
quotes from property names in object literals.
max_line_len (default false) -- maximum line length (for minified code)
preamble (default null) -- when passed it must be a string and
it will be prepended to the output literally. The source map will
adjust for this text. Can be used to insert a comment containing
licensing information, for example.
quote_keys (default false) -- pass true to quote all keys in literal
objects
quote_style (default 0) -- preferred quote style for strings (affects
quoted property names and directives as well):
0 -- prefers double quotes, switches to single quotes when there are
more double quotes in the string itself. 0 is best for gzip size.1 -- always use single quotes2 -- always use double quotes3 -- always use the original quotespreserve_annotations -- (default false) -- Preserve Terser annotations in the output.
safari10 (default false) -- set this option to true to work around
the Safari 10/11 await bug.
See also: the safari10 mangle option.
semicolons (default true) -- separate statements with semicolons. If
you pass false then whenever possible we will use a newline instead of a
semicolon, leading to more readable output of minified code (size before
gzip could be smaller; size after gzip insignificantly larger).
shebang (default true) -- preserve shebang #! in preamble (bash scripts)
webkit (default false) -- enable workarounds for WebKit bugs.
PhantomJS users should set this option to true.
wrap_iife (default false) -- pass true to wrap immediately invoked
function expressions. See
#640 for more details.
wrap_func_args (default true) -- pass false if you do not want to wrap
function expressions that are passed as arguments, in parenthesis. See
OptimizeJS for more details.
You can pass --comments to retain certain comments in the output. By
default it will keep JSDoc-style comments that contain "@preserve",
"@license" or "@cc_on" (conditional compilation for IE). You can pass
--comments all to keep all the comments, or a valid JavaScript regexp to
keep only comments that match this regexp. For example --comments /^!/
will keep comments like /*! Copyright Notice */.
Note, however, that there might be situations where comments are lost. For example:
function f() {
/** @preserve Foo Bar */
function g() {
// this function is never called
}
return something();
}
Even though it has "@preserve", the comment will be lost because the inner
function g (which is the AST node to which the comment is attached to) is
discarded by the compressor as not referenced.
The safest comments where to place copyright information (or other info that needs to be kept in the output) are comments attached to toplevel nodes.
unsafe compress optionIt enables some transformations that might break code logic in certain contrived cases, but should be fine for most code. It assumes that standard built-in ECMAScript functions and classes have not been altered or replaced. You might want to try it on your own code; it should reduce the minified size. Some examples of the optimizations made when this option is enabled:
new Array(1, 2, 3) or Array(1, 2, 3) → [ 1, 2, 3 ]new Object() → {}String(exp) or exp.toString() → "" + expnew Object/RegExp/Function/Error/Array (...) → we discard the new"foo bar".substr(4) → "bar"You can use the --define (-d) switch in order to declare global
variables that Terser will assume to be constants (unless defined in
scope). For example if you pass --define DEBUG=false then, coupled with
dead code removal Terser will discard the following from the output:
if (DEBUG) {
console.log("debug stuff");
}
You can specify nested constants in the form of --define env.DEBUG=false.
Terser will warn about the condition being always false and about dropping
unreachable code; for now there is no option to turn off only this specific
warning, you can pass warnings=false to turn off all warnings.
Another way of doing that is to declare your globals as constants in a
separate file and include it into the build. For example you can have a
build/defines.js file with the following:
var DEBUG = false;
var PRODUCTION = true;
// etc.
and build your code like this:
terser build/defines.js js/foo.js js/bar.js... -c
Terser will notice the constants and, since they cannot be altered, it
will evaluate references to them to the value itself and drop unreachable
code as usual. The build will contain the const declarations if you use
them. If you are targeting < ES6 environments which does not support const,
using var with reduce_vars (enabled by default) should suffice.
You can also use conditional compilation via the programmatic API. With the difference that the
property name is global_defs and is a compressor property:
var result = Terser.minify(fs.readFileSync("input.js", "utf8"), {
compress: {
dead_code: true,
global_defs: {
DEBUG: false
}
}
});
To replace an identifier with an arbitrary non-constant expression it is
necessary to prefix the global_defs key with "@" to instruct Terser
to parse the value as an expression:
Terser.minify("alert('hello');", {
compress: {
global_defs: {
"@alert": "console.log"
}
}
}).code;
// returns: 'console.log("hello");'
Otherwise it would be replaced as string literal:
Terser.minify("alert('hello');", {
compress: {
global_defs: {
"alert": "console.log"
}
}
}).code;
// returns: '"console.log"("hello");'
minify()// example: parse only, produce native Terser AST
var result = Terser.minify(code, {
parse: {},
compress: false,
mangle: false,
output: {
ast: true,
code: false // optional - faster if false
}
});
// result.ast contains native Terser AST
// example: accept native Terser AST input and then compress and mangle
// to produce both code and native AST.
var result = Terser.minify(ast, {
compress: {},
mangle: {},
output: {
ast: true,
code: true // optional - faster if false
}
});
// result.ast contains native Terser AST
// result.code contains the minified code in string form.
Annotations in Terser are a way to tell it to treat a certain function call differently. The following annotations are available:
/*@__INLINE__*/ - forces a function to be inlined somewhere./*@__NOINLINE__*/ - Makes sure the called function is not inlined into the call site./*@__PURE__*/ - Marks a function call as pure. That means, it can safely be dropped.You can use either a @ sign at the start, or a #.
Here are some examples on how to use them:
/*@__INLINE__*/
function_always_inlined_here()
/*#__NOINLINE__*/
function_cant_be_inlined_into_here()
const x = /*#__PURE__*/i_am_dropped_if_x_is_not_used()
Traversal and transformation of the native AST can be performed through
TreeWalker and
TreeTransformer
respectively.
Largely compatible native AST examples can be found in the original UglifyJS documentation. See: tree walker and tree transform.
Terser has its own abstract syntax tree format; for practical reasons we can't easily change to using the SpiderMonkey AST internally. However, Terser now has a converter which can import a SpiderMonkey AST.
For example Acorn is a super-fast parser that produces a SpiderMonkey AST. It has a small CLI utility that parses one file and dumps the AST in JSON on the standard output. To use Terser to mangle and compress that:
acorn file.js | terser -p spidermonkey -m -c
The -p spidermonkey option tells Terser that all input files are not
JavaScript, but JS code described in SpiderMonkey AST in JSON. Therefore we
don't use our own parser in this case, but just transform that AST into our
internal AST.
More for fun, I added the -p acorn option which will use Acorn to do all
the parsing. If you pass this option, Terser will require("acorn").
Acorn is really fast (e.g. 250ms instead of 380ms on some 650K code), but converting the SpiderMonkey tree that Acorn produces takes another 150ms so in total it's a bit more than just using Terser's own parser.
It's not well known, but whitespace removal and symbol mangling accounts
for 95% of the size reduction in minified code for most JavaScript - not
elaborate code transforms. One can simply disable compress to speed up
Terser builds by 3 to 4 times.
| d3.js | size | gzip size | time (s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| original | 451,131 | 108,733 | - |
| terser@3.7.5 mangle=false, compress=false | 316,600 | 85,245 | 0.82 |
| terser@3.7.5 mangle=true, compress=false | 220,216 | 72,730 | 1.45 |
| terser@3.7.5 mangle=true, compress=true | 212,046 | 70,954 | 5.87 |
| babili@0.1.4 | 210,713 | 72,140 | 12.64 |
| babel-minify@0.4.3 | 210,321 | 72,242 | 48.67 |
| babel-minify@0.5.0-alpha.01eac1c3 | 210,421 | 72,238 | 14.17 |
To enable fast minify mode from the CLI use:
terser file.js -m
To enable fast minify mode with the API use:
Terser.minify(code, { compress: false, mangle: true });
Various compress transforms that simplify, rearrange, inline and remove code
are known to have an adverse effect on debugging with source maps. This is
expected as code is optimized and mappings are often simply not possible as
some code no longer exists. For highest fidelity in source map debugging
disable the compress option and just use mangle.
To allow for better optimizations, the compiler makes various assumptions:
.toString() and .valueOf() don't have side effects, and for built-in
objects they have not been overridden.undefined, NaN and Infinity have not been externally redefined.arguments.callee, arguments.caller and Function.prototype.caller are not used.Function.prototype.toString() or
Error.prototype.stack to be anything in particular..watch() or Proxy).Object.defineProperty(), Object.defineProperties(), Object.freeze(),
Object.preventExtensions() or Object.seal()).document.all is not == nullhttps://www.npmjs.com/browse/depended/terser
uglify-es with terser in a project using yarnA number of JS bundlers and uglify wrappers are still using buggy versions
of uglify-es and have not yet upgraded to terser. If you are using yarn
you can add the following alias to your project's package.json file:
"resolutions": {
"uglify-es": "npm:terser"
}
to use terser instead of uglify-es in all deeply nested dependencies
without changing any code.
Note: for this change to take effect you must run the following commands
to remove the existing yarn lock file and reinstall all packages:
$ rm -rf node_modules yarn.lock
$ yarn
In the terser CLI we use source-map-support to produce good error stacks. In your own app, you're expected to enable source-map-support (read their docs) to have nice stack traces that will make good issues.
note: You can support this project on patreon: . Check out PATRONS.md for our first-tier patrons.
These are the second-tier patrons. Great thanks for your support!
This project exists thanks to all the people who contribute. [Contribute].
Become a financial contributor and help us sustain our community. [Contribute]
Support this project with your organization. Your logo will show up here with a link to your website. [Contribute]
v4.8.1 (backport)
FAQs
JavaScript parser, mangler/compressor and beautifier toolkit for ES6+
The npm package terser receives a total of 13,726,084 weekly downloads. As such, terser popularity was classified as popular.
We found that terser demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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