The uglify-js npm package is a JavaScript parser, minifier, compressor, and beautifier toolkit. It is commonly used to reduce the size of JavaScript files by removing unnecessary characters (like whitespace, comments, etc.) without changing their functionality. This helps in decreasing the load time and bandwidth usage of web applications.

What are uglify-js's main functionalities?

Minification

Minification is the process of removing unnecessary characters and whitespace from source code without changing its functionality. The code sample demonstrates how to read a JavaScript file, minify it using uglify-js, and then write the minified code to a new file.

const uglifyJS = require('uglify-js');
const fs = require('fs');

const code = fs.readFileSync('example.js', 'utf8');
const minifiedCode = uglifyJS.minify(code).code;

fs.writeFileSync('example.min.js', minifiedCode);

Compression

Compression is a form of optimization that reduces code size by performing various transformations, such as removing dead code or simplifying expressions. The code sample shows how to use uglify-js to compress a JavaScript file by removing console statements and then writing the compressed code to a new file.

const uglifyJS = require('uglify-js');
const fs = require('fs');

const options = {
  compress: {
    drop_console: true
  }
};

const code = fs.readFileSync('example.js', 'utf8');
const compressedCode = uglifyJS.minify(code, options).code;

fs.writeFileSync('example.compressed.js', compressedCode);

Mangling

Mangling is the process of shortening variable and function names to reduce file size and potentially obfuscate code. The code sample illustrates how to use uglify-js to mangle a JavaScript file and then save the mangled code to a new file.

const uglifyJS = require('uglify-js');
const fs = require('fs');

const options = {
  mangle: true
};

const code = fs.readFileSync('example.js', 'utf8');
const mangledCode = uglifyJS.minify(code, options).code;

fs.writeFileSync('example.mangled.js', mangledCode);

Beautification

Beautification is the process of reformatting minified or obfuscated code into a more readable and maintainable format. The code sample demonstrates how to use uglify-js to beautify a JavaScript file and then write the beautified code to a new file.

const uglifyJS = require('uglify-js');
const fs = require('fs');

const options = {
  output: {
    beautify: true
  }
};

const code = fs.readFileSync('example.js', 'utf8');
const beautifiedCode = uglifyJS.minify(code, options).code;

fs.writeFileSync('example.beautified.js', beautifiedCode);

Other packages similar to uglify-js

Readme

Source

#+TITLE: UglifyJS -- a JavaScript parser/compressor/beautifier #+KEYWORDS: javascript, js, parser, compiler, compressor, mangle, minify, minifier #+DESCRIPTION: a JavaScript parser/compressor/beautifier in JavaScript #+STYLE: #+AUTHOR: Mihai Bazon #+EMAIL: mihai.bazon@gmail.com

UglifyJS --- a JavaScript parser/compressor/beautifier

Update: please read the section on [[unsafe transformations]].

This package implements a general-purpose JavaScript parser/compressor/beautifier toolkit. It is developed on [[http://nodejs.org/][NodeJS]], but it should work on any JavaScript platform supporting the CommonJS module system (and if your platform of choice doesn't support CommonJS, you can easily implement it, or discard the =exports.*= lines from UglifyJS sources).

The tokenizer/parser generates an abstract syntax tree from JS code. You can then traverse the AST to learn more about the code, or do various manipulations on it. This part is implemented in [[../lib/parse-js.js][parse-js.js]] and it's a port to JavaScript of the excellent [[http://marijn.haverbeke.nl/parse-js/][parse-js]] Common Lisp library from [[http://marijn.haverbeke.nl/][Marijn Haverbeke]].

( See [[http://github.com/mishoo/cl-uglify-js][cl-uglify-js]] if you're looking for the Common Lisp version of UglifyJS. )

The second part of this package, implemented in [[../lib/process.js][process.js]], inspects and manipulates the AST generated by the parser to provide the following:

ability to re-generate JavaScript code from the AST. Optionally indented---you can use this if you want to “beautify” a program that has been compressed, so that you can inspect the source. But you can also run our code generator to print out an AST without any whitespace, so you achieve compression as well.
shorten variable names (usually to single characters). Our mangler will analyze the code and generate proper variable names, depending on scope and usage, and is smart enough to deal with globals defined elsewhere, or with =eval()= calls or =with{}= statements. In short, if =eval()= or =with{}= are used in some scope, then all variables in that scope and any variables in the parent scopes will remain unmangled, and any references to such variables remain unmangled as well.
various small optimizations that may lead to faster code but certainly lead to smaller code. Where possible, we do the following:
- foo["bar"] ==> foo.bar
- remove block brackets ={}=
- join consecutive var declarations: var a = 10; var b = 20; ==> var a=10,b=20;
- resolve simple constant expressions: 1 +2 * 3 ==> 7. We only do the replacement if the result occupies less bytes; for example 1/3 would translate to 0.333333333333, so in this case we don't replace it.
- consecutive statements in blocks are merged into a sequence; in many cases, this leaves blocks with a single statement, so then we can remove the block brackets.
- various optimizations for IF statements:
  - if (foo) bar(); else baz(); ==> foo?bar():baz();
  - if (!foo) bar(); else baz(); ==> foo?baz():bar();
  - if (foo) bar(); ==> foo&&bar();
  - if (!foo) bar(); ==> foo||bar();
  - if (foo) return bar(); else return baz(); ==> return foo?bar():baz();
  - if (foo) return bar(); else something(); ==> {if(foo)return bar();something()}
- remove some unreachable code and warn about it (code that follows a =return=, =throw=, =break= or =continue= statement, except function/variable declarations).

** <>

UglifyJS tries its best to achieve great compression while leaving the semantics of the code intact. In general, if your code logic is broken by UglifyJS then it's a bug in UglifyJS and you should report it and I should fix it. :-)

However, I opted to include the following potentially unsafe transformations as default behavior. Discussion is welcome, if you have ideas of how to handle this better, or any objections to these optimizations, please let me know.

*** Calls involving the global Array constructor

The following transformations occur:

#+BEGIN_SRC espresso new Array(1, 2, 3, 4) => [1,2,3,4] Array(a, b, c) => [a,b,c] new Array(5) => Array(5) new Array(a) => Array(a) #+END_SRC

These are all safe if the Array name isn't redefined. JavaScript does allow one to globally redefine Array (and pretty much everything, in fact) but I personally don't see why would anyone do that.

UglifyJS does handle the case where Array is redefined locally, or even globally but with a =function= or =var= declaration. Therefore, in the following cases UglifyJS doesn't touch calls or instantiations of Array:

#+BEGIN_SRC espresso // case 1. globally declared variable var Array; new Array(1, 2, 3); Array(a, b);

// or (can be declared later) new Array(1, 2, 3); var Array;

// or (can be a function) new Array(1, 2, 3); function Array() { ... }

// case 2. declared in a function (function(){ a = new Array(1, 2, 3); b = Array(5, 6); var Array; })();

// or (function(Array){ return Array(5, 6, 7); })();

// or (function(){ return new Array(1, 2, 3, 4); function Array() { ... } })();

// etc. #+END_SRC

** Usage

There is a helper script now --- =bin/uglifyjs= --- that uses the library to compress a script using the maximum compression settings. Synopsis:

#+BEGIN_SRC sh uglifyjs [ options... ] [ filename ] #+END_SRC

=filename= should be the last argument and should name the file from which to read the JavaScript code. If you don't specify it, it will read code from STDIN.

Supported options:

=-b= or =--beautify= --- output indented code; when passed, additional options control the beautifier:
- =-i N= or =--indent N= --- indentation level (number of spaces)
- =-q= or =--quote-keys= --- quote keys in literal objects (by default, only keys that cannot be identifier names will be quotes).
=-nm= or =--no-mangle= --- don't mangle variable names
=-ns= or =--no-squeeze= --- don't call =ast_squeeze()= (which does various optimizations that result in smaller, less readable code).
=-mt= or =--mangle-toplevel= --- mangle names in the toplevel scope too (by default we don't do this).
=--no-seqs= --- when =ast_squeeze()= is called (thus, unless you pass =--no-squeeze=) it will reduce consecutive statements in blocks into a sequence. For example, "a = 10; b = 20; foo();" will be written as "a=10,b=20,foo();". In various occasions, this allows us to discard the block brackets (since the block becomes a single statement). This is ON by default because it seems safe and saves a few hundred bytes on some libs that I tested it on, but pass =--no-seqs= to disable it.
=--no-dead-code= --- by default, UglifyJS will remove code that is obviously unreachable (code that follows a =return=, =throw=, =break= or =continue= statement and is not a function/variable declaration). Pass this option to disable this optimization.
=-nc= or =--no-copyright= --- by default, =uglifyjs= will keep the initial comment tokens in the generated code (assumed to be copyright information etc.). If you pass this it will discard it.
=-o filename= or =--output filename= --- put the result in =filename=. If this isn't given, the result goes to standard output (or see next one).
=--overwrite= --- if the code is read from a file (not from STDIN) and you pass =--overwrite= then the output will be written in the same file.
=--ast= --- pass this if you want to get the Abstract Syntax Tree instead of JavaScript as output. Useful for debugging or learning more about the internals.
=-v= or =--verbose= --- output some notes on STDERR (for now just how long each operation takes).
=--extra= --- enable additional optimizations that have not yet been extensively tested. These might, or might not, break your code. If you find a bug using this option, please report a test case.
=--unsafe= --- enable other additional optimizations that are known to be unsafe in some contrived situations, but could still be generally useful. For now only this:
- foo.toString() ==> foo+""

*** API

Symlink the lib directory as ~/.node_libraries/uglifyjs, so that the require calls in the following sample will work:

#+BEGIN_SRC espresso var jsp = require("uglifyjs/parse-js"); var pro = require("uglifyjs/process");

var orig_code = "... JS code here"; var ast = jsp.parse(orig_code); // parse code and get the initial AST ast = pro.ast_mangle(ast); // get a new AST with mangled names ast = pro.ast_squeeze(ast); // get an AST with compression optimizations var final_code = pro.gen_code(ast); // compressed code here #+END_SRC

The above performs the full compression that is possible right now. As you can see, there are a sequence of steps which you can apply. For example if you want compressed output but for some reason you don't want to mangle variable names, you would simply skip the line that calls =pro.ast_mangle(ast)=.

Some of these functions take optional arguments. Here's a description:

=jsp.parse(code, strict_semicolons)= -- parses JS code and returns an AST. =strict_semicolons= is optional and defaults to =false=. If you pass =true= then the parser will throw an error when it expects a semicolon and it doesn't find it. For most JS code you don't want that, but it's useful if you want to strictly sanitize your code.
=pro.ast_mangle(ast, do_toplevel)= -- generates a new AST containing mangled (compressed) variable and function names. By default it doesn't touch the names defined in the toplevel scope, but if you pass =true= as second argument it will compress them as well.
=pro.ast_squeeze(ast, options)= -- employs further optimizations designed to reduce the size of the code that =gen_code= would generate from the AST. Returns a new AST. =options= can be a hash; the supported options are:
- =make_seqs= (default true) which will cause consecutive statements in a block to be merged using the "sequence" (comma) operator
- =dead_code= (default true) which will remove unreachable code.
=pro.gen_code(ast, beautify)= -- generates JS code from the AST. By default it's minified, but if you pass =true= for the second argument it will be nicely formatted and indented. Additionally, you can control the behavior by passing a hash for =beautify=, where the following options are supported (below you can see the default values):
- =indent_start: 0= -- initial indentation in spaces
- =indent_level: 4= -- indentation level, in spaces (pass an even number)
- =quote_keys: false= -- if you pass =true= it will quote all keys in literal objects

*** Beautifier shortcoming -- no more comments

The beautifier can be used as a general purpose indentation tool. It's useful when you want to make a minified file readable. One limitation, though, is that it discards all comments, so you don't really want to use it to reformat your code, unless you don't have, or don't care about, comments.

In fact it's not the beautifier who discards comments --- they are dumped at the parsing stage, when we build the initial AST. Comments don't really make sense in the AST, and while we could add nodes for them, it would be inconvenient because we'd have to add special rules to ignore them at all the processing stages.

** Compression -- how good is it?

(XXX: this is somewhat outdated. On the jQuery source code we beat Closure by 168 bytes (560 after gzip) and by many seconds.)

There are a few popular JS minifiers nowadays -- the two most well known being the GoogleClosure (GCL) compiler and the YUI compressor. For some reason they are both written in Java. I didn't really hope to beat any of them, but finally I did -- UglifyJS compresses better than the YUI compressor, and safer than GoogleClosure.

I tested it on two big libraries. [[http://www.dynarchlib.com/][DynarchLIB]] is my own, and it's big enough to contain probably all the JavaScript tricks known to mankind. [[http://jquery.com/][jQuery]] is definitely the most popular JavaScript library (to some people, it's a synonym to JavaScript itself).

I cannot swear that there are no bugs in the generated codes, but they appear to work fine.

Compression results:

| Library | Orig. size | UglifyJS | YUI | GCL | |------------+------------+----------+----------------+------------------------| | DynarchLIB | 636896 | 241441 | 246452 (+5011) | 240439 (-1002) (buggy) | | jQuery | 163855 | 72006 | 79702 (+7696) | 71858 (-148) |

UglifyJS is the fastest to run. On my laptop UglifyJS takes 1.35s for DynarchLIB, while YUI takes 2.7s and GCL takes 6.5s.

GoogleClosure does a lot of smart ass optimizations. I had to strive really hard to get close to it. It should be possible to even beat it, but then again, GCL has a gazillion lines of code and runs terribly slow, so I'm not sure it worths spending the effort to save a few bytes. Also, GCL doesn't cope with =eval()= or =with{}= -- it just dumps a warning and proceeds to mangle names anyway; my DynarchLIB compiled with it is buggy because of this.

UglifyJS consists of ~1100 lines of code for the tokenizer/parser, and ~1100 lines for the compressor and code generator. That should make it very maintainable and easily extensible, so I would say it has a good place in this field and it's bound to become the de-facto standard JS minifier. And I shall rule the world. :-) Use it, and spread the word!

** Bugs?

Unfortunately, for the time being there is no automated test suite. But I ran the compressor manually on non-trivial code, and then I tested that the generated code works as expected. A few hundred times.

DynarchLIB was started in times when there was no good JS minifier. Therefore I was quite religious about trying to write short code manually, and as such DL contains a lot of syntactic hacks[1] such as “foo == bar ? a = 10 : b = 20”, though the more readable version would clearly be to use “if/else”.

Since the parser/compressor runs fine on DL and jQuery, I'm quite confident that it's solid enough for production use. If you can identify any bugs, I'd love to hear about them ([[http://groups.google.com/group/uglifyjs][use the Google Group]] or email me directly).

[1] I even reported a few bugs and suggested some fixes in the original [[http://marijn.haverbeke.nl/parse-js/][parse-js]] library, and Marijn pushed fixes literally in minutes.

** Links

Project at GitHub: [[http://github.com/mishoo/UglifyJS][http://github.com/mishoo/UglifyJS]]
Google Group: [[http://groups.google.com/group/uglifyjs][http://groups.google.com/group/uglifyjs]]
Common Lisp JS parser: [[http://marijn.haverbeke.nl/parse-js/][http://marijn.haverbeke.nl/parse-js/]]
JS-to-Lisp compiler: [[http://github.com/marijnh/js][http://github.com/marijnh/js]]
Common Lisp JS uglifier: [[http://github.com/mishoo/cl-uglify-js][http://github.com/mishoo/cl-uglify-js]]

** License

UglifyJS is released under the BSD license:

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

* Redistributions of source code must retain the above
  copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
  disclaimer.

* Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
  copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
  disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials
  provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. #+END_EXAMPLE

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Last updated on 09 Jan 2011

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