acorn(1)

📦
version 8.17.0 · 4 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

🌸 acorn(1) — like, the manual page, bestie 🌸

okay so before we even get into it: this is the page for acorn, section 1 of the manual (that's the "user commands" section, iykyk). If you've ever needed to peek inside a JavaScript file and see what the parser actually thinks it is, this is your girl. ✨

💖 NAME 💖

acorn — parse a JavaScript file 🌈

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

acorn [--ecma3 | --ecma5 | --ecma6 | --ecma7 | ... | --ecma2015 |
      --ecma2016] [--tokenize] [--locations] [--allow-hash-bang]
      [--compact] [--silent] [--module] [--help] [--] [infile]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

acorn is a lil command-line utility that parses a JavaScript file for you. That's it, that's the whole vibe. 💅

You hand it your input file as an argument, and the utility spits out the syntax tree as JSON data. No cap. Straight-up JSON, right there in your terminal, ready to be piped into whatever nonsense you're building. 👑

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • --ecma3, --ecma5, --ecma6, --ecma7, ..., --ecma2015, --ecma2016 — picks which ECMAScript version to parse with. The default is version 7, so if you say nothing, you get 7. Iconic default honestly. ⭐
  • --tokenize — flips on tokenizer mode of the parser. Not the full tree, just the tokens. 🍓
  • --locations — this one's a baddie fr. It attaches a "loc" object to each node, with "start" and "end" sub-objects, and each of those contains the one-based line and zero-based column numbers, in {line, column} form. Yes bestie, one-based lines but zero-based columns. That's just how it is. 💀
  • --allow-hash-bang — if you enable this, it skips the leading hashbang line. For all my script-with-a-#!-on-top girlies. 🫶
  • --compact — no whitespace is used in the AST output. Tiny output, zero breathing room, maximum density. 🔥
  • --silent — do not output the AST at all. It just returns the exit status. Quiet queen behaviour. 🤫
  • --module — tells acorn the code shouldn't be parsed as a script, but as a module instead. Heads up, this actually changes things: it influences global strict mode and the 'import' and 'export' declarations. So like, not a cosmetic flag, it's giving real consequences. 👀
  • --help — prints the usage information and quits. Your lil escape hatch when you're lost. 🙈
🧚 lil reminder bestie: there's a bare -- in the synopsis, and it's not decorative — use it to mark the end of options before your infile.
💜 Also: the positional arg is infile, aka the JavaScript file you want parsed. Don't forget to actually give it one.

okay so that's the whole page!! go parse something slay. 💖✨

signing off: this was acorn(1) — from the acorn manual, dated 1782392480. mwah, talk later bestie 🎀💅

📦 where this page comes from