CSS::Minifier(3pm)

💖 CSS::Minifier — the perl manual page, but make it make sense 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because this is CSS::Minifier(3pm) — a User Contributed Perl Documentation page and honestly? it's giving tiny-but-mighty. it's a Perl extension for minifying CSS. that's the whole vibe. no cap. 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

CSS::Minifier — Perl extension for minifying CSS. literally that's it. that's the girl. 💅

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

so like, there are three ways to do this and all of them slay, let's go.

minify a CSS file and write the output straight into another file:

use CSS::Minifier qw(minify);
open(INFILE, 'myStylesheet.css') or die;
open(OUTFILE, 'myStylesheet.css') or die;
minify(input => *INFILE, outfile => *OUTFILE);
close(INFILE);
close(OUTFILE);

minify a CSS string literal. 🦋 and here's the tea: if you leave out the outfile parameter, the minified code comes back to you as a string instead. yes ma'am, return value.

my minifiedCSS = minify(input => 'div {font-family: serif;}');

slap a copyright comment at the top of the minified code:

minify(input => 'div {font-family: serif;}', copyright => 'BSD License');

and the rules of the game: the input parameter is mandatory (no skipping it, it's the main character). output and copyright are optional and you can mix and match them however you want. any combination. go off. 🌈

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so what does this module actually do? it removes unnecessary whitespace from CSS. periodt.

the primary requirement when this module was being developed was: do not break working stylesheets. if working CSS goes in, working CSS comes out. that's the promise, bestie. 🤝 the Mac/Internet Explorer comment hack gets minimized but not stripped, so it keeps on functioning like nothing happened.

now, the nitty gritty on whitespace, because this part is important:

this module understands these characters to be whitespace:

• space
• horizontal tab
• new line
• carriage return
• form feed

any other characters that some people might consider whitespace? not minimized. nope. those other characters include:

• paragraph separator
• vertical tab

so don't come for it about those, it said what it said. 💀

for static CSS files, the recommendation is: minify during the build stage of web deployment. clean, efficient, iconic. but if you're minifying on-the-fly, it might be a good idea to cache the minified file, because minifying static files on-the-fly over and over again is just wasteful. not the vibe. don't do that. 🫶

🌸 EXPORT 🌸

none by default, bestie. none.

exportable on demand: minify()

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

this project is developed using an SVN repository. wanna check it out? here's the line, exactly as it is:

svn co http://dev.michaux.ca/svn/random/CSS-Minifier

and you may also be interested in the JavaScript::Minifier module, also available on CPAN. sibling energy. 👑

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✨ AUTHORS ✨

Peter Michaux, <petermichaux@gmail.com>

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✨ COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE ✨

Copyright (C) 2007 by Peter Michaux

this library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.6 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.

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okay that's the whole page, you're fully caught up, go minify something and be free. 💜

and that's a wrap on CSS::Minifier(3pm), from perl v5.36.0, dated 2022-11-30 — mwah, bye bestie! 💖✨