remove-comments-cli

A fast and flexible CLI tool to remove comments from JavaScript/TypeScript files while preserving important ones.

Features

• 🚀 Fast and memory-efficient comment removal
• 💡 Preserve important comments using markers
• 🌟 Support for JavaScript, TypeScript, and JSX
• 🔍 Smart handling of strings, regex, and JSX syntax
• 📁 Process multiple files using glob patterns
• 🎯 Configurable output directory

Installation

npm install remove-comments-cli --save-dev

Usage

Basic Usage

Remove all comments from a file:

npx remove-comments input.ts > output.ts

Process multiple files using glob patterns:

npx remove-comments "src/**/*.{js,ts,jsx,tsx}" --outDir dist

Preserving Comments

By default, comments starting with ! are preserved:

// This comment will be removed
//! This important comment will be preserved
/* This block comment will be removed */
/*! This important block comment will be preserved */

You can specify custom markers:

# Preserve comments starting with # or *
npx remove-comments input.ts -k "#*" > output.ts

CLI Options

npx remove-comments --help

Options:
  -k, --keep-markers <chars>  Characters that mark comments to preserve (default: "!")
  -o, --outDir <dir>         Output directory for processed files
  -v, --verbose             Print detailed processing information
  -h, --help                Display help information

Examples

Process TypeScript files and preserve comments starting with ! or #:

npx remove-comments "src/**/*.ts" -k "!#" --outDir dist

Process JSX/TSX files and preserve comments starting with *:

npx remove-comments "src/**/*.{jsx,tsx}" -k "*" --outDir dist

Process a single file and output to stdout:

npx remove-comments input.js > output.js

Performance

The tool is optimized for performance and memory efficiency:

• ⚡ Processes ~1000 files/second on modern hardware
• 📉 Low memory footprint (~10MB for 1000 files)
• 🔄 Streaming file processing for large files
• 💻 Multi-threaded processing for large directories

Compatibility

Node.js Version	Support Status
20.x	✅ Full
18.x (LTS)	✅ Full
16.x	❌ Not supported

Tested on:

• Windows 10/11
• macOS 10.15+
• Ubuntu 20.04+

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. "Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory"

   • Check if the file paths are correct
   • Ensure glob patterns are quoted in the shell
   • Use forward slashes (/) even on Windows

2. "SyntaxError: Unexpected token"

   • Verify the input file is valid JavaScript/TypeScript
   • Check for malformed comments or JSX syntax
   • Try running with --verbose for more details

3. "Error: Cannot find module"

   • Run npm install remove-comments-cli again
   • Check Node.js version compatibility
   • Verify package.json dependencies

Debug Mode

Run with debug logging enabled:

DEBUG=remove-comments* npx remove-comments input.ts

Security

• No eval or dynamic code execution
• No external network calls
• Input validation for all file paths
• Safe handling of symbolic links

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our Contributing Guide for details.

License

MIT