NAME

    CSS::Minifier::XS - XS based CSS minifier

SYNOPSIS

      use CSS::Minifier::XS qw(minify);
      my $css      = '...';
      my $minified = minify($css);

DESCRIPTION

    CSS::Minifier::XS is a CSS "minifier"; its designed to remove
    unnecessary whitespace and comments from CSS files, while also not
    breaking the CSS.

    CSS::Minifier::XS is similar in function to CSS::Minifier, but is
    substantially faster as its written in XS and not just pure Perl.

METHODS

    minify($css)

      Minifies the given $css, returning the minified CSS back to the
      caller.

HOW IT WORKS

    CSS::Minifier::XS minifies the CSS by removing unnecessary whitespace
    from CSS documents. Comment blocks are also removed, except when (a)
    they contain the word "copyright" in them, or (b) they're needed to
    implement the "Mac/IE Comment Hack".

    Internally, the minification is done by taking multiple passes through
    the CSS document:

 Pass 1: Tokenize

    First, we go through and parse the CSS document into a series of tokens
    internally. The tokenizing process does not check to make sure that
    you've got syntactically valid CSS, it just breaks up the text into a
    stream of tokens suitable for processing by the subsequent stages.

 Pass 2: Collapse

    We then march through the token list and collapse certain tokens down
    to their smallest possible representation. If they're still included in
    the final results we only want to include them at their shortest.

    Whitespace

      Runs of multiple whitespace characters are reduced down to a single
      whitespace character. If the whitespace contains any "end of line"
      (EOL) characters, then the end result is the first EOL character
      encountered. Otherwise, the result is the first whitespace character
      in the run.

    Comments

      Comments implementing the "Mac/IE Comment Hack" are collapsed down to
      the smallest possible comment that would still implement the hack
      ("/*\*/" to start the hack, and "/**/" to end it).

    Zero Units

      Zero Units (e.g. 0px) are reduced down to just "0", as the CSS
      specification indicates that the unit is not required when its a zero
      value.

 Pass 3: Pruning

    We then go back through the token list and prune and remove unnecessary
    tokens.

    Whitespace

      Wherever possible, whitespace is removed; before+after comment
      blocks, and before+after various symbols/sigils.

    Comments

      Comments that either (a) are needed to implement the "Mac/IE Comment
      Hack", or that (b) contain the word "copyright" in them are
      preserved. All other comments are removed.

    Symbols/Sigils

      Semi-colons that are immediately followed by a closing brace (e.g.
      ";}") are removed; semi-colons are needed to separate multiple
      declarations, but aren't required at the end of a group.

    Everything else

      We keep everything else; identifiers, quoted literal strings,
      symbols/sigils, etc.

 Pass 4: Re-assembly

    Lastly, we go back through the token list and re-assemble it all back
    into a single CSS string, which is then returned back to the caller.

AUTHOR

    Graham TerMarsch (cpan@howlingfrog.com)

COPYRIGHT

    Copyright (C) 2007-, Graham TerMarsch. All Rights Reserved.

    This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
    the same license as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO

    CSS::Minifier.