CSS Strip

6 May, 2008

Summary

CSS Strip is a simple Windows command line application to remove comments and extra whitespace from CSS files. I use it in a batch file to process the deployment of a large web application with about a thousand lines of code across several CSS files.

Download

Strip.zip 3KB

Requires Windows and .NET Framework 3.5.

Extract the .exe file. Put it somewhere and it to the Windows path variable or put it in the folder you will run it from. I have it in a folder with a batch file I use to copy the web application then run Strip and some other tools on the copy.

Example

Command

C:\Strip input.css output.css

input.css

/* Comment */



body { background: black;
color: white;

}

/******************
Multi
line
comment
******************/

div p   { color: #eeeeee; !important }

output.css

body { background: black;color: white;}
div p { color: #eeeeee; !important }

Batch file

Here is how you could use it in a batch file to optimize all the CSS files in a folder:

@echo off
FOR %%f IN (*.css) DO (
 Strip.exe %%f %%f.temp
 move %%f.temp %%f
)

Just paste it into an empty text file and give the file a .bat extension. I use similar code in a larger batch file as one step of several.

Notes

No matter what optimization tool you use, you should start by writing efficient CSS.
I wrote CSS Strip because even on the lowest setting, CSSTidy would break my styles. Example: It would "fix" my carefully placed !impotant rules.
CSS Strip will break comment-based CSS hacks. But you shouldn't be using hacks anyway. Cool kids make IE-specific CSS files using conditional comments.
CSS Strip does not compress, sort, or validate. All it does is remove comments, remove extra whitespace, and make your document one line per rule, one rule per line.
Because of that, YUI Compressor or the aforementioned Tidy are likely better choices if they work for you. Personally I don't find they do that much extra if you have efficient code.
My goal is not ultimate file size reduction. My goal is to reap the benefits of nicely commented and organized CSS files in my dev code without punishing my users. And it has to be command line. And it has to completely leave my rule order and content alone.
I prefer Mac. This was needed for a Windows app therefore it is a Windows app. If you want to make a version for another OS let me know (see link at bottom of page) and I'll send you the source code.
Strip.exe FCIV checksum x807f7342a331ea2087a4d33ae0c7a8b

License and disclaimer

Download and use this for free. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License which means you can use it for pretty much anything.

I offer no support, guarantees, or warrantee. Use at your own peril. All I can say is it works for me.