rCSSmin

rCSSmin is a free, open source, cross-platform and easy to use command-line utility implemented in Python and designed from the offset to be used for minifying CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) under Linux, Windows or Mac OS X platforms.

The software keeps strings, but strips escaped newlines, adds comments and space before and after stripping characters, as well as at the very end or at the very beginning. In addition, it adds an optional space after Unicode escapes are stored.

Features at a glance

The utility runs in text-mode, usable from any terminal emulator app, supports various CSS hacks (see the next paragraph for details), strips whitespaces inside url() definitions, srtips the last semicolon within a ruleset, and shrinks multiple and consecutive semicolons into a single one.

Supported CSS hacks include Mac-IE5 hack (/*\*/.../**/), IE7 hack (>/**/), boxmodelhack, IE6 space hack, which is inserted between :first-line/:first-letter and the following curly brace or comma.

Additionally, the program is capable of stripping the comments and space before or after various characters, such as :, {, }, ), ;, =>, +, ], or !, keeps a single space before the : colon if it is outside the ruleset, keeps an optional space after Unicode escapes, keeps the comments that start with an exclamation mark, and replaces whitespace characters or comments with a single space.

Getting started with rCSSmin

The good news is that the software can be used without installing it, straight from the source directory, simply by running the ‘python rcssmin.py ’ command in a terminal emulator, where must be replaced with the path to the css file you want to minify.

If you want to install it system wide, simply execute the ‘sudo python setup.py install’ command in the source dir. The application only requires Python to work and it’s compatible with computers supporting either of the 64-bit or 32-bit hardware architectures.

What is new in this release:

• Support for more CSS @-groups was added: @supports, @document, and @keyframes.
• This release also extends Python support to Python 3.4 and Jython 2.7.

Requirements:

• Python