Explain sourcemaps

Please define sourcemap, describe in your own words the purpose/value of sourcemaps, demonstrate this with a real world example and elaborate further where-ever you see fit. Thank you.

Comments

[Ben Halpern]

When we write the code (often JavaScript in this case), we create a source. The source code looks the way we first input it.

But when we serve the code, often we don't want to send the "source" code to the end user, we send a compressed version. Things like "UglifyJS" turn the code we write, changing all the variables into single letter vars and remove all the whitespace in the file. What we end up is code that behaves the same way but is shipped to the end use in fewer bytes. This means faster webpages. Overall we try to send as little data as possible if we can help it.

mishoo / UglifyJS

JavaScript parser / mangler / compressor / beautifier toolkit

UglifyJS 3

UglifyJS is a JavaScript parser, minifier, compressor and beautifier toolkit.

Note:

• uglify-js supports JavaScript and most language features in ECMAScript.
• For more exotic parts of ECMAScript, process your source file with transpilers like Babel before passing onto uglify-js.
• uglify-js@3 has a simplified API and CLI that is not backwards compatible with uglify-js@2.

Install

First make sure you have installed the latest version of node.js (You may need to restart your computer after this step).

From NPM for use as a command line app:

npm install uglify-js -g

From NPM for programmatic use:

npm install uglify-js

Command line usage

uglifyjs [input files] [options]

UglifyJS can take multiple input files. It's recommended that you pass the input files first, then pass the options. UglifyJS will parse input files in sequence and apply any compression options. The files are parsed in the same global scope, that is, a reference…

View on GitHub

We also use transpilers such babelJS, which let us write more "modern" javascript features and compile them into code which works across all browsers, even the older ones.

babel / babel

🐠 Babel is a compiler for writing next generation JavaScript.

The compiler for writing next generation JavaScript

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Intro

Babel is a tool that helps you write code in the latest version of JavaScript. When your supported environments don't support certain features natively, Babel will help you compile those features down to a supported version.

In

// ES2020 nullish coalescing
function greet(input) {
  return input ?? "Hello world";
}

Out

function greet(input)

…

View on GitHub

But what happens if we ever want to go back in the other direction, perhaps to debug? Now we have to map the compressed or compiled code back to the source. It's a series of instructions that can help turn things back into source code if we need it. If a sourcemap is created, there's probably an associated tool that knows how to interpret the sourcemap.

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I think that's the gist, if anyone thinks I made a mistake, let me know!

[John Alcher]

Hi ben! I'm slightly confused: what kind of situation is that where you need to debug and you only have an uglified version of your code, and not the original source?

[Pert Soomann]

It's when something good wrong on production sure, but your code has been minified to one line, very hard to figure out what's going on when error is on Line 1.

Not sure if chrome's new pretty print option for source files will fix that tho now?

[Ben Halpern]

I’m not sure the whole landscape but I’m pretty sure there are tools that allow deciphering prod bugs in this way, and I feel like there are also uses for this mapping in CSS -> SASS land.

But not really my expertise, perhaps someone else will jump in and give a better explanation.

[Adam Charron]

I tried to reply to this comments parent but can only see some text that says “thread” where the reply should be so I’m replying here.

Chromes pretty print is still not enough. I’m unsure if the latest dev tools could point to the correct line or not, but it would still likely not matter.

If you pretty print a single line compiled file, there will still be multiple things wrong while debugging such as

• what was the original file called (and the line it) before the file went through a module bundler or concatenation.
• What was the name of of the variable or function? Uglify probably reduced down to only 1 or 2 letters.
• What was the syntax of the original code? Transpires like Babel or typescript concert new syntax into old syntax. Play around on the Babel transformer a bit to see what type of code actually gets emitted. babeljs.io/repl/ some transforms like a sync/await look totally foreign when transpiled.

[jakebman]

You'll have an issue on a browser that doesn't support your code as-is (spread syntax, for example).

The code in the debugger is not your code - it's the foreign code. You can have your own code, but you have to step through this stripped-down code.

Unless your source is mapped, you won't know what code you're actually stepping through.

[Jochem Stoel]

Loud and clear. Thanks, Ben!