Script Parser
Introduction
Knip parses scripts to find additional dependencies and entry files in various places:
- In
package.json
- In specific
config
files - In source code
Any shell script Knip finds is read and statically analyzed, but not executed.
package.json
The main
, bin
, exports
and scripts
fields may contain entry files. Let’s
take a look at this example:
From this example, Knip automatically adds the following files as entry files:
index.js
./dist/index.mjs
./dist/index.cjs
bin/cli.js
src/entry.ts
server.ts
By the way, Knip would not add the exports
if the dist
folder is matching a
pattern in a relevant .gitignore
file or ignore
option.
Scripts parsing
When parsing scripts
entry of package.json
, knip
also detects as dependencies parameters that follow -r
, --require
or --loader
. This is done to correctly detect usage of, say, dotenv
or tsconfig-paths
packages.
Plugins
Some plugins also use the script parser to extract entry files and dependencies from commands. A few examples:
- GitHub Actions: workflow files may contain
run
commands (e.g..github/workflows/ci.yml
) - Husky & Lefthook: Git hooks such as
.git/hooks/pre-push
contain scripts; alsolefthook.yml
hasrun
commands - Lint Staged: configuration values are all commands
- Nx: task executors and
nx:run-commands
executors inproject.json
contains scripts - Release It:
hooks
contain commands
Source Code
When Knip is walking the abstract syntax trees (ASTs) of JavaScript and TypeScript source code files, it looks for imports and exports. But there’s a few more (rather obscure) things that Knip detects in the process. Below are examples of additional scripts Knip parses to find entry files and dependencies.
execa
If the execa
dependency is imported in source code, Knip considers the
contents of $
template tags to be scripts:
Parsing the script results in hydrate.js
added as an entry file and the c8
dependency as referenced.
zx
If the zx
dependency is imported in source code, Knip considers the contents
of $
template tags to be scripts:
This will add scripts/parse.js
as an entry file.
ISC License © 2024 Lars Kappert