Comment Remover (commenter)

A performant CLI tool that safely removes single-line comments from source code files.

Features

• Safe comment removal: Only removes single-line comments that are not part of multi-line comments or inside string literals
• Multiple language support: TypeScript/JavaScript, Go, SQL, and JSON
• Performance optimized: Fast file processing with minimal memory usage
• Preview mode: See what would be removed before making changes
• Smart file filtering: Respects .gitignore and .commenterignore files
• Flexible exclusion: Use --exclude flag for runtime pattern exclusion

Supported Languages

| Language | Extensions | Single-line Comment | | --------------------- | ---------------------------- | ------------------- | | TypeScript/JavaScript | .ts, .tsx, .js, .jsx | // | | Go | .go | // | | SQL | .sql | -- | | JSON | .json | // | | PHP | .php, .phtml | // | | C# | .cs | // |

Installation

Via npm/bun (recommended)

The tool automatically downloads the latest pre-built binary from GitHub releases for your platform.

# Install globally with npm
npm install -g @ur-wesley/commenter

# Or use with npx (no installation required - auto-downloads binary)
npx @ur-wesley/commenter <file/path>

# Or use with bun
bun add -g @ur-wesley/commenter
bunx @ur-wesley/commenter <file/path>  # Auto-downloads binary

# Or install locally and use with bun run
bun add @ur-wesley/commenter
bun run commenter <file/path>

Via Go (build from source)

go install github.com/ur-wesley/commentRemover@latest

Manual Installation

1. Download the binary from GitHub releases
2. Add to your PATH
3. Or build from source: go build -o commenter .

Usage

# Preview what comments would be removed (default behavior)
commenter <file/path>

# Process a directory (non-recursive)
commenter src/

# Process a directory recursively
commenter -r project/
commenter --recursive project/        # Long flag

# Actually remove comments and update files
commenter --write <file/path>
commenter -w <file/path>              # Short flag
commenter -w -r src/                  # Write changes recursively

# Remove single-line multi-line comments (e.g., /* comment */)
commenter --remove-single-multiline <file/path>
commenter -m <file/path>              # Short flag

# Exclude files with patterns
commenter -e "*test.go,*.min.js" src/  # Exclude test and minified files
commenter --exclude "*.spec.js" .      # Exclude spec files

# Ignore comments with specific patterns
commenter -i "@ts-ignore,@deprecated" src/  # Ignore comments containing these patterns
commenter --ignore-pattern "TODO,FIXME" .   # Ignore TODO and FIXME comments

# Disable colored output
commenter --no-color <file/path>
commenter -nc <file/path>             # Short flag

# Show help
commenter --help
commenter -h                          # Short flag

Examples

# Preview comment removal
commenter example.go
commenter src/components/Button.tsx

# Apply changes to file
commenter --write example.go
commenter -w src/components/Button.tsx    # Short flag

# Use with npm runners
npx @ur-wesley/commenter -w src/utils/helper.ts
bunx @ur-wesley/commenter -nc build/output.sql       # Short flag for no-color

# Use with bun run (when installed locally)
bun run commenter -w src/utils/helper.ts
bun run commenter -nc build/output.sql

# Exclude test files and minified files
commenter -e "*test.go,*.min.js" src/
commenter -w -e "*.spec.js" project/

# Ignore specific comment patterns
commenter -i "@ts-ignore,@deprecated" src/
commenter -w -i "TODO,FIXME" project/

# Combine flags for efficiency
commenter -w -nc large-file.sql           # Write with no colors
commenter -m src/file.js                  # Remove single-line multi-line comments
commenter -i "@ts-ignore" src/file.ts     # Ignore TypeScript ignore comments

What gets removed

✅ Removes:

• Standalone comment lines (e.g., // This is a comment)
• Inline comments (e.g., code(); // comment)
• Multiple consecutive single-line comments
• Single-line multi-line comments (e.g., /* comment */)

❌ Preserves:

• Multi-line comments (/* ... */)
• Comments inside string literals ("string with // comment")
• Single-line comments inside multi-line comment blocks

File Filtering

The tool respects ignore files and patterns:

• .gitignore: Standard Git ignore patterns
• .commenterignore: Tool-specific ignore patterns (same syntax as .gitignore)
• --exclude flag: Runtime glob patterns (e.g., --exclude "*test.go,*.min.js")

If both .gitignore and .commenterignore exist, both are respected (union of rules).

Adding Support for New File Types

See EXTENDING.md for detailed instructions on adding support for new programming languages.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.