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html-minifier

(★ 142)

Fast command-line HTML minifier — works on any HTML, with special support for Razor and Web Forms views. Parallel processing, safe preservation of <pre>/<code>/Knockout blocks, and easy MSBuild/CI integration.

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Download Latest Version (.zip)

- - dotnet-desktop.yml
- copilot-instructions.md
- settings.json
- - reporting.png
- index.html
- - 65K.txt
  - 65KResult.txt
  - Arabic.txt
  - ArabicResult.txt
  - Comments.txt
  - CommentsResult.txt
  - Encoding.txt
  - GithubIssue10.txt
  - GithubIssue10Result.txt
  - GithubIssue13.txt
  - GithubIssue13Result.txt
  - GithubIssue54.txt
  - GithubIssue54Result.txt
  - LanguageSpecificCharacters.txt
  - LanguageSpecificCharactersResult.txt
  - ModelList.txt
  - ModelListResult.txt
  - Standard.txt
  - StandardResult.txt
- - AssemblyInfo.cs
- app.config
- ArgumentsTests.cs
- DataHelpers.cs
- EdgeCaseTests.cs
- FileExtensionTests.cs
- HelpAndVersionTests.cs
- HtmlMinifier.Tests.csproj
- MinificationTests.cs
- packages.config
- PerformanceBenchmarkTests.cs
- HtmlMinifier.exe
- HtmlMinifier.exe.config
- - AssemblyInfo.cs
- App.config
- ConsoleReporter.cs
- EncodingHelper.cs
- Features.cs
- HtmlMinifier.csproj
- Program.cs
- StreamReaderExtension.cs
- StringExtension.cs
.gitattributes
.gitignore
CHANGELOG.md
HtmlMinifier.sln
LICENSE.md
README.md
test_sample.html

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# HTML Minifier

![Github Actions Status](https://github.com/deanhume/html-minifier/actions/workflows/dotnet-desktop.yml/badge.svg)
[![License: MIT](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-MIT-blue.svg)](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/deanhume/html-minifier/master/LICENSE.md)

A fast and efficient command-line tool to minify your HTML, Razor views, and Web Forms views. Reduce file sizes, improve load times, and deliver a better user experience by removing unnecessary whitespace and comments from your HTML files.

## ✨ Features

- 🚀 **Fast Processing** - Minifies files and entire directory trees quickly with parallel processing
- ⚡ **Parallel Processing** - Utilizes all CPU cores for maximum performance (4-8x faster on multi-core systems)
- 📊 **Beautiful Reporting** - Comprehensive statistics with progress tracking and professional visual presentation
- 📁 **Flexible Input** - Process individual files, specific folders, or entire directory structures
- ⚙️ **Configurable** - Control line length and selectively disable minification features
- 🔧 **Framework Support** - Special handling for Knockout.js, Angular, and other comment-dependent frameworks
- 🎯 **Targeted Minification** - Choose what to minify: HTML comments, JavaScript comments, or Knockout comments
- 🛡️ **Safe Minification** - Preserves content inside `<pre>`, `<textarea>`, and `<code>` tags, and normalises attribute whitespace
- 🔄 **CI/CD Ready** - Easy integration with MSBuild and build pipelines

## 📊 Beautiful Reporting

Every run finishes with a clear, colour-coded summary - per-file savings plus overall compression, throughput, and elapsed time:

<img src="docs/images/reporting.png" alt="HTML Minifier console reporting output showing per-file savings and a minification summary" width="400">

## 📦 Installation

1. Download the latest release from the [releases page](https://github.com/deanhume/html-minifier/releases)
2. Extract the `HtmlMinifier.exe` to your desired location
3. Add the tool to your PATH or reference it directly

## 🚀 Quick Start

Transform verbose HTML into compact, optimized code:

### Before:

```html
<h2>
    Admin Menu</h2>
<ul>
    <li>@Html.ActionLink("Edit blog entries", "List", "Admin")</li>
    <li>@Html.ActionLink("View Comments", "CommentList", "Admin")</li>
    <li>@Html.ActionLink("Clear Cache", "ClearCache", "Admin")</li>
</ul>
```

### After:

```html
<h2> Admin Menu</h2><ul><li>@Html.ActionLink("Edit blog entries", "List", "Admin")</li><li>@Html.ActionLink("View Comments", "CommentList", "Admin")</li><li>@Html.ActionLink("Clear Cache", "ClearCache", "Admin")</li></ul>
```

## 📖 Usage

### Getting Help

View all available options:

```bash
HtmlMinifier.exe --help
```

Check the version:

```bash
HtmlMinifier.exe --version
```

### Basic Usage

Minify all HTML files in a folder (including subfolders):

```bash
HtmlMinifier.exe "C:\Folder"
```

### Advanced Options

#### Limit Line Length

Restrict the maximum number of characters per line:

```bash
HtmlMinifier.exe "C:\Folder" "60000"
```

#### Preserve Comments

For frameworks that rely on HTML comments (Angular, Knockout, etc.), preserve them:

```bash
HtmlMinifier.exe "C:\Folder" ignorehtmlcomments
```

#### Preserve JavaScript Comments

Keep JavaScript comments in your code:

```bash
HtmlMinifier.exe "C:\Folder" ignorejscomments
```

#### Preserve Knockout Comments

Specifically preserve [Knockout.js](http://knockoutjs.com/) comments:

```bash
HtmlMinifier.exe "C:\Folder" ignoreknockoutcomments
```

### Multiple Targets

#### Minify Multiple Folders

```bash
HtmlMinifier.exe "C:\Folder\fld1" "C:\Folder\fld2"
```

#### Minify Specific Files

```bash
HtmlMinifier.exe "C:\Folder\file1.html" "C:\Folder\file2.html"
```

## 🔨 Build Integration

Integrate HTML Minifier into your build process for automatic minification during deployment. Check out this [detailed guide on using HTML Minifier with MSBuild](https://deanhume.com/a-simple-html-minifier-for-asp-net/).

## 🛡️ What Gets Preserved

The following content is never altered by minification:

- **`<pre>`, `<textarea>`, `<code>` tags** — internal whitespace is kept exactly as-is
- **IE conditional comments** — ``, and `` patterns are all preserved
- **`#include` virtual comments** — ASP.NET server-side includes are left intact
- **Knockout comments** — `` / `` are preserved when `ignoreknockoutcomments` is set
- **Razor declarations** — `@model`, `@using`, `@inherits` are kept and correctly re-arranged
- **Attribute values** — content inside quotes is preserved; leading/trailing whitespace is normalised

## 🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

## 📝 Requirements

- .NET Framework (Windows)
- Supports HTML, Razor (.cshtml), and Web Forms (.aspx) files

## 📄 License

Copyright (C) Dean Hume 2013 - 2026

Released under the [MIT License](LICENSE.md)

---

**Made with ❤️ by [Dean Hume](https://deanhume.com)**