CHANGELOG.md

Changelog

Unreleased

• Delete output files when a build fails in watch mode (#3643)

  It has been requested for esbuild to delete files when a build fails in watch mode. Previously esbuild left the old files in place, which could cause people to not immediately realize that the most recent build failed. With this release, esbuild will now delete all output files if a rebuild fails. Fixing the build error and triggering another rebuild will restore all output files again.

• Fix correctness issues with the CSS nesting transform (#3620, #3877, #3933, #3997, #4005, #4037, #4038)

  This release fixes the following problems:

  • Naive expansion of CSS nesting can result in an exponential blow-up of generated CSS if each nesting level has multiple selectors. Previously esbuild sometimes collapsed individual nesting levels using :is() to limit expansion. However, this collapsing wasn't correct in some cases, so it has been removed to fix correctness issues.

    /* Original code */
    .parent {
      > .a,
      > .b1 > .b2 {
        color: red;
      }
    }
    
    /* Old output (with --supported:nesting=false) */
    .parent > :is(.a, .b1 > .b2) {
      color: red;
    }
    
    /* New output (with --supported:nesting=false) */
    .parent > .a,
    .parent > .b1 > .b2 {
      color: red;
    }

    Thanks to @tim-we for working on a fix.

  • The & CSS nesting selector can be repeated multiple times to increase CSS specificity. Previously esbuild ignored this possibility and incorrectly considered && to have the same specificity as &. With this release, this should now work correctly:

    /* Original code (color should be red) */
    div {
      && { color: red }
      & { color: blue }
    }
    
    /* Old output (with --supported:nesting=false) */
    div {
      color: red;
    }
    div {
      color: blue;
    }
    
    /* New output (with --supported:nesting=false) */
    div:is(div) {
      color: red;
    }
    div {
      color: blue;
    }

    Thanks to @CPunisher for working on a fix.

  • Previously transforming nested CSS incorrectly removed leading combinators from within pseudoclass selectors such as :where(). This edge case has been fixed and how has test coverage.

    /* Original code */
    a b:has(> span) {
      a & {
        color: green;
      }
    }
    
    /* Old output (with --supported:nesting=false) */
    a :is(a b:has(span)) {
      color: green;
    }
    
    /* New output (with --supported:nesting=false) */
    a :is(a b:has(> span)) {
      color: green;
    }

    This fix was contributed by @NoremacNergfol.

  • The CSS minifier contains logic to remove the & selector when it can be implied, which happens when there is only one and it's the leading token. However, this logic was incorrectly also applied to selector lists inside of pseudo-class selectors such as :where(). With this release, the minifier will now avoid applying this logic in this edge case:

    /* Original code */
    .a {
      & .b { color: red }
      :where(& .b) { color: blue }
    }
    
    /* Old output (with --minify) */
    .a{.b{color:red}:where(.b){color:#00f}}
    
    /* New output (with --minify) */
    .a{.b{color:red}:where(& .b){color:#00f}}

• Fix incorrect package for @esbuild/netbsd-arm64 (#4018)

  Due to a copy+paste typo, the binary published to @esbuild/netbsd-arm64 was not actually for arm64, and didn't run in that environment. This release should fix running esbuild in that environment (NetBSD on 64-bit ARM). Sorry about the mistake.

• Fix esbuild incorrectly rejecting valid TypeScript edge case (#4027)

  The following TypeScript code is valid:

  export function open(async?: boolean): void {
    console.log(async as boolean)
  }

  Before this version, esbuild would fail to parse this with a syntax error as it expected the token sequence async as ... to be the start of an async arrow function expression async as => .... This edge case should be parsed correctly by esbuild starting with this release.

• Transform BigInt values into constructor calls when unsupported (#4049)

  Previously esbuild would refuse to compile the BigInt literals (such as 123n) if they are unsupported in the configured target environment (such as with --target=es6). The rationale was that they cannot be polyfilled effectively because they change the behavior of JavaScript's arithmetic operators and JavaScript doesn't have operator overloading.

  However, this prevents using esbuild with certain libraries that would otherwise work if BigInt literals were ignored, such as with old versions of the buffer library before the library fixed support for running in environments without BigInt support. So with this release, esbuild will now turn BigInt literals into BigInt constructor calls (so 123n becomes BigInt(123)) and generate a warning in this case. You can turn off the warning with --log-override:bigint=silent or restore the warning to an error with --log-override:bigint=error if needed.

• Change how console API dropping works (#4020)

  Previously the --drop:console feature replaced all method calls off of the console global with undefined regardless of how long the property access chain was (so it applied to console.log() and console.log.call(console) and console.log.not.a.method()). However, it was pointed out that this breaks uses of console.log.bind(console). That's also incompatible with Terser's implementation of the feature, which is where this feature originally came from (it does support bind). So with this release, using this feature with esbuild will now only replace one level of method call (unless extended by call or apply) and will replace the method being called with an empty function in complex cases:

  // Original code
  const x = console.log('x')
  const y = console.log.call(console, 'y')
  const z = console.log.bind(console)('z')
  
  // Old output (with --drop-console)
  const x = void 0;
  const y = void 0;
  const z = (void 0)("z");
  
  // New output (with --drop-console)
  const x = void 0;
  const y = void 0;
  const z = (() => {
  }).bind(console)("z");

  This should more closely match Terser's existing behavior.

• Allow BigInt literals as define values

  With this release, you can now use BigInt literals as define values, such as with --define:FOO=123n. Previously trying to do this resulted in a syntax error.

• Emit /* @__KEY__ */ for string literals derived from property names (#4034)

  Property name mangling is an advanced feature that shortens certain property names for better minification (I say "advanced feature" because it's very easy to break your code with it). Sometimes you need to store a property name in a string, such as obj.get('foo') instead of obj.foo. JavaScript minifiers such as esbuild and Terser have a convention where a /* @__KEY__ */ comment before the string makes it behave like a property name. So obj.get(/* @__KEY__ */ 'foo') allows the contents of the string 'foo' to be shortened.

  However, esbuild sometimes itself generates string literals containing property names when transforming code, such as when lowering class fields to ES6 or when transforming TypeScript decorators. Previously esbuild didn't generate its own /* @__KEY__ */ comments in this case, which means that minifying your code by running esbuild again on its own output wouldn't work correctly (this does not affect people that both minify and transform their code in a single step).

  With this release, esbuild will now generate /* @__KEY__ */ comments for property names in generated string literals. To avoid lots of unnecessary output for people that don't use this advanced feature, the generated comments will only be present when the feature is active. If you want to generate the comments but not actually mangle any property names, you can use a flag that has no effect such as --reserve-props=., which tells esbuild to not mangle any property names (but still activates this feature).

• The text loader now strips the UTF-8 BOM if present (#3935)

  Some software (such as Notepad on Windows) can create text files that start with the three bytes 0xEF 0xBB 0xBF, which is referred to as the "byte order mark". This prefix is intended to be removed before using the text. Previously esbuild's text loader included this byte sequence in the string, which turns into a prefix of \uFEFF in a JavaScript string when decoded from UTF-8. With this release, esbuild's text loader will now remove these bytes when they occur at the start of the file.

• Omit legal comment output files when empty (#3670)

  Previously configuring esbuild with --legal-comment=external or --legal-comment=linked would always generate a .LEGAL.txt output file even if it was empty. Starting with this release, esbuild will now only do this if the file will be non-empty. This should result in a more organized output directory in some cases.

• Update Go from 1.23.1 to 1.23.5 (#4056, #4057)

  This should have no effect on existing code as this version change does not change Go's operating system support. It may remove certain reports from vulnerability scanners that detect which version of the Go compiler esbuild uses.

  This PR was contributed by @MikeWillCook.

• Minification now avoids inlining constants with direct eval (#4055)

  Direct eval can be used to introduce a new variable like this:

  const variable = false
  ;(function () {
    eval("var variable = true")
    console.log(variable)
  })()

  Previously esbuild inlined variable here (which became false), which changed the behavior of the code. This inlining is now avoided, but please keep in mind that direct eval breaks many assumptions that JavaScript tools hold about normal code (especially when bundling) and I do not recommend using it. There are usually better alternatives that have a more localized impact on your code. You can read more about this here: https://esbuild.github.io/link/direct-eval/

2024

All esbuild versions published in the year 2024 (versions 0.19.12 through 0.24.2) can be found in CHANGELOG-2024.md.

2023

All esbuild versions published in the year 2023 (versions 0.16.13 through 0.19.11) can be found in CHANGELOG-2023.md.

2022

All esbuild versions published in the year 2022 (versions 0.14.11 through 0.16.12) can be found in CHANGELOG-2022.md.

2021

All esbuild versions published in the year 2021 (versions 0.8.29 through 0.14.10) can be found in CHANGELOG-2021.md.

2020

All esbuild versions published in the year 2020 (versions 0.3.0 through 0.8.28) can be found in CHANGELOG-2020.md.