Remark-remove-unused-definitions NPM

remark-remove-unused-definitions

This is a unified (remark) plugin that removes unused reference definitions from a document. Also removes unused GFM footnotes definitions.

While you can get a similar effect by running something like the following:

remark -o --use inline-links --use reference-links your-markdown-file.md

Such a naive approach will destroy all of your carefully considered alphanumeric reference ids (e.g. the "alphanumeric-id" in [text][alphanumeric-id])! This plugin only elides unused reference definitions, leaving the rest intact.

Install

Due to the nature of the unified ecosystem, this package is ESM only and cannot be require'd.

npm install --save-dev remark-remove-unused-definitions

Usage

Via API

import { read } from 'to-vfile';
import { remark } from 'remark';
import remarkRemoveUnusedDefs from 'remark-remove-unused-definitions';

const file = await remark()
  .use(remarkRemoveUnusedDefs)
  .process(await read('example.md'));

console.log(String(file));

Via remark-cli

remark -o --use remove-unused-definitions README.md

Via unified configuration

In package.json:

  /* … */
  "remarkConfig": {
    "plugins": [
      "remark-remove-unused-definitions"
      /* … */
    ]
  },
  /* … */

In .remarkrc.js:

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    // …
    'remove-unused-definitions'
  ]
};

In .remarkrc.mjs:

import remarkRemoveUnusedDefs from 'remark-remove-unused-definitions';

export default {
  plugins: [
    // …
    remarkRemoveUnusedDefs
  ]
};

API

Detailed interface information can be found under docs/.

Examples

Suppose we have the following Markdown file example.md:

# Documentation

This [package][1] is [more than][2nd-half-idiom] meets the eye.

## Install [remark][8]

…

[1st-half-idiom]: https://meme-link-1
[2nd-half-idiom]: https://meme-link-2
[1]: https://npm.im/some-package
[2]: #install
[3]: #usage
[4]: #api
[5]: #related
[6]: #contributing-and-support
[7]: #contributors
[8]: https://npm.im/remark

Then running the following JavaScript:

import { read } from 'to-vfile';
import { remark } from 'remark';
import remarkRemoveUnusedDefs from 'remark-remove-unused-definitions';

const file = await remark()
  .use(remarkRemoveUnusedDefs)
  .process(await read('example.md'));

console.log(String(file));

Would output the following (assuming remark is configured for tight references):

# Documentation

This [package][1] is [more than][2nd-half-idiom] meets the eye.

## Install [remark][8]

…

[2nd-half-idiom]: https://meme-link-2
[1]: https://npm.im/some-package
[8]: https://npm.im/remark

Now all the unused definitions have been deleted. Nice!

Finally, notice how those numeric reference definition ids are not contiguous: instead of [1] and [2] it's [1] and [8]. Luckily, there exists a remark plugin that will ensure numeric reference ids flow through the document in ascending order starting from [1].

remark-reference-links — transform inline links into reference-style links.
remark-renumber-references — contiguously renumber numeric reference-style link ids starting from [1].
remark-sort-definitions — logically reorder reference definitions at the bottom of your document.

Contributing and Support

New issues and pull requests are always welcome and greatly appreciated! 🤩 Just as well, you can star 🌟 this project to let me know you found it useful! ✊🏿 Thank you!

See CONTRIBUTING.md and SUPPORT.md for more information.