Overview

When you install pyminifier it should automatically add a ‘pyminifier’ executable to your $PATH. This executable has a number of command line arguments:

$ pyminifier --help
Usage: pyminifier [options] "<input file>"

Options:
--version             show program's version number and exit
-h, --help            show this help message and exit
-o <file path>, --outfile=<file path>
                      Save output to the given file.
-d <file path>, --destdir=<file path>
                      Save output to the given directory. This option is
                        required when handling multiple files. Defaults to
                        './minified' and will be created if not present.
--nominify            Don't bother minifying (only used with --pyz).
--use-tabs            Use tabs for indentation instead of spaces.
--bzip2               bzip2-compress the result into a self-executing python
                        script.  Only works on stand-alone scripts without
                        implicit imports.
--gzip                gzip-compress the result into a self-executing python
                        script.  Only works on stand-alone scripts without
                        implicit imports.
--lzma                lzma-compress the result into a self-executing python
                        script.  Only works on stand-alone scripts without
                        implicit imports.
--pyz=<name of archive>.pyz
                      zip-compress the result into a self-executing python
                        script. This will create a new file that includes any
                        necessary implicit (local to the script) modules.
                        Will include/process all files given as arguments to
                        pyminifier.py on the command line.
-O, --obfuscate       Obfuscate all function/method names, variables, and
                        classes.  Default is to NOT obfuscate.
--obfuscate-classes   Obfuscate class names.
--obfuscate-functions
                      Obfuscate function and method names.
--obfuscate-variables
                      Obfuscate variable names.
--obfuscate-import-methods
                      Obfuscate globally-imported mouled methods (e.g.
                        'Ag=re.compile').
--obfuscate-builtins  Obfuscate built-ins (i.e. True, False, object,
                        Exception, etc).
--replacement-length=1
                      The length of the random names that will be used when
                        obfuscating identifiers.
--nonlatin            Use non-latin (unicode) characters in obfuscation
                        (Python 3 only).  WARNING: This results in some
                        SERIOUSLY hard-to-read code.
--prepend=<file path>
                      Prepend the text in this file to the top of our
                        output.  e.g. A copyright notice.

For the examples below we’ll be minifying, obfuscating, and compressing the following totally made-up Python script (saved to /tmp/tumult.py):

#!/usr/bin/env python
"""
tumult.py - Because everyone needs a little chaos every now and again.
"""

try:
    import demiurgic
except ImportError:
    print("Warning: You're not demiurgic. Actually, I think that's normal.")
try:
    import mystificate
except ImportError:
    print("Warning: Dark voodoo may be unreliable.")

# Globals
ATLAS = False # Nothing holds up the world by default

class Foo(object):
    """
    The Foo class is an abstract flabbergaster that when instantiated
    represents a discrete dextrogyratory inversion of a cattywompus
    octothorp.
    """
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        """
        The initialization vector whereby the ineffiably obstreperous
        becomes paramount.
        """
        # TODO.  BTW: What happens if we remove that docstring? :)

    def demiurgic_mystificator(self, dactyl):
        """
        A vainglorious implementation of bedizenment.
        """
        inception = demiurgic.palpitation(dactyl) # Note the imported call
        demarcation = mystificate.dark_voodoo(inception)
        return demarcation

    def test(self, whatever):
        """
        This test method tests the test by testing your patience.
        """
        print(whatever)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    print("Forming...")
    f = Foo("epicaricacy", "perseverate")
    f.test("Codswallop")

By default pyminifier will perform basic minification and print the resulting code to stdout:

$ pyminifier /tmp/tumult.py
#!/usr/bin/env python
try:
 import demiurgic
except ImportError:
 print("Warning: You're not demiurgic. Actually, I think that's normal.")
try:
 import mystificate
except ImportError:
 print("Warning: Dark voodoo may be unreliable.")
ATLAS=False
class Foo(object):
 def __init__(self,*args,**kwargs):
  pass
 def demiurgic_mystificator(self,dactyl):
  inception=demiurgic.palpitation(dactyl)
  demarcation=mystificate.dark_voodoo(inception)
  return demarcation
 def test(self,whatever):
  print(whatever)
if __name__=="__main__":
 print("Forming...")
 f=Foo("epicaricacy","perseverate")
 f.test("Codswallop")
# Created by pyminifier.py

This reduced the size of tumult.py from 1358 bytes to 640 bytes. Not bad!

Minifying by itself can reduce code size considerably but pyminifier can go further by obfuscating the code. What that means is that it will replace the names of things like variables and functions to the smallest possible size.

To see more examples of pyminifier in action (e.g. compression features) see the full documentation

Special Sauce

So let’s pretend for a moment that your intentions are not pure; that you totally want to mess with the people that look at your minified code. What you need is Python 3 and the --nonlatin option…

#!/usr/bin/env python3
ܗ=ImportError
ܡ=print
ܪ=False
ٽ=object
try:
 import demiurgic
except ܗ:
ܡ("Warning: You're not demiurgic. Actually, I think that's normal.")
try:
 import mystificate
except ܗ:
ܡ("Warning: Dark voodoo may be unreliable.")
ܬ=ܪ
class ظ(ٽ):
 def __init__(self,*args,**kwargs):
  pass
 def ط(self,dactyl):
ټ=demiurgic.palpitation(dactyl)
  ⶹ=mystificate.dark_voodoo(ټ)
  return ⶹ
 def ܘ(self,whatever):
ܡ(whatever)
if __name__=="__main__":
ܡ("Forming...")
 f=ظ("epicaricacy","perseverate")
 f.test("Codswallop")
# Created by pyminifier.py

Yes, that code actually works but only using Python 3. This is because Python 3 supports coding in languages that use non-latin character sets.

There’s even more ways to mess with people in the full documentation