babel-plugin-debug

this plugin replaces debug-statements with environment related if-statements which can be garbage-collected by minifiers

how it works

example:

debug: {
    // log something for development
}

will be converted to

if(process.env.DEBUG === 'true') {
    // log something for development
}

so, when the transpiled code is run, the code block will only be executed when run the environment variable DEBUG is set.

use with webpack

when used with webpack you can use the webpack.DefinePlugin to pass the DEBUG variable

plugins: [
    new webpack.DefinePlugin({
      'process.env': {
        'DEBUG': `"${process.env.DEBUG}"`
      }
    })
  ]
  

example

debug: {
    // log something for development
}

and webpack is run with

DEBUG=true webpack

this yields the following output:

if(true) {
    // log something for development
}

which then can be collected by minifiers

when webpack is run with

webpack

then this yields the following output

if(false) {
    // log something for development
}

where as then the whole block will be thrown to trash by minifiers

little extra: named debugs

sometimes you want to give scopes to your debug statements so you can do the following:

debug_myblock: {
    // some debug
}

then you can enable these with the following

DEBUG=myblock webpack

this generates the following JS

if(process.env.DEBUG === 'true' || process.env.DEBUG === 'myblock') {

}

NOTE: all scopes are enabled when used with DEBUG=true (obviously)