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
• Usage
  • Via API
  • Via remark-cli
  • Via unified configuration
• API
• Examples
• Related
• Contributing and Support
  • Contributors

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].

Related

• 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.

Contributors

See the table of contributors.