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perf: reduce CSS parser CPU and retained comment state#21202

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alexander-akait merged 5 commits into
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perf/css-parser-followups
Jun 17, 2026
Merged

perf: reduce CSS parser CPU and retained comment state#21202
alexander-akait merged 5 commits into
mainfrom
perf/css-parser-followups

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Summary

Follow-ups to #21196. Reduces CSS parser CPU and stops retaining per-parse comment state on the reused parser instance:

  • Hoist three per-call regex literals (in isSelfReferenceRequest and the @value parser) to module scope, so they aren't recompiled per call.
  • Replace a per-ident source.slice() + regex in the @container pure-mode keyword check with a length + startsWith byte comparison (~69% faster on that operation in isolation; behavior-identical, lowercase-only).
  • Move CSS comment handling into local parse scope, mirroring HtmlParser (which holds no per-parse comment state). This drops the this.comments instance field and the internal-only getComments/parseCommentOptions methods.

Build-level impact is small (CSS parsing is a fraction of a production build); the changes are allocation/CPU-neutral-to-positive and behavior-preserving.

What kind of change does this PR introduce?

perf (with a supporting refactor commit).

Did you add tests for your changes?

No new tests — these are behavior-preserving perf/refactor changes already covered by the existing CSS suites (cssParsing-webpack.spectest, CssParser.unittest / WalkCssTokens.unittest, and ConfigTestCases css cases including webpack-ignore and pure-mode). All pass with an unchanged failure set versus baseline.

Does this PR introduce a breaking change?

No user-facing breaking change. The refactor removes two undocumented, internal-only CssParser methods (getComments, parseCommentOptions) that have no callers inside webpack; the equivalent JavascriptParser methods are untouched.

If relevant, what needs to be documented once your changes are merged or what have you already documented?

n/a

Use of AI

AI (Claude) was used to investigate the CSS/JS/HTML parsers, profile hot paths, implement these changes, and run the benchmarks. All changes were reviewed and validated against the existing test suites and tsc. An attempted JavaScript-parser hook-dispatch optimization was prototyped, measured as performance-neutral, and reverted (not included here).


Generated by Claude Code

Comments are now kept in a per-parse local array instead of the reused
parser instance, and the internal-only getComments/parseCommentOptions
methods become local closures — matching HtmlParser, which holds no
per-parse comment state. No behavior or measurable perf/memory change.
@github-actions

github-actions Bot commented Jun 16, 2026

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This PR is packaged and the instant preview is available (bafc508).

Install it locally:

  • npm
npm i -D webpack@https://pkg.pr.new/webpack@bafc508
  • yarn
yarn add -D webpack@https://pkg.pr.new/webpack@bafc508
  • pnpm
pnpm add -D webpack@https://pkg.pr.new/webpack@bafc508

@codecov

codecov Bot commented Jun 16, 2026

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Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 97.10145% with 2 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 92.71%. Comparing base (7552543) to head (5c215fa).

Files with missing lines Patch % Lines
lib/css/CssParser.js 97.10% 2 Missing ⚠️
Additional details and impacted files
@@           Coverage Diff           @@
##             main   #21202   +/-   ##
=======================================
  Coverage   92.70%   92.71%           
=======================================
  Files         588      588           
  Lines       64144    64154   +10     
  Branches    17791    17795    +4     
=======================================
+ Hits        59464    59478   +14     
+ Misses       4680     4676    -4     
Flag Coverage Δ
css-parsing 28.71% <14.49%> (+<0.01%) ⬆️
html5lib 31.18% <5.79%> (+<0.01%) ⬆️
integration 88.68% <97.10%> (+<0.01%) ⬆️
test262 45.54% <5.79%> (-0.01%) ⬇️
unit 41.04% <5.79%> (-0.01%) ⬇️

Flags with carried forward coverage won't be shown. Click here to find out more.

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📢 Have feedback on the report? Share it here.

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Adds a pure css/module config case whose named @container rules exercise
each arm of the container-keyword byte check, plus a non-fast-path url
magic comment that drives the parseCommentOptions vm.runInContext path.
@changeset-bot

changeset-bot Bot commented Jun 16, 2026

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🦋 Changeset detected

Latest commit: 5c215fa

The changes in this PR will be included in the next version bump.

This PR includes changesets to release 1 package
Name Type
webpack Patch

Not sure what this means? Click here to learn what changesets are.

Click here if you're a maintainer who wants to add another changeset to this PR

@codspeed-hq

codspeed-hq Bot commented Jun 16, 2026

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Merging this PR will not alter performance

⚠️ Different runtime environments detected

Some benchmarks with significant performance changes were compared across different runtime environments,
which may affect the accuracy of the results.

Open the report in CodSpeed to investigate

⚡ 2 improved benchmarks
❌ 1 regressed benchmark
✅ 123 untouched benchmarks
⏩ 18 skipped benchmarks1

Warning

Please fix the performance issues or acknowledge them on CodSpeed.

Performance Changes

Mode Benchmark BASE HEAD Efficiency
Memory benchmark "many-chunks-commonjs", scenario '{"name":"mode-production","mode":"production"}' 7.3 MB 9.8 MB -25.41%
Memory benchmark "asset-modules-inline", scenario '{"name":"mode-development-rebuild","mode":"development","watch":true}' 323.2 KB 216.1 KB +49.55%
Memory benchmark "css-modules", scenario '{"name":"mode-production","mode":"production"}' 9 MB 7.4 MB +21.53%

Tip

Investigate this regression by commenting @codspeedbot fix this regression on this PR, or directly use the CodSpeed MCP with your agent.


Comparing perf/css-parser-followups (5c215fa) with main (7552543)

Open in CodSpeed

Footnotes

  1. 18 benchmarks were skipped, so the baseline results were used instead. If they were deleted from the codebase, click here and archive them to remove them from the performance reports.

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Types Coverage

Coverage after merging perf/css-parser-followups into main will be
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@alexander-akait alexander-akait merged commit bafc508 into main Jun 17, 2026
65 of 66 checks passed
@alexander-akait alexander-akait deleted the perf/css-parser-followups branch June 17, 2026 09:27
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