Remove console.log() Statements from Production JavaScript Apps

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This post presumes that you use modern JavaScript with Babel transpiler.

The Good Parts

console.log() statements are really handy tools for JavaScript development. We can easily track our app’s execution and peek its states.

The Bad Parts

They can cause serious performance issues in applications especially when accidentally left in render logics. It is also risky to log sensitive data on the console in production such as passwords, keys, etc.

Solution

Install babel plugin

npm install babel-plugin-transform-remove-console --save

Edit .babelrc file

{
  "env": {
    "production": {
      "plugins": ["transform-remove-console"]
    }
  }
}

You are done

console.log() statements no longer exist in your transpiled codebase therefore do not cause performance issues nor flood the console in production.

Read more

React Native docs: https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/performance.html#using-consolelog-statements

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