When we use css-sprites it's important to make browser cache them for longest period possible. On other hand, we need to refresh them when they are updated. This is especially visible when all icons are stored in single sprite. When it's outdated - entire site becomes ugly.
To solve this task I've implemented this small script that adds file's hash to url:
background-image: url(images/icons.png);
background-image: url(images/icons.png?a3844c660);
#!/usr/bin/python
import os.path
import re
import hashlib
def file_hash(filename, block_size=2**20):
md5 = hashlib.md5()
with open(filename, 'rb') as f:
for data in iter(lambda: f.read(block_size), ''):
md5.update(data)
return md5.hexdigest()
def find_replace(match, basedir):
match = match.replace("'", '')
if '?' in match or '#' in match or match.startswith('http://'):
print 'skipping: ', match
return None
filename = os.path.join(basedir, match)
return '%s?%s' % (match, file_hash(filename)[:10])
def insert_hash(filename, debug=False):
basedir = os.path.dirname(filename)
css = open(filename).read()
matches = re.findall(r"url\((.*?)\)", css)
replacements = dict([
(match, find_replace(match, basedir))
for match in matches
])
if debug:
for key, value in replacements.iteritems():
print key, ' => ', value
else:
for match, repl in replacements.iteritems():
if repl:
css = css.replace(match, repl)
out = open(filename, 'w')
out.write(css)
out.close()
if __name__ == '__main__':
from optparse import OptionParser
usage = 'usage: %prog filename.css'
parser = OptionParser(usage=usage)
parser.add_option("", "--debug", action="store_true", dest="debug", default=False,
help="When set, just output list of substitutions.")
(options, args) = parser.parse_args()
if len(args) < 1:
print 'You must provide file name.'
insert_hash(os.path.realpath(args[0]), options.debug)
This is pretty old article. Now it's better to use something integrated to your build process - grunt, webassets, etc.