Source Maps

Sentry supports un-minifying JavaScript via Source Maps. This lets you view source code context obtained from stack traces in their original untransformed form, which is is particularly useful for debugging minified code (e.g. UglifyJS), or transpiled code from a higher-level language (e.g. TypeScript, ES6).

Generating a Source Map

Most modern JavaScript transpilers support source maps. Below are instructions for some common tools.

UglifyJS

UglifyJS is a popular tool for minifying your source code for production. It can dramatically reduce the size of your files by eliminating whitespace, rewriting variable names, removing dead code branches, and more.

If you are using UglifyJS to minify your source code, the following command will additionally generate a source map that maps the minified code back to the original source:

node_modules/uglify-js/bin/uglifyjs {input} \
  --source-map-root={relroot}/ \
  --source-map-url={name}.map.js \
  --source-map={relpath}/{name}.map.js \
  --source-map-include-sources \
  -o {output}

Webpack

Webpack is a powerful build tool that resolves and bundles your JavaScript modules into files fit for running in the browser. It also supports many different “loaders” which can convert higher-level languages like TypeScript and ES6/ES2015 into browser-compatible JavaScript.

Webpack can be configured to output source maps by editing webpack.config.js.

module.exports = {
    // ... other config above ...
    entry: {
      "app": "src/app.js"
    },
    output: {
      path: path.join(__dirname, 'dist'),
      filename: "[name].js",
      sourceMapFilename: "[name].map.js",
    }
};

SystemJS

SystemJS is the default module loader for Angular 2 projects. The SystemJS build tool can be used to bundle, transpile, and minify source code for use in production environments, and can be configured to output source maps.

builder.bundle('src/app.js', 'dist/app.min.js', {
    minify: true,
    sourceMaps: true,
    sourceMapContents: true
});

Inline Sources

All of the example configurations above inline your original, un-transformed source files into the generated source map file. Sentry requires both source map(s) and your original source files in order to perform reverse transformations. If you choose NOT to inline your source files, you must make those source files available to Sentry in addition to your source maps (see below).

Making Source Maps Available to Sentry

Source maps can be either:

  1. Served publicly over HTTP alongside your source files.
  2. Uploaded directly to Sentry (recommended).

Hosting Source Map Files

By default, Sentry will look for source map directives in your compiled JavaScript files, which are located on the last line and have the following format:

//# sourceMappingURL=<url>

When Sentry encounters such a directive, it will resolve the source map URL relative the source file in which it is found, and attempt an HTTP request to fetch it.

So for example if you have a minified JavaScript file located at http://example.org/js/app.min.js. And in that file, on the last line, the following directive is found:

//# sourceMappingURL=app.map.js

Sentry will attempt to fetch app.map.js from http://example.org/js/app.map.js.

Alternatively, during source map generation you can specify a fully qualified URL where your source maps are located:

//# sourceMappingURL=http://example.org/js/app.map.js

While making source maps available to Sentry from your servers is the easiest integration, it is not always advisable:

  • Sentry may not always be able to reach your servers.
  • If you do not specify versions in your asset URLs, there may be a version mismatch
  • The additional latency may mean that source mappings are not available for all errors.

For these reasons, it is recommended to upload source maps to Sentry beforehand (see below).

Working Behind a Firewall

While the recommended solution is to upload your source artifacts to Sentry, sometimes it’s necessary to allow communication from Sentry’s internal IPs. For more information on Sentry’s public IPs, ip-ranges.

Uploading Source Maps to Sentry

In many cases your application may sit behind firewalls or you simply can’t expose source code to the public. Sentry provides an abstraction called Releases which you can attach source artifacts to.

The release API is intended to allow you to store source files (and sourcemaps) within Sentry. This removes the requirement for them to be web-accessible, and also removes any inconsistency that could come from network flakiness (on either your end, or Sentry’s end).

You can either interact with the API directly or you can upload sourcemaps with the help of the Sentry CLI (Using Sentry CLI).

  • Start by creating a new authentication token under [Account] > API.
  • Ensure you you have project:write selected under scopes.
  • You’ll use the Authorization header with the value of Bearer: {TOKEN} with API requests.

Now you need to setup your build system to create a release, and attach the various source files. You will want to upload all dist files (i.e. the minified/shipped JS), the referenced sourcemaps, and the files that those sourcemaps point to.

# Create a new release
$ curl https://app.getsentry.com/api/0/projects/:organization_slug/:project_slug/releases/ \
  -X POST \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer {TOKEN}' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json'
  -d '{"version": "2da95dfb052f477380608d59d32b4ab9"}' \

{
  "dateCreated": "2015-03-06T04:51:32.723Z",
  "version": "2da95dfb052f477380608d59d32b4ab9"
}

When uploading the file, you’ll need to reference it just as it would be referenced if a browser (or filesystem) had to resolve its path. So for example, if your sourcemap reference is just a relative path, it’s relative to the location of the referencing file.

So for example, if you have http://example.com/app.min.js, and the file contains the reference to app.map.js, the name of the uploaded file should be http://example.com/app.map.js.

# Upload a file for the given release
$ curl https://app.getsentry.com/api/0/projects/:organization_slug/:project_slug/releases/2da95dfb052f477380608d59d32b4ab9/files/ \
  -X POST \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer {TOKEN}' \
  -F file=@app.js.map \
  -F name="http://example.com/app.js.map"

{
  "dateCreated": "2015-03-06T04:53:00.308Z",
  "headers": {
    "Content-Type": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  "id": "1",
  "name": "http://example.com/app.js.map",
  "sha1": "22591348ed129fe016c535654f6493737f0f9df6",
  "size": 452
}
# If you make a mistake, you can also simply clear out the release
$ curl https://app.getsentry.com/api/0/projects/:organization_slug/:project_slug/releases/2da95dfb052f477380608d59d32b4ab9/ \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer {TOKEN}' \
  -X DELETE

Additionally, you’ll need to configure the client to send the release:

Raven.config({
    release: '2da95dfb052f477380608d59d32b4ab9'
});

Note: You dont have to upload the source files (ref’d by sourcemaps), but without them the grouping algorithm will not be as strong, and the UI will not show any contextual source.

Additional information can be found in the Releases API documentation.

Assets Accessible at Multiple Origins

It’s not uncommon for a web application to be accessible at multiple origins. For example:

  • Website is operable over both https and http
  • Geolocated web addresses: e.g. https://us.example.com, https://eu.example.com
  • Multiple static CDNs: e.g. https://static1.example.com, https://static2.example.com
  • Customer-specific domains/subdomains

In this situation, identical JavaScript and source map files may be located at two or more distinct origins. If you are dealing with such a deployment, you have two choices for naming your uploaded artifacts:

  1. Upload the same artifact multiple times with each possible URL where it appears, for example:

  2. Alternatively, you can omit the protocol + host and use a special tilde (~) prefixed path like so:

    ~/js/app.js

The ~ prefix tells Sentry that for a given URL, any combination of protocol and hostname whose path is /js/app.js should use this artifact. ONLY use this method if your source/sourcemap files are identical at all possible protocol/hostname combinations. Note that Sentry will prioritize full URLs over tilde prefixed paths if found.

Using Sentry CLI

You can also use the Sentry sentry-cli to manage releases and sourcemaps on Sentry. If you have it installed you can create releases with the following command:

$ sentry-cli releases -o MY_ORG -p MY_PROJECT new 2da95dfb052f477380608d59d32b4ab9

After you have run this, you can use the files command to automatically add all javascript files and sourcemaps below a folder. They are automatically prefixed with a URL or your choice:

$ sentry-cli releases -o MY_ORG -p MY_PROJECT files \
  2da95dfb052f477380608d59d32b4ab9 upload-sourcemaps --url-prefix \
  https://mydomain.invalid/static /path/to/assets

Assets Accessible at Multiple Origins

If you leave out the --url-prefix parameter the paths will be prefixed with ~/ automatically to support multi origin behavior.

All files that end with .js and .map below /path/to/assets are automatically uploaded to the release 2da95dfb052f477380608d59d32b4ab9 in this case. If you want to use other extensions you can provide it with the --ext parameter.

Validating Sourcemaps with Sentry CLI

Unfortunately it can be quite challenging to ensure that sourcemaps are actually valid themselves and uploaded correctly. To ensure that everything is working as intended you can use the –validate flag when uploading sourcemaps which will attempt to locally parse the sourcemap and look up the references. Note that there are known cases where the validate flag will indicate failures when the setup is correct (if you have references to external sourcemaps then the validation tool will indicate a failure).

Here are some things you can check in addition to the validation step:

  • Make sure that the URL prefix is correct for your files. This is easy to get wrong.
  • Make sure you upload the matching sourcemaps for your minimized files.
  • Make sure that your minified files you have on your servers actually have references to your files.

Troubleshooting

Source maps can sometimes be tricky to get going. If you’re having trouble, try the following tips.

Verify your source maps are built correctly

We maintain an online validation tool that can be used to test your source (and sourcemaps) against: sourcemaps.io.

Alternatively, if you are using Sentry CLI to upload source maps to Sentry, you can use the –validate command line option to verify your source maps are correct.

Verify sourceMappingURL is present

Some CDNs automatically strip comments from static files, including JavaScript files. This can have the effect of stripping your JavaScript file of its sourceMappingURL directive, because it is considered a comment. For example, CloudFlare has a feature called Auto-Minify which will strip sourceMappingURL if it is enabled.

Double-check that your deployed, final JavaScript files have sourceMappingURL present.

Verify artifact names match sourceMappingURL

When uploading source maps to Sentry, you must name your source map files with the same name found in sourceMappingURL.

For example, if you have the following in a minified application file, app.min.js:

//-- end app.min.js
//# sourceMappingURL=https://example.com/dist/js/app.min.js.map

Sentry will look for a matching artifact named exactly https://example.com/dist/js/app.min.js.map.

Note also that Sentry will resolve relative paths. For example, if you have the following:

// -- end app.min.js (located at https://example.com/dist/js/app.min.js)
//# sourceMappingURL=app.min.js.map

Sentry will resolve sourceMappingURL relative to https://example.com/dist/js/ (the root path from which app.min.js was served). You will again need to name your source map with the full URL: https://example.com/dist/js/app.min.js.map.

If you serve the same assets from multiple origins, you can also alternatively use our tilde (~) path prefix to ignore matching against protocol + hostname. In which case, ~/dist/js/app.min.js.map, will also work. See: Assets Accessible at Multiple Origins.

Verify artifacts are uploaded before errors occur

Sentry expects that source code and source maps in a given release are uploaded to Sentry before errors occur in that release.

If you upload artifacts after an error is captured by Sentry, Sentry will not go back and retroactively apply any source annotations to those errors. Only new errors triggered after the artifact was uploaded will be affected.

Verify your source files are not too large

For an individual artifact, Sentry accepts a max filesize of 20 MB.

Often users hit this limit because they are transmitting source files at an interim build stage. For example, after Webpack/Browserify has combined all your source files, but before minification has taken place. If possible, send the original source files.