A script for finding the smallest lossless encoding of a PNG or GIF input image (that I know of).

sisyphus.sh

#!/usr/bin/env -S unshare --pid --mount-proc --kill-child --map-root-user /bin/sh

# Licensed under the Zero-Clause BSD terms: https://opensource.org/license/0bsd
## Requires pngquant, oxipng, gifsicle, gif2apng, and optionally libwebp &
## perl-image-exiftool


## -C: Fail if redirects try to overwrite an existing file.
## -e: Fail if any command fails (with exceptions).
## -u: Fail if an unset variable tries to be expanded.
## -f: No glob expansion.
set -Ceuf


perr() { printf "\033[1m\033[31m%b\033[0;39m" "$1" >&2; }
pquit() { perr "$1"; exit 1; }
pstat() { printf "\033[1m\033[34m%b\033[0;39m\033[1m%b\033[0;39m" "$1" "$2"; }

## `kill` handles background jobs, but `exit` is required for normal processes
trap 'kill "$$"; exit 1' INT


help() {
	cat << "HELP"
Usage: sisyphus [OPTION]... SRC DEST
Losslessly optimise PNGs & GIFs by all known means.

If DEST is omitted, DEST is set to '{SRC wo/ext}.new.ext'. Possible output formats
include: PNG, GIF, WEBP, and APNG.

Options:
 -a, --all-oxi <bool>	Optionally takes a boolean value. Controls whether to always,
			or never, try all OxiPNG variations. If unset, heuristically
			determine whether to try every OxiPNG variation.
 -f, --force		Overwrite existing destination files.
 -n, --no-webp		Never optimise with CWebP.
 -s, --size <int>	Takes an integer (bytes). Sets the minimum qualifying size.
			If this size isn't met or surpassed, DEST is not created.

 -h, --help		Display this help message, and then exit.

Warning:
HDR SRC images will NOT be losslessly optimised!
HELP

	exit 0
}




# Setup a private tmpfs for this script to use, which is what 'unshare' is for.
## 'nr_inodes' must be >= to 'max number of files + 1'
mount -t tmpfs -o nosuid,nodev,noexec,size=50%,nr_inodes=1349 sisyphus /tmp ||
	pquit "Failed to overmount '/tmp/'!\n"




# Argument parsing
ALL_OXI=""
SIZE=""
FORCE=""
NO_WEBP=""
SKIP=""
ARG_COUNT="0"
while [ "$ARG_COUNT" -lt "$#" ]; do
	if [ -z "$SKIP" ]; then
		case "$1" in
			-a|--all-oxi)
				case "${2:-""}" in
					0|no|false) ALL_OXI="0"; shift ;;
					1|yes|true) ALL_OXI="1"; shift ;;
					*) ALL_OXI=1 ;;
				esac
				;;
			-s|--size)
				case "${2:-""}" in
					[0-9]*) SIZE="$2"; shift ;;
					*) pquit "No positive integer was given for '-s|--size'!\n" ;;
				esac
				;;
			-f|--force) FORCE="1" ;;
			-n|--no-webp) NO_WEBP="1" ;;
			-h|--help) help	;;
			--) SKIP="1" ;;
			-*) pquit "'$1' is not a known option!\n" ;;
			*) set -- "$@" "$1"; ARG_COUNT="$(( ARG_COUNT + 1 ))" ;;
		esac

		else set -- "$@" "$1"; ARG_COUNT="$(( ARG_COUNT + 1 ))"
	fi

	shift
done


## Validate arguments

# `[ cond ] && cmd` will carry over non-zero exit codes, so always use `||`
[ "$#" -le 2 ] || pquit "Too many arguments given!\n"

# Don't try WebP if `libwebp` isn't installed
command -v cwebp >/dev/null || NO_WEBP=1




### SRC
src_real="${1:?$(pquit "No source image file given!\n")}"
[ -s "$src_real" ] || pquit "'$src_real' is not a non-empty file!\n"

## Assign the SRC a file descriptor
exec 3<"$src_real"
src="/proc/self/fd/3"
src_real="$(realpath -- "$src_real")"


## Size detection
find_size() {
	if [ -f "$1" ]; then
			wc -c <"$1" || pquit "Failed to find size of '$1'!\n"
		else
			printf "99999999999999"
	fi
}

src_size="$(find_size "$src")"
if [ -n "$SIZE" ]; then
	OLD_SIZE="$SIZE"

	## Strip leading zeros, and avoid integer overflow
	SIZE="$(printf "%s" "$SIZE" | sed "s/^0*//")"

	## '0' would be trimmed to nothing by `sed`, so reset it
	SIZE="${SIZE:-0}"

	printf "%d" "$SIZE" >/dev/null 2>&1 ||
		pquit "The value given for '-s|--size', '$OLD_SIZE', is not an integer!\n"

	[ "$SIZE" -eq "$(printf "%s" "$SIZE" | cut -c -12)" ] ||
		pquit "The value given for '-s|--size', '$OLD_SIZE', is over the integer limit!\n"
fi


## Mimetype detection
mime="$(
	file -Lib -- "$src" ||
		pquit "Couldn't determine mimetype of '$src_real'!\n"
)"

mime="${mime%;*}"




### DEST
dest_path="${2:-""}"
dest_path="${dest_path%.*}"
dest_path="${dest_path:-${src_real%.*}.new}"
dest_path="$(realpath -- "$dest_path")"

dest_exists() {
	[ -z "$FORCE" ] || return 0

	## Allow globbing & unset-variables for just this for-loop
	set +fu

	for similar in "$1"*; do
		if [ -e "$similar" ] && [ "${similar%.*}" = "$1" ]; then
			perr "'$similar' shares a filename with '$1'!\n"
			return 1
		fi
	done

	set -fu
}

dest_exists "$dest_path" || exit 1


pstat "Input:\t\t\t" "$src_real  \033[37m($mime)\033[0;39m\n"
pstat "Output template:\t" "${dest_path}.???\n"
[ -z "$SIZE" ] || pstat "Size target:\t\t" "${SIZE} bytes\n"




## Misc variables
delimiter="> "




# Optimisation

keep_if_smaller() {
	## Truncate '$file' to retain its perceived size, without allocating
	## any real blocks to it, if it can't meet the requirement
	file="$1"
	req1="$2"
	req2="$3"

	if [ ! -f "$file" ]; then
		perr "'$file' was truncated, but, it didn't originally exist!\n"
		return 1
	fi

	if [ "$req1" -lt "$req2" ]; then
		file_size="$(find_size "$file")"
		truncate --size=0 "$file"
		truncate --size="$file_size" "$file"
	fi
}


## In case of PNG
run_oxi() {
	## The '$oxi_safe' variable controls APNG mode
	oxi_src="$oxi_perm_src"
	oxi_ext="$1"
	oxi_dest="${2}.${3:+"a"}png"
	oxi_safe="${3:-""}"

	## Pass arguments 4 and beyond as-is to `oxipng` to avoid word splitting
	shift 3

	if ! oxipng "$@" --opt max --strip "${oxi_safe:-"all"}" --alpha \
		--out "$oxi_dest" -- "$oxi_src" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
			perr "Passing '$oxi_src' through 'oxipng' ($oxi_ext) failed!\n"
			return 1
	fi

	oxi_dest_size="$(find_size "$oxi_dest")"
	keep_if_smaller "$oxi_dest" \
			"$smallest_known" "$oxi_dest_size"
}


oxi_permutations() {
	# Try every permutation of `--[nb,nc,ng,np]`
	oxi_perm_src="$1"
	oxi_perm_ext="$2"
	oxi_perm_dest="$3"
	oxi_perm_safe="${4:-""}"

	shift 4

	## Skip `--zc=12` without extra options (it already exists for the
	## heuristic that was tested earlier)
	if [ "$*" != "--zc=12" ] ||
	   [ "$oxi_perm_src" = "${src_quant:-""}" ]; then
		run_oxi "$oxi_perm_ext" \
			"${oxi_perm_dest}${oxi_perm_ext}" \
			"$oxi_perm_safe" \
			"$@"
	fi

	run_oxi "$oxi_perm_ext + nb" \
		"${oxi_perm_dest}${oxi_perm_ext} + nb" \
		"$oxi_perm_safe" \
		"$@" --nb

	run_oxi "$oxi_perm_ext + nb + nc" \
		"${oxi_perm_dest}${oxi_perm_ext} + nb + nc" \
		"$oxi_perm_safe" \
		"$@" --nb --nc

	run_oxi "$oxi_perm_ext + nb + ng" \
		"${oxi_perm_dest}${oxi_perm_ext} + nb + ng" \
		"$oxi_perm_safe" \
		"$@" --nb --ng

	run_oxi "$oxi_perm_ext + nb + np" \
		"${oxi_perm_dest}${oxi_perm_ext} + nb + np" \
		"$oxi_perm_safe" \
		"$@" --nb --np

	run_oxi "$oxi_perm_ext + nb + nc + ng" \
		"${oxi_perm_dest}${oxi_perm_ext} + nb + nc + ng" \
		"$oxi_perm_safe" \
		"$@" --nb --nc --ng

	run_oxi "$oxi_perm_ext + nb + nc + np" \
		"${oxi_perm_dest}${oxi_perm_ext} + nb + nc + np" \
		"$oxi_perm_safe" \
		"$@" --nb --nc --np

	run_oxi "$oxi_perm_ext + nb + ng + np" \
		"${oxi_perm_dest}${oxi_perm_ext} + nb + ng + np" \
		"$oxi_perm_safe" \
		"$@" --nb --ng --np

	run_oxi "$oxi_perm_ext + nb + nc + ng + np" \
		"${oxi_perm_dest}${oxi_perm_ext} + nb + nc + ng + np" \
		"$oxi_perm_safe" \
		"$@" --nb --nc --ng --np

	run_oxi "$oxi_perm_ext + nc" \
		"${oxi_perm_dest}${oxi_perm_ext} + nc" \
		"$oxi_perm_safe" \
		"$@" --nc

	run_oxi "$oxi_perm_ext + nc + ng" \
		"${oxi_perm_dest}${oxi_perm_ext} + nc + ng" \
		"$oxi_perm_safe" \
		"$@" --nc --ng

	run_oxi "$oxi_perm_ext + nc + np" \
		"${oxi_perm_dest}${oxi_perm_ext} + nc + np" \
		"$oxi_perm_safe" \
		"$@" --nc --np

	run_oxi "$oxi_perm_ext + nc + ng + np" \
		"${oxi_perm_dest}${oxi_perm_ext} + nc + ng + np" \
		"$oxi_perm_safe" \
		"$@" --nc --ng --np

	run_oxi "$oxi_perm_ext + ng" \
		"${oxi_perm_dest}${oxi_perm_ext} + ng" \
		"$oxi_perm_safe" \
		"$@" --ng

	run_oxi "$oxi_perm_ext + ng + np" \
		"${oxi_perm_dest}${oxi_perm_ext} + ng + np" \
		"$oxi_perm_safe" \
		"$@" --ng --np

	run_oxi "$oxi_perm_ext + np" \
		"${oxi_perm_dest}${oxi_perm_ext} + np" \
		"$oxi_perm_safe" \
		"$@" --np
}


oxi_all() {
	tmp_dest_path="/tmp/${2:-""}"
	tmp_safe="${4:-""}"


	## Keep `--zopfli` separate from the other permutations due to its cost
	if [ -z "${3:-""}" ]; then
			zc=0
			while [ "$zc" -le 12 ]; do
				oxi_permutations \
					"$1" \
					"zc${zc}" \
					"$tmp_dest_path" \
					"$tmp_safe" \
					--zc="$zc" &

				zc="$(( zc + 1 ))"
			done

			wait
		else
			## Use 'zop' as the extension so 'zcN' is ordered before
			oxi_permutations "$1" "zop" "$tmp_dest_path" "$tmp_safe" \
				--zopfli --zi=255
	fi
}


src_is_png() {
	# Create CWebP and baseline OxiPNG outputs, for use as a heuristic
	cwebp_dest="/tmp/cwebp.webp"
	oxi_baseline_dest="/tmp/zc12.png"

	if [ "$NO_WEBP" != 1 ]; then
		## Passing `-q` or `-m` disables lossless mode
		cwebp -quiet -mt -z 9 -alpha_filter best -o "$cwebp_dest" \
			 -- "$src" ||
				perr "Passing '$src' through 'cwebp' failed!\n"
	fi &

	oxipng --opt max --strip all --alpha --out "$oxi_baseline_dest" \
		-- "$src" >/dev/null 2>&1 ||
			perr "Passing '$src' through 'oxipng' (zc12) failed!\n" &

	wait


	# Skip trying the OxiPNG variants if explicitly requested
	[ "$ALL_OXI" != "0" ] || return 0

	oxi_baseline_size="$(find_size "$oxi_baseline_dest")"
	cwebp_size="$(find_size "$cwebp_dest")"
	fraction="$(( ( oxi_baseline_size * 9 ) / 10 ))"
	smallest_heuristic="$((
		oxi_baseline_size < cwebp_size
		? oxi_baseline_size
		: cwebp_size
	))"

	## '$smallest_known' is read by `run_oxi()`
	if [ -n "$SIZE" ]; then
			smallest_known="$((
				smallest_heuristic < SIZE
				? smallest_heuristic
				: SIZE
			))"
		else
			smallest_known="$((
				smallest_heuristic < src_size
				? smallest_heuristic
				: src_size
			))"
	fi


	# Try the OxiPNG variants if:
	# 1. Explicitly requested.
	# 2. Else, if the baseline OxiPNG's size is less than 1KiB.
	# 3. Else, if the input image is still the smallest known encoding.
	# 4. Else, if the CWebP size isn't smaller than 90% of the baseline.
	if [ "$ALL_OXI" = 1 ] ||
	   [ "$oxi_baseline_size" -le 1024 ] ||
	   [ "$src_size" -le "$smallest_heuristic" ] ||
	   [ "$fraction" -le "$cwebp_size" ]; then
		oxi_all "$src" &

		src_quant="/tmp/quant.png"
		if pngquant --quality 100-100 --speed 1 --strip \
			--output "$src_quant" -- "$src"; then
				oxi_all "$src_quant" "quant $delimiter" &
		fi

		wait


		## Execute the `--zopfli` permutations last & sequentially
		pstat "" "\tBeginning Zopfli trials, \033[33mthis may take a while...\n"

		oxi_all "$src" "" "zop"
		[ ! -f "$src_quant" ] ||
			oxi_all "$src_quant" "quant $delimiter" "zop"
	fi
}




## In case of GIF
run_apng() {
	apng_src="$1"
	apng_ext="$2"
	apng_dest="$3"

	## Pass arguments 4 and beyond as-is to `gif2apng` to avoid word splitting
	shift 3

	apng_dest_noext="${apng_dest} + ${apng_ext}"
	apng_dest_ext="${apng_dest_noext}.apng"

	gif2apng "$@" -i20 -- "$apng_src" "$apng_dest_ext" \
		>/dev/null 2>&1 ||
			perr "Passing '$apng_src' through 'gif2apng' ($apng_ext) failed!\n"

	## `gif2apng` doesn't remove all unnecessary metadata, so do that here
	exiftool -overwrite_original_in_place -all= "$apng_dest_ext" \
		>/dev/null 2>&1 ||
			perr "Failed to remove EXIF metadata from '$apng_dest_ext'!\n"


	## Convert the relative paths back to absolute paths, for neatness
	apng_oxi_src="$(realpath -- "$apng_dest_ext")"
	apng_oxi_src_size="$(find_size "$apng_oxi_src")"
	apng_oxi_dest_noext="$(realpath -- "$apng_dest_noext")"
	smallest_heuristic="$apng_oxi_src_size"

	## '$smallest_known' is read by `run_oxi()`
	if [ -n "$SIZE" ]; then
			smallest_known="$((
				smallest_heuristic < SIZE
				? smallest_heuristic
				: SIZE
			))"
		else
			smallest_known="$((
				smallest_heuristic < src_size
				? smallest_heuristic
				: src_size
			))"
	fi


	# Skip trying the OxiPNG variants if explicitly requested, and create a
	# basic OxiPNG output instead
	if [ "$ALL_OXI" = 0 ]; then
		baseline_apng="${apng_oxi_dest_noext} ${delimiter}zc12.apng"
		oxipng --opt max --strip safe --alpha --out "$baseline_apng" \
			-- "$apng_oxi_src" >/dev/null 2>&1 ||
				perr "Passing '$apng_oxi_src' through 'oxipng' (zc12) failed!\n"

		baseline_apng_size="$(find_size "$baseline_apng")"
		keep_if_smaller "$baseline_apng" \
				"$smallest_known" "$baseline_apng_size"

		return 0
	fi


	# Try the OxiPNG variants if:
	# 1. Explicitly requested.
	# 2. Else, if the APNG SRC image is less than 1KiB.
	# 3. Else, if the input image is still the smallest known encoding.
	## A heuristic for when to try the OxiPNG variants, based on a size
	## comparison between a baseline OxiPNG output and the WebP output size,
	## hasn't been determined for animated images yet
	if [ "$ALL_OXI" = 1 ] ||
	   [ "$apng_oxi_src_size" -le 1024 ]
	   [ "$src_size" -le "$smallest_heuristic" ]; then
			## Passing "safe" here sets `--strip safe` for `oxipng`,
			## which preserves APNG animation frames in the metadata
			oxi_all \
				"$apng_oxi_src" \
				"${apng_oxi_dest_noext##*/} ${delimiter}" \
				"" "safe"


			## Execute the `--zopfli` permutations last
			pstat "" "\tBeginning Zopfli trials for '${apng_oxi_dest_noext##*/}'...\n"

			oxi_all \
				"$apng_oxi_src" \
				"${apng_oxi_dest_noext##*/} ${delimiter}" \
				"zop" "safe"
		else
			keep_if_smaller "$apng_oxi_src" \
					"$smallest_known" "$apng_oxi_src_size"
	fi
}

toapng() {
	# GIF2APNG can't handle absolute paths, so make them relative
	# Source: https://sourceforge.net/p/gif2apng/discussion/1022150/thread/8ec5e7e288
	apng_src="$(realpath --relative-to="$PWD" -- "$src")"
	tmp_dest="$(realpath --relative-to="$PWD" -- "/tmp/gif2apng")"


	## Try every permutation of `-[z[0-2],kc,kp]`, and their oxi-variants
	run_apng "$apng_src" "z0" "$tmp_dest" -z0
	run_apng "$apng_src" "z1" "$tmp_dest" -z1
	run_apng "$apng_src" "z2" "$tmp_dest" -z2
	run_apng "$apng_src" "z0 + kp" "$tmp_dest" -z0 -kp
	run_apng "$apng_src" "z1 + kp" "$tmp_dest" -z1 -kp
	run_apng "$apng_src" "z2 + kp" "$tmp_dest" -z2 -kp
}

togif() {
	gifsicle_dest="/tmp/gifsicle + o${1}.gif"

	gifsicle --optimize="$1" --optimize=keep-empty --threads="$(nproc)" \
		-o "$gifsicle_dest" -- "$src" ||
			pquit "Passing '$src' through 'gifsicle --optimize=\"${1}\"' failed!\n"

	gifsicle_dest_size="$(find_size "$gifsicle_dest")"
	keep_if_smaller "$gifsicle_dest" "$smallest_known" "$gifsicle_dest_size"
}

towebp() {
	[ "$NO_WEBP" != 1 ] || return 0

	webp_dest="/tmp/cwebp.webp"

	gif2webp -quiet -mt -min_size -m 6 -q 100 -metadata none \
		-o "$webp_dest" -- "$src" 2>/dev/null ||
			pquit "Passing '$src' through 'gif2webp' failed!\n"

	webp_dest_size="$(find_size "$webp_dest")"
	keep_if_smaller "$webp_dest" "$smallest_known" "$webp_dest_size"
}

src_is_gif() {
	if [ -n "$SIZE" ]; then
			smallest_known="$SIZE"
		else
			smallest_known="$src_size"
	fi

	togif 3 &
	togif 2 &
	togif 1 &
	towebp &

	wait

	pstat "" "\tBeginning 'gif2apng' trials, \033[33mthis may take a while...\n"
	toapng
}




# File selection
case "$mime" in
	"image/png") src_is_png ;;
	"image/gif") src_is_gif ;;
	*) pquit "Mimetype of '$src_real' is neither PNG nor GIF!\n" ;;
esac


## Allow globbing & unset-variables for just this for-loop
set +fu

for tmp_file in /tmp/*; do
	[ ! -f "$tmp_file" ] ||
		sizepathlist="$(find_size "$tmp_file")\t${tmp_file}\n$sizepathlist"
done

set -fu


## 1. Prefix lines with their length followed by a space (e.g. '20 8 bytes ...').
## 2. Sort the lines by their length values (aka. `sort -n`).
## 3. Use space as the delimiter (aka. '-d " "'), and remove everything from
##    before the second field (e.g. '8 bytes ...').
## 4. Sort numerically, but for cases where the byte count is the same, preserve
##    the ordering from the previous steps (aka. `sort -sn`).
orderedlist="$(
	printf "%b" "$sizepathlist" |
		awk '{ print length, $0 }' |
		sort -n |
		cut -d " " -f 2- |
		sort -sn
)"


## The second sed pattern uses '|' delimiters since '/' is used in the path
fancy_orderedlist="$(
	printf "%b" "$orderedlist" |
		sed -e "s/\t/ bytes\t/g;s|/tmp/||g;s/^/\t/g"
)"

pstat "Size order:\n" "$fancy_orderedlist\n\n"




# Output selection
smallest="$(
	printf "%b" "$orderedlist" |
		head -n1 |
		cut -d "	" -f 2-
)"

smallest_size="$(find_size "$smallest")"

if [ -n "$SIZE" ]; then
		[ "$smallest_size" -le "$SIZE" ] ||
			pquit "The smallest output was greater than the minimum size target.\n"
	else
		[ "$smallest_size" -lt "$src_size" ] ||
			pquit "The smallest output was greater or equal in size to the input.\n"
fi

[ "$(stat --format "%b" -- "$smallest")" -gt 0 ] ||
	pquit "The smallest output was truncated at some point!\n"

final_dest="${dest_path}.${smallest##*.}"

if [ -e "$final_dest" ] && [ -z "$FORCE" ]; then
	pquit "'$final_dest' already exists!\n"; fi

mv -- "$smallest" "$final_dest" ||
	pquit "Failed to move '$smallest' to '$final_dest'!\n"

delimiter="${delimiter:-""}"
method="${smallest##*"$delimiter"}"
method="${smallest##*"/"}"
method="${method%.*}"

pstat "Final output:\t" "$final_dest  \033[37m($method)\033[0;39m\n"
pstat "Size diff:\t" \
	"$src_size bytes \033[37m->\033[0;39m \033[1m$smallest_size bytes\n"

Just to make sure I understand, just the last example beats FO (by 1 byte)? 🤔

Yeah, I had some other images going before I realised I forgot the level 9 setting; will edit with some of the other examples when I have time.

EDIT: Okay, so bad news. Pretty much every time Sisyphus yields a smaller result, it's because it uses --zopfli and --opt max, which FO doesn't. Except for that quant > zop.png result, where regular zop.png matched FO, so the extra palette randomisation that pngquant introduces can help on rare occasions.

But yeah, ever since I set the level in FO's settings correctly, I've been struggling to beat it; it's usually a tie or loss save for these samples. Welp.

1 tip: I think you're pretty used to long processing times b/c of your script, but, if you've the spare processing power, multiple instances of FO work quite well on split file lists to speed up overall processing.

Also, does running Sisyphus before/after FO-processed images improve anything?

Found these (I'll edit the previous samples if I find anything for them too):

FO: 388 bytes

FO > Sisyphus: 387 bytes (zop + nb.png. Regular zop.png matches FO, and every permutation of zop + *.png beats it by a single byte, so it's not just --opt max here)

---

FO: 2987 bytes (FO > FO: Same size)

FO > Sisyphus: 2956 bytes (zop.png. Probably --opt max again)

FO > Sisyphus > FO: 2955 bytes (???)

Sometimes running FO multiple times on the same file (Shift+F5,▶️) back-to-back gives better results, too, so that's kind-of expected.