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30 .\" @(#)indent.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 7/1/93
31 .\" $FreeBSD: src/usr.bin/indent/indent.1,v 1.28 2010/03/31 17:05:30 avg Exp $
38 .Nd indent and format C program source
41 .Op Ar input-file Op Ar output-file
94 according to the switches.
95 The switches which can be specified are described below.
96 They may appear before or after the file names.
99 If you only specify an
102 done `in-place', that is, the formatted file is written back into
106 is written in the current directory.
110 .Sq Pa /blah/blah/file ,
111 the backup file is named
118 checks to make sure that it is different from
121 The options listed below control the formatting style imposed by
127 is specified, a blank line is forced after every block of
134 is specified, a blank line is forced after every procedure body.
140 is specified, a blank line is forced before every block comment.
146 is specified, then a newline is forced after each comma in a declaration.
148 turns off this option.
154 lines-up compound statements like this:
155 .Bd -literal -offset indent
164 (the default) makes them look like this:
165 .Bd -literal -offset indent
173 is specified, then a space is inserted after
176 turns off this option.
180 The column in which comments on code start.
183 The column in which comments on declarations start.
184 The default is for these comments to start in the same column as those on code.
186 Enables (disables) the placement of comment delimiters on blank lines.
187 With this option enabled, comments look like this:
188 .Bd -literal -offset indent
194 Rather than like this:
195 .Bd -literal -offset indent
196 /* this is a comment */
199 This only affects block comments, not comments to the right of code.
203 Enables (disables) forcing of `else's to cuddle up to the immediately preceding
208 Sets the continuation indent to be
211 lines will be indented that far from the beginning of the first line of the
213 Parenthesized expressions have extra indentation added to
214 indicate the nesting, unless
216 is in effect or the continuation indent is exactly half of the main indent.
218 defaults to the same value as
221 Causes case labels to be indented
223 tab stops to the right of the containing
227 causes case labels to be indented half a tab stop.
231 Controls the placement of comments which are not to the right of code.
234 means that such comments are placed one indentation level to the left of code.
235 Specifying the default
237 lines-up these comments with the code.
238 See the section on comment indentation below.
240 Specifies the indentation, in character positions,
241 of global variable names and all struct/union member names
242 relative to the beginning of their type declaration.
247 left justifies declarations.
249 indents declarations the same as code.
253 Enables (disables) special
260 will have the same indentation as the preceding
266 Enables (disables) splitting the function declaration and opening brace
271 Enables (disables) the formatting of comments that start in column 1.
272 Often, comments whose leading `/' is in column 1 have been carefully
273 hand formatted by the programmer.
280 Enables (disables) the formatting of block comments (ones that begin
282 Often, block comments have been not so carefully hand formatted by the
283 programmer, but reformatting that would just change the line breaks is not
288 Block comments are then handled like box comments.
292 The number of spaces for one indentation level.
295 Enables (disables) the indentation of parameter declarations from the left
300 Maximum length of an output line.
303 Specifies the indentation, in character positions,
304 of local variable names
305 relative to the beginning of their type declaration.
306 The default is for local variable names to be indented
307 by the same amount as global ones.
309 Lines-up code surrounded by parenthesis in continuation lines.
311 has a left paren which is not closed on that line, then continuation lines
312 will be lined up to start at the character position just after the left
314 For example, here is how a piece of continued code looks with
317 .Bd -literal -offset indent
318 p1 = first_procedure(second_procedure(p2, p3),
319 \ \ third_procedure(p4, p5));
324 in effect (the default) the code looks somewhat clearer:
325 .Bd -literal -offset indent
326 p1\ =\ first_procedure(second_procedure(p2,\ p3),
327 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ third_procedure(p4,\ p5));
330 Inserting two more newlines we get:
331 .Bd -literal -offset indent
332 p1\ =\ first_procedure(second_procedure(p2,
333 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ p3),
334 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ third_procedure(p4,
335 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ p5));
338 Causes the profile files,
341 .Sq Pa ~/.indent.pro ,
346 all procedure calls will have a space inserted between the name and the `('.
352 the names of procedures being defined are placed in
353 column 1 \- their types, if any, will be left on the previous lines.
357 Enables (disables) the placement of asterisks (`*'s) at the left edge of all
364 is specified, indent will swallow optional blank lines.
365 You can use this to get rid of blank lines after declarations.
371 to take its input from stdin and put its output to stdout.
373 Automatically add all identifiers ending in "_t" to the list
375 .It Fl T Ns Ar typename
378 to the list of type keywords.
381 can be specified more than once.
382 You need to specify all the typenames that
383 appear in your program that are defined by
386 harmed if you miss a few, but the program will not be formatted as nicely as
388 This sounds like a painful thing to have to do, but it is really
389 a symptom of a problem in C:
391 causes a syntactic change in the
400 to format the program for processing by
402 It will produce a fancy
403 listing in much the same spirit as
405 If the output file is not specified, the default is standard output,
406 rather than formatting in place.
408 Enables (disables) the use of tab characters in the output.
409 Tabs are assumed to be aligned on columns divisible by 8.
414 turns on `verbose' mode;
417 When in verbose mode,
419 reports when it splits one line of input into two or more lines of output,
420 and gives some size statistics at completion.
425 You may set up your own `profile' of defaults to
427 by creating a file called
429 in your login directory and/or the current directory and including
430 whatever switches you like.
431 A `.indent.pro' in the current directory takes
432 precedence over the one in your login directory.
435 is run and a profile file exists, then it is read to set up the program's
437 Switches on the command line, though, always override profile switches.
438 The switches should be separated by spaces, tabs or newlines.
445 assumes that any comment with a dash or star immediately after the start of
446 comment (that is, `/*\-' or `/**') is a comment surrounded by a box of stars.
447 Each line of such a comment is left unchanged, except that its indentation
448 may be adjusted to account for the change in indentation of the first line
452 All other comments are treated as straight text.
455 utility fits as many words (separated by blanks, tabs, or newlines) on a
457 Blank lines break paragraphs.
458 .Ss Comment indentation
459 If a comment is on a line with code it is started in the `comment column',
462 command line parameter.
463 Otherwise, the comment is started at
465 indentation levels less than where code is currently being placed, where
469 command line parameter.
470 If the code on a line extends past the comment
471 column, the comment starts further to the right, and the right margin may be
472 automatically extended in extreme cases.
473 .Ss Preprocessor lines
476 leaves preprocessor lines alone.
477 The only reformatting that it will do is to straighten up trailing comments.
478 It leaves embedded comments alone.
479 Conditional compilation
480 .Pq Ic #ifdef...#endif
483 attempts to correctly
484 compensate for the syntactic peculiarities introduced.
488 utility understands a substantial amount about the syntax of C, but it
489 has a `forgiving' parser.
490 It attempts to cope with the usual sorts of incomplete and misformed syntax.
491 In particular, the use of macros like:
493 .Dl #define forever for(;;)
501 environment variable.
503 .Bl -tag -width ".Pa /usr/share/misc/indent.pro" -compact
508 .It Pa /usr/share/misc/indent.pro
519 utility has even more switches than
522 A common mistake is to try to indent all the
524 programs in a directory by typing:
528 This is probably a bug, not a feature.