indent - indent and format C program source
indent [input-file [output-file]] [-bad | -nbad] [-bap |
-nbap]
[-bbb | -nbbb] [-bc | -nbc] [-bl | -br] [-cn] [-cdn]
[-cdb | -ncdb] [-ce | -nce] [-cin] [-clin] [-dn]
[-din]
[-dj | -ndj] [-ei | -nei] [-fc1 | -nfc1] [-in] [-ip |
-nip] [-ln]
[-lcn] [-lp | -nlp] [-npro] [-pcs | -npcs] [-psl |
-npsl]
[-sc | -nsc] [-sob | -nsob] [-st] [-Ttypename]
[-troff] [-v | -nv]
indent is a C program formatter. It reformats the C program
in the
input-file according to the switches. The switches which
can be specified
are described below. They may appear before or after
the file
names.
NOTE: If you only specify an input-file, the formatting is
done ``inplace'',
that is, the formatted file is written back into
input-file and
a backup copy of input-file is written in the current directory. If
input-file is named /blah/blah/file, the backup file is
named file.BAK.
If file.BAK exists, it is overwritten.
If output-file is specified, indent checks to make sure it
is different
from input-file.
The options listed below control the formatting style imposed by indent.
-bad, -nbad If -bad is specified, a blank line is forced
after every
block of declarations. Default: -nbad.
-bap, -nbap If -bap is specified, a blank line is forced
after every
procedure body. Default: -nbap. Note: This
option currently
has no effect.
-bbb, -nbbb If -bbb is specified, a blank line is forced
before every
block comment. Default: -nbbb.
-bc, -nbc If -bc is specified, then a newline is
forced after each
comma in a declaration. -nbc turns off this
option. The
default is -nbc.
-bl, -br Specifying -bl lines up compound statements
like this:
if (...)
{
code
}
Specifying -br (the default) makes them look
like this:
if (...) {
code
}
-cn The column in which comments on code start.
The default
is 33.
-cdn The column in which comments on declarations
start. The
default is for these comments to start in
the same column
as those on code.
-cdb, -ncdb Enables (disables) the placement of comment
delimiters on
blank lines. With this option enabled, comments look
like this:
/*
* this is a comment
*/
Rather than like this:
/* this is a comment */
This only affects block comments, not comments to the
right of code. The default is -cdb.
-ce, -nce Enables (disables) forcing ``else''s to
cuddle up to the
immediately preceding `}'. The default is
-ce.
-cin Sets the continuation indent to be n. Continuation lines
will be indented that far from the beginning
of the first
line of the statement. Parenthesized expressions have
extra indentation added to indicate the
nesting, unless
-lp is in effect. -ci defaults to the same
value as -i.
-clin Causes case labels to be indented n tab
stops to the
right of the containing switch statement.
-cli0.5 causes
case labels to be indented half a tab stop.
The default
is -cli0.
-dn Controls the placement of comments which are
not to the
right of code. Specifying -d1 means that
such comments
are placed one indentation level to the left
of code.
The default, -d0, lines up these comments
with the code.
See the section on comment indentation below.
-din Specifies the indentation, in character positions, from a
declaration keyword to the following identifier. The default
is -di16.
-dj, -ndj -dj left justifies declarations. -ndj indents declarations
the same as code. The default is
-ndj.
-ei, -nei Enables (disables) special else-if processing. If it's
enabled, an if following an else will have
the same indentation
as the preceding if statement.
The default is
-ei.
-fc1, -nfc1 Enables (disables) the formatting of comments that start
in column 1. Often, comments whose leading
`/' is in
column 1 have been carefully formatted by
the programmer.
In such cases, -nfc1 should be used. The
default is
-fc1.
-in The number of spaces for one indentation
level. The default
is 8.
-ip, -nip Enables (disables) the indentation of parameter declarations
from the left margin. The default is
-ip. Note:
This option currently has no effect.
-ln Maximum length of an output line. The default is 75.
Note: This option currently has no effect.
-lcn Specify a column width for comments.
-lp, -nlp Lines up code surrounded by parentheses in
continuation
lines. If a line has a left parenthesis
which is not
closed on that line, then continuation lines
will be
lined up to start at the character position
just after
the left parenthesis. For example, here is
how a piece
of continued code looks with -nlp in effect:
p1 = first_procedure(second_procedure(p2, p3),
third_procedure(p4,p5));
With -lp in effect (the default) the code
looks somewhat
clearer:
p1 = first_procedure(second_procedure(p2, p3),
third_procedure(p4,p5));
Inserting two more newlines we get:
p1 = first_procedure(second_procedure(p2,
p3),
third_procedure(p4,
p5));
The default is -lp.
-npro Causes the profile files, ./.indent.pro and
~/.indent.pro, to be ignored.
-pcs, -npcs If true (-pcs) all procedure calls will have
a space inserted
between the name and the `('. The
default is
-npcs.
-psl, -npsl If true (-psl) the names of procedures being
defined are
placed in column 1 - their types, if any,
will be left on
the previous lines. The default is -psl.
-sc, -nsc Enables (disables) the placement of asterisks (`*') at
the left edge of all comments. The default
is -sc.
-sob, -nsob If -sob is specified, indent will swallow
optional blank
lines. You can use this to get rid of blank
lines after
declarations. Default: -nsob. Note: This
option currently
has no effect.
-st Causes indent to take its input from stdin,
and put its
output to stdout.
-Ttypename Adds typename to the list of type keywords.
Names accumulate:
-T can be specified more than once.
You need to
specify all the typenames that appear in
your program
that are defined by typedef - nothing will
be harmed if
you miss a few, but the program won't be
formatted as
nicely as it should. This sounds like a
painful thing to
have to do, but it's really a symptom of a
problem in C:
typedef causes a syntactic change in the
language and
indent can't find all instances of typedef.
-troff Causes indent to format the program for processing by
troff(1). It will produce a fancy listing
in much the
same spirit as vgrind(1). If the output
file is not
specified, the default is standard output,
rather than
formatting in place.
-v, -nv -v turns on ``verbose'' mode; -nv turns it
off. When in
verbose mode, indent reports when it splits
one line of
input into two or more lines of output, and
gives some
size statistics at completion. The default
is -nv.
You may set up your own ``profile'' of defaults to indent by
creating a
file called .indent.pro in your login directory and/or the
current directory
and including whatever switches you like. An
.indent.pro file in
the current directory takes precedence over the one in your
login directory.
If indent is run and a profile file exists, then it
is read to set
up the program's defaults. Switches on the command line,
though, always
override profile switches. The switches should be separated
by spaces,
tabs or newlines.
Comments [Toc] [Back]
`Box' comments. indent assumes that any comment with a
dash, star, or
newline immediately after the start of comment (that is,
`/*-', `/**', or
`/*' followed immediately by a newline character) is a comment surrounded
by a box of stars. Each line of such a comment is left unchanged, except
that its indentation may be adjusted to account for the
change in indentation
of the first line of the comment.
Straight text. All other comments are treated as straight
text. indent
fits as many words (separated by blanks, tabs, or newlines)
on a line as
possible. Blank lines break paragraphs.
Comment indentation [Toc] [Back]
If a comment is on a line with code it is started in the
``comment
column'', which is set by the -cn command line parameter.
Otherwise, the
comment is started at n indentation levels less than where
code is currently
being placed, where n is specified by the -dn command
line parameter.
If the code on a line extends past the comment column,
the comment
starts further to the right, and the right margin may be automatically
extended in extreme cases.
Preprocessor lines [Toc] [Back]
In general, indent leaves preprocessor lines alone. The only reformatting
that it will do is to straighten up trailing comments.
It leaves
embedded comments alone. Conditional compilation
(#ifdef...#endif) is
recognized and indent attempts to correctly compensate for
the syntactic
peculiarities introduced.
C syntax [Toc] [Back]
indent understands a substantial amount about the syntax of
C, but it has
a ``forgiving'' parser. It attempts to cope with the usual
sorts of incomplete
and misformed syntax. In particular, the use of
macros like:
#define forever for(;;)
is handled properly.
HOME Used to locate the full path to ~/.indent.pro.
./.indent.pro profile file
~/.indent.pro profile file
The indent command appeared in 4.2BSD.
indent has even more switches than ls(1).
A common mistake that often causes grief is typing:
indent *.c
to the shell in an attempt to indent all the C programs in a
directory.
This is probably a bug, not a feature.
OpenBSD 3.6 July 1, 1993
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