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shfmt(1) General Commands Manual shfmt(1) NAME shfmt - Format shell programs SYNOPSIS shfmt [flags] [path...] DESCRIPTION shfmt formats shell programs. If the only argument is a dash (-) or no ar- guments are given, standard input will be used. If a given path is a direc- tory, all shell scripts found under that directory will be used. If any EditorConfig files are found, they will be used to apply formatting options. If any parser or printer flags are given to the tool, no Editor- Config formatting options will be used. A default like -i=0 can be used for this purpose. shfmt's default shell formatting was chosen to be consistent, common, and predictable. Some aspects of the format can be configured via printer flags. OPTIONS Generic flags --version Show version and exit. -l[=0], --list[=0] Error with a list of files whose formatting differs from shfmt; paths are separated by a newline or a null character if -l=0 -w, --write Write result to file instead of stdout. -d, --diff Error with a diff when the formatting differs. The diff uses color when the output is a terminal. To never use color, set a non-empty NO_COLOR or TERM=dumb. To always use color, set a non- empty FORCE_COLOR. --apply-ignore Always apply EditorConfig ignore rules. When formatting files directly, ignore rules are skipped without this flag. Should be useful to any tools or editors which format stdin or a single file. When printing results to stdout, an ignored file results in no output at all. --filename str Provide a name for the standard input file. Use of this flag is necessary for EditorConfig support to work with stdin, since EditorConfig files are found relative to the location of a script. Parser flags -ln, --language-dialect <str> Language dialect (bash/posix/mksh/bats/zsh, default auto). When set to auto, the language is detected from the input filename, as long as it has a shell extension like foo.mksh. Otherwise, if the input begins with a shell shebang like #!/bin/sh, that's used instead. If neither come up with a result, bash is used as a fallback. The filename extension .sh is a special case: it implies posix, but may be overridden by a valid shell shebang. -p, --posix Shorthand for -ln=posix. -s, --simplify Simplify the code. Printer flags -i, --indent <uint> Indent: 0 for tabs (default), >0 for number of spaces. -bn, --binary-next-line Binary ops like && and | may start a line. -ci, --case-indent Switch cases will be indented. -sr, --space-redirects Redirect operators will be followed by a space. -kp, --keep-padding Keep column alignment paddings. This flag is DEPRECATED and will be removed in the next major version. For more information, see: https://github.com/mvdan/sh/issues/658 -fn, --func-next-line Function opening braces are placed on a separate line. -mn, --minify Minify the code to reduce its size (implies -s). Utility flags -f[=0], --find[=0] Recursively find all shell files and print the paths; paths are sepa- rated by a newline or a null character if -f=0. --to-json Print syntax tree to stdout as a typed JSON. --from-json Read syntax tree from stdin as a typed JSON. EXAMPLES Format all the scripts under the current directory, printing which are mod- ified: shfmt -l -w . For CI, one can use a variant where formatting changes are just shown as diffs: shfmt -d . The following formatting flags closely resemble Google's shell style de- fined in <https://google.github.io/styleguide/shellguide.html>: shfmt -i 2 -ci -bn Below is a sample EditorConfig file as defined by <https://editorcon- fig.org/>, showing how to set supported options: [*.sh] # like -i=4 indent_style = space indent_size = 4 # --language-dialect shell_variant = posix simplify = true binary_next_line = true # --case-indent switch_case_indent = true space_redirects = true keep_padding = true # --func-next-line function_next_line = true minify = true # Ignore the entire "third_party" directory when calling shfmt on directories, # such as "shfmt -l -w .". When formatting files directly, # like "shfmt -w third_party/foo.sh" or "shfmt --filename=third_party/foo.sh", # the ignore logic is applied only when the --apply-ignore flag is given. [third_party/**] ignore = true EditorConfig sections may also use `[[shell]]`, `[[bash]]`, or `[[zsh]]` to match shell scripts, which is particularly useful when scripts use a she- bang but no extension. Note that this feature is outside of the EditorCon- fig spec and may be changed in the future. shfmt can also replace bash -n to check shell scripts for syntax errors. It is more exhaustive, as it parses all syntax statically and requires valid UTF-8: $ echo '${foo:1 2}' | bash -n $ echo '${foo:1 2}' | shfmt >/dev/null 1:9: not a valid arithmetic operator: 2 $ echo 'foo=(1 2)' | bash --posix -n $ echo 'foo=(1 2)' | shfmt -p >/dev/null 1:5: arrays are a bash feature AUTHORS Maintained by Daniel MartA <mvdan@mvdan.cc>, who is assisted by other open source contributors. For more information and development, see <https://github.com/mvdan/sh>. 2026-07-30 shfmt(1)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | EXAMPLES | AUTHORS
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