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INDENT(1) General Commands Manual INDENT(1) NAME indent -- indent and format C program source SYNOPSIS indent [input-file [output-file]] [-bacc | -nbacc] [-bad | -nbad] [-badp | -nbadp] [-bap | -nbap] [-bbb | -nbbb] [-bc | -nbc] [-bl | -br] [-bs | -nbs] [-cn] [-cdn] [-cdb | -ncdb] [-ce | -nce] [-cin] [-clin] [-cs | -ncs] [-dn] [-din] [-dj | -ndj] [-ei | -nei] [-eei | -neei] [-fbs | -nfbs] [-fc1 | -nfc1] [-fcb | -nfcb] [-in] [-ip | -nip] [-ln] [-lcn] [-ldin] [-lp | -nlp] [-lpl | -nlpl] [-npro] [-Pfile] [-pcs | -npcs] [-ps | -nps] [-psl | -npsl] [-sc | -nsc] [-sob | -nsob] [-st] [-ta] [-Ttypename] [-tsn] [-Ufile] [-ut | -nut] [-v | -nv] [--version] DESCRIPTION The indent utility is a C program formatter. It reformats the C pro- gram 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 `in- place', 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' by default. The extension used for the backup file may be overridden using the SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX environment variable. If output-file is specified, indent checks to make sure that it is dif- ferent from input-file. The options listed below control the formatting style imposed by indent. -bacc, -nbacc If -bacc is specified, a blank line is forced around every conditional compilation block. For example, in front of every #ifdef and after every #endif. Other blank lines surrounding such blocks will be swallowed. Default: -nbacc. -bad, -nbad If -bad is specified, a blank line is forced after every block of declarations. Default: -nbad. -badp, -nbadp This is vaguely similar to -bad except that it only ap- plies to the first set of declarations in a procedure (just after the first `{') and it causes a blank line to be generated even if there are no declarations. The default is -nbadp. -bap, -nbap If -bap is specified, a blank line is forced after every procedure body. Default: -nbap. -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 op- tion. Default: -nbc. -bl, -br Specifying -bl lines up compound statements like this: if (...) { code } Specifying -br (the default) makes them look like this: if (...) { code } -bs, -nbs Whether a blank should always be inserted after sizeof. The default is -nbs. -cn The column in which comments on code start. The de- fault 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 of `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 expres- sions have extra indentation added to indicate the nesting, unless -lp is in effect or the continuation indent is exactly half of the main indent. -ci de- faults 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. -cs, -ncs Control whether parenthesized type names in casts are followed by a space or not. The default is -ncs. -dn Controls the placement of comments which are not to the right of code. For example, -d1 means that such com- ments are placed one indentation level to the left of code. Specifying the default -d0 lines up these com- ments with the code. See the section on comment inden- tation below. -din Specifies the indentation, in character positions, of global variable names and all struct/union member names relative to the beginning of their type declaration. The default is -di16. -dj, -ndj -dj left justifies declarations. -ndj indents declara- tions the same as code. The default is -ndj. -ei, -nei Enables (disables) special else-if processing. If it is enabled, an if following an else will have the same indentation as the preceding if statement. The default is -ei. -eei, -neei Enables (disables) extra indentation on continuation lines of the expression part of if and while state- ments. These continuation lines will be indented one extra level. The default is -neei. -fbs, -nfbs Enables (disables) splitting the function declaration and opening brace across two lines. The default is -fbs. -fc1, -nfc1 Enables (disables) the formatting of comments that start in column 1. Often, comments whose leading `/' is in column 1 have been carefully hand formatted by the programmer. In such cases, -nfc1 should be used. The default is -fc1. -fcb, -nfcb Enables (disables) the formatting of block comments (ones that begin with `/*\n'). Often, block comments have been not so carefully hand formatted by the pro- grammer, but reformatting that would just change the line breaks is not wanted. In such cases, -nfcb should be used. Block comments are then handled like box com- ments. The default is -fcb. -in The number of columns for one indentation level. The default is 8. -ip, -nip Enables (disables) the indentation of parameter decla- rations from the left margin. The default is -ip. -ln Maximum length of an output line. The default is 78. -lcn Maximum length of an output line in a block comment. The default is 0, which means to limit block comment lines in accordance with -l. -ldin Specifies the indentation, in character positions, of local variable names relative to the beginning of their type declaration. The default is for local variable names to be indented by the same amount as global ones. -lp, -nlp Lines up code surrounded by parentheses in continuation lines. With -lp, if a line has a left paren which is not closed on that line, then continuation lines will be lined up to start at the character position just af- ter the left paren. 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 some- what 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)); -lpl, -nlpl With -lpl, code surrounded by parentheses in continua- tion lines is lined up even if it would extend past the right margin. With -nlpl (the default), such a line that would extend past the right margin is moved left to keep it within the margin, if that does not require placing it to the left of the prevailing indentation level. These switches have no effect if -nlp is se- lected. -npro Causes the profile files, `./.indent.pro' and `~/.indent.pro', to be ignored. -Pfile Read profile from file. -pcs, -npcs If true (-pcs) all procedure calls will have a space inserted between the name and the `('. The default is -npcs. -ps, -nps If true (-ps) the pointer dereference operator (`->') is treated like any other binary operator. The default is -nps. -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 (`*'s) 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. -st Causes indent to take its input from stdin and put its output to stdout. -ta Automatically add all identifiers ending in "_t" to the list of type keywords. -Ttypename Adds typename to the list of type keywords. Names ac- cumulate: -T can be specified more than once. You need to specify all the typenames that appear in your pro- gram that are defined by typedef - nothing will be harmed if you miss a few, but the program will not be formatted as nicely as it should. This sounds like a painful thing to have to do, but it is really a symptom of a problem in C: typedef causes a syntactic change in the language and indent cannot find all instances of typedef. -tsn Assumed distance between tab stops. The default is 8. -Ufile Adds type names from file to the list of type keywords. -ut, -nut Enables (disables) the use of tab characters in the output. The default is -ut. -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. --version Causes indent to print its version number and exit. 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 di- rectory and including whatever switches you like. A `.indent.pro' in the current directory takes precedence over the one in your login di- rectory. 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 sepa- rated by spaces, tabs or newlines. Comments `Box' comments. The indent utility assumes that any comment with a dash or star immediately after the start of comment (that is, `/*-' or `/**') 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 com- ment. Straight text. All other comments are treated as straight text. The indent utility fits as many words (separated by blanks, tabs, or new- lines) on a line as possible. Blank lines break paragraphs. Comment indentation If a comment is on a line with code it is started in the `comment col- umn', which is set by the -cn command line parameter. Otherwise, the comment is started at n indentation levels less than where code is cur- rently being placed, where n is specified by the -dn command line para- meter. If the code on a line extends past the comment column, the com- ment starts further to the right, and the right margin may be automati- cally extended in extreme cases. Preprocessor lines In general, indent leaves preprocessor lines alone. The only reformat- ting 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 syntac- tic peculiarities introduced. C syntax The indent utility 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 malformed syntax. In particular, the use of macros like: #define forever for(;;) is handled properly. ENVIRONMENT The indent utility uses the HOME environment variable. FILES ./.indent.pro profile file ~/.indent.pro profile file HISTORY The indent command appeared in 4.2BSD. BUGS The indent utility has even more switches than ls(1). A common mistake is to try to indent all the C programs in a directory by typing: indent *.c This is probably a bug, not a feature. FreeBSD 13.2 June 28, 2023 INDENT(1)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | ENVIRONMENT | FILES | HISTORY | BUGS
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