INDENT(1) General Commands Manual INDENT(1)
NAME
indent - indent and format C program source
SYNOPSIS
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 ] [ -ps | -nps ] [ -psl | -npsl ] [ -sc | -nsc ]
[ -sob | -nsob ] [ -st ] [ -troff ] [ -v | -nv ]
DESCRIPTION
Indent is a C program formatter. It reformats the C program in the input-file according to the switches. The switches which can be speci-
fied 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.
If output-file is specified, indent checks to make sure it is different from input-file.
OPTIONS
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.
-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.
-br,-bl 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. (This is the only option that takes a fractional argument.)
-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 com-
ment 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 enabled, ifs following elses will have the same indentation as the pre-
ceding 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 hand 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.
-ln Maximum length of an output line. The default is 78.
-lp,-nlp Lines up code surrounded by parenthesis in continuation lines. 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 after 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 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));
-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.
-ps,-nps If true (-ps) the pointer following operator `->' will be surrounded by spaces on either side. 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 pre-
vious 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 declara-
tions. Default: -nsob.
-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 typedefs - 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 symp-
tom of a problem in C: typedef causes a syntactic change in the language and indent can't find all typedefs.
-troff Causes indent to format the program for processing by troff. It will produce a fancy listing in much the same spirit as
vgrind. 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.
FURTHER DESCRIPTION
You may set up your own `profile' of defaults to indent by creating a file called .indent.pro in either your login directory and/or the
current directory and including whatever switches you like. Switches in `.indent.pro' in the current directory override those in your
login directory (with the exception of -T type definitions, which just accumulate). If indent is run and a profile file exists, then it is
read to set up the program's defaults. The switches should be separated by spaces, tabs or newlines. Switches on the command line, how-
ever, override profile switches.
Comments
`Box' comments. Indent 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 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
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
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
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.
FILES
./.indent.pro profile file
~/.indent.pro profile file
BUGS
Indent has even more switches than ls.
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.
4.2 Berkeley Distribution September 10, 1985 INDENT(1)