INDENT

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

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 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 enabled, ifs following elses 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 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.

-lcn

Maximum length of a line containing a comment.

-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));

-osa,-nosa

If true (-osa) old style assignment operators (`=-', `=*', and so on) are considered to be tokens, and are converted to the newer form (`-=', `*='). The default is -nosa.

-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 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.

-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 symptom 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.

-tsn

Specifies the width of tab stops. The default value is 8, which is equivalent to eight spaces.

-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, however, 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(;;)

FILES

BUGS

A common mistake that often causes grief is typing:

    indent *.c

Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

OPTIONS

FURTHER DESCRIPTION

FILES

BUGS