5 `ClangFormat` describes a set of tools that are built on top of
6 :doc:`LibFormat`. It can support your workflow in a variety of ways including a
7 standalone tool and editor integrations.
13 :program:`clang-format` is located in `clang/tools/clang-format` and can be used
14 to format C/C++/Java/JavaScript/JSON/Objective-C/Protobuf/C# code.
18 .. code-block:: console
21 OVERVIEW: A tool to format C/C++/Java/JavaScript/JSON/Objective-C/Protobuf/C# code.
23 If no arguments are specified, it formats the code from standard input
24 and writes the result to the standard output.
25 If <file>s are given, it reformats the files. If -i is specified
26 together with <file>s, the files are edited in-place. Otherwise, the
27 result is written to the standard output.
29 USAGE: clang-format [options] [@<file>] [<file> ...]
35 --Werror - If set, changes formatting warnings to errors
36 --Wno-error=<value> - If set, don't error out on the specified warning type.
37 =unknown - If set, unknown format options are only warned about.
38 This can be used to enable formatting, even if the
39 configuration contains unknown (newer) options.
40 Use with caution, as this might lead to dramatically
41 differing format depending on an option being
43 --assume-filename=<string> - Set filename used to determine the language and to find
45 Only used when reading from stdin.
46 If this is not passed, the .clang-format file is searched
47 relative to the current working directory when reading stdin.
48 Unrecognized filenames are treated as C++.
52 JavaScript: .js .mjs .cjs .ts
55 Proto: .proto .protodevel
57 TextProto: .txtpb .textpb .pb.txt .textproto .asciipb
58 Verilog: .sv .svh .v .vh
59 --cursor=<uint> - The position of the cursor when invoking
60 clang-format from an editor integration
61 --dry-run - If set, do not actually make the formatting changes
62 --dump-config - Dump configuration options to stdout and exit.
63 Can be used with -style option.
64 --fail-on-incomplete-format - If set, fail with exit code 1 on incomplete format.
65 --fallback-style=<string> - The name of the predefined style used as a
66 fallback in case clang-format is invoked with
67 -style=file, but can not find the .clang-format
68 file to use. Defaults to 'LLVM'.
69 Use -fallback-style=none to skip formatting.
70 --ferror-limit=<uint> - Set the maximum number of clang-format errors to emit
71 before stopping (0 = no limit).
72 Used only with --dry-run or -n
73 --files=<filename> - A file containing a list of files to process, one per line.
74 -i - Inplace edit <file>s, if specified.
75 --length=<uint> - Format a range of this length (in bytes).
76 Multiple ranges can be formatted by specifying
77 several -offset and -length pairs.
78 When only a single -offset is specified without
79 -length, clang-format will format up to the end
81 Can only be used with one input file.
82 --lines=<string> - <start line>:<end line> - format a range of
84 Multiple ranges can be formatted by specifying
85 several -lines arguments.
86 Can't be used with -offset and -length.
87 Can only be used with one input file.
88 -n - Alias for --dry-run
89 --offset=<uint> - Format a range starting at this byte offset.
90 Multiple ranges can be formatted by specifying
91 several -offset and -length pairs.
92 Can only be used with one input file.
93 --output-replacements-xml - Output replacements as XML.
94 --qualifier-alignment=<string> - If set, overrides the qualifier alignment style
95 determined by the QualifierAlignment style flag
96 --sort-includes - If set, overrides the include sorting behavior
97 determined by the SortIncludes style flag
98 --style=<string> - Set coding style. <string> can be:
99 1. A preset: LLVM, GNU, Google, Chromium, Microsoft,
101 2. 'file' to load style configuration from a
102 .clang-format file in one of the parent directories
103 of the source file (for stdin, see --assume-filename).
104 If no .clang-format file is found, falls back to
106 --style=file is the default.
107 3. 'file:<format_file_path>' to explicitly specify
108 the configuration file.
109 4. "{key: value, ...}" to set specific parameters, e.g.:
110 --style="{BasedOnStyle: llvm, IndentWidth: 8}"
111 --verbose - If set, shows the list of processed files
115 --help - Display available options (--help-hidden for more)
116 --help-list - Display list of available options (--help-list-hidden for more)
117 --version - Display the version of this program
122 When the desired code formatting style is different from the available options,
123 the style can be customized using the ``-style="{key: value, ...}"`` option or
124 by putting your style configuration in the ``.clang-format`` or ``_clang-format``
125 file in your project's directory and using ``clang-format -style=file``.
127 An easy way to create the ``.clang-format`` file is:
129 .. code-block:: console
131 clang-format -style=llvm -dump-config > .clang-format
133 Available style options are described in :doc:`ClangFormatStyleOptions`.
138 You can create ``.clang-format-ignore`` files to make ``clang-format`` ignore
139 certain files. A ``.clang-format-ignore`` file consists of patterns of file path
140 names. It has the following format:
142 * A blank line is skipped.
143 * Leading and trailing spaces of a line are trimmed.
144 * A line starting with a hash (``#``) is a comment.
145 * A non-comment line is a single pattern.
146 * The slash (``/``) is used as the directory separator.
147 * A pattern is relative to the directory of the ``.clang-format-ignore`` file
148 (or the root directory if the pattern starts with a slash). Patterns
149 containing drive names (e.g. ``C:``) are not supported.
150 * Patterns follow the rules specified in `POSIX 2.13.1, 2.13.2, and Rule 1 of
151 2.13.3 <https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/
152 V3_chap02.html#tag_18_13>`_.
153 * Bash globstar (``**``) is supported.
154 * A pattern is negated if it starts with a bang (``!``).
156 To match all files in a directory, use e.g. ``foo/bar/*``. To match all files in
157 the directory of the ``.clang-format-ignore`` file, use ``*``.
158 Multiple ``.clang-format-ignore`` files are supported similar to the
159 ``.clang-format`` files, with a lower directory level file voiding the higher
165 There is an integration for :program:`vim` which lets you run the
166 :program:`clang-format` standalone tool on your current buffer, optionally
167 selecting regions to reformat. The integration has the form of a `python`-file
168 which can be found under `clang/tools/clang-format/clang-format.py`.
170 This can be integrated by adding the following to your `.vimrc`:
175 map <C-K> :pyf <path-to-this-file>/clang-format.py<cr>
176 imap <C-K> <c-o>:pyf <path-to-this-file>/clang-format.py<cr>
177 elseif has('python3')
178 map <C-K> :py3f <path-to-this-file>/clang-format.py<cr>
179 imap <C-K> <c-o>:py3f <path-to-this-file>/clang-format.py<cr>
182 The first line enables :program:`clang-format` for NORMAL and VISUAL mode, the
183 second line adds support for INSERT mode. Change "C-K" to another binding if
184 you need :program:`clang-format` on a different key (C-K stands for Ctrl+k).
186 With this integration you can press the bound key and clang-format will
187 format the current line in NORMAL and INSERT mode or the selected region in
188 VISUAL mode. The line or region is extended to the next bigger syntactic
191 It operates on the current, potentially unsaved buffer and does not create
192 or save any files. To revert a formatting, just undo.
194 An alternative option is to format changes when saving a file and thus to
195 have a zero-effort integration into the coding workflow. To do this, add this to
200 function! Formatonsave()
202 pyf <path-to-this-file>/clang-format.py
204 autocmd BufWritePre *.h,*.cc,*.cpp call Formatonsave()
210 Similar to the integration for :program:`vim`, there is an integration for
211 :program:`emacs`. It can be found at `clang/tools/clang-format/clang-format.el`
212 and used by adding this to your `.emacs`:
214 .. code-block:: common-lisp
216 (load "<path-to-clang>/tools/clang-format/clang-format.el")
217 (global-set-key [C-M-tab] 'clang-format-region)
219 This binds the function `clang-format-region` to C-M-tab, which then formats the
220 current line or selected region.
226 :program:`clang-format` cannot be used as a text filter with BBEdit, but works
227 well via a script. The AppleScript to do this integration can be found at
228 `clang/tools/clang-format/clang-format-bbedit.applescript`; place a copy in
229 `~/Library/Application Support/BBEdit/Scripts`, and edit the path within it to
230 point to your local copy of :program:`clang-format`.
232 With this integration you can select the script from the Script menu and
233 :program:`clang-format` will format the selection. Note that you can rename the
234 menu item by renaming the script, and can assign the menu item a keyboard
235 shortcut in the BBEdit preferences, under Menus & Shortcuts.
241 :program:`clang-format` is integrated into `CLion <https://www.jetbrains
242 .com/clion/>`_ as an alternative code formatter. CLion turns it on
243 automatically when there is a ``.clang-format`` file under the project root.
244 Code style rules are applied as you type, including indentation,
245 auto-completion, code generation, and refactorings.
247 :program:`clang-format` can also be enabled without a ``.clang-format`` file.
248 In this case, CLion prompts you to create one based on the current IDE settings
249 or the default LLVM style.
252 Visual Studio Integration
253 =========================
255 Download the latest Visual Studio extension from the `alpha build site
256 <https://llvm.org/builds/>`_. The default key-binding is Ctrl-R,Ctrl-F.
259 Visual Studio Code Integration
260 ==============================
262 Get the latest Visual Studio Code extension from the `Visual Studio Marketplace <https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=xaver.clang-format>`_. The default key-binding is Alt-Shift-F.
267 The script `clang/tools/clang-format/git-clang-format` can be used to
268 format just the lines touched in git commits:
270 .. code-block:: console
272 % git clang-format -h
273 usage: git clang-format [OPTIONS] [<commit>] [<commit>|--staged] [--] [<file>...]
275 If zero or one commits are given, run clang-format on all lines that differ
276 between the working directory and <commit>, which defaults to HEAD. Changes are
277 only applied to the working directory, or in the stage/index.
280 To format staged changes, i.e everything that's been `git add`ed:
283 To also format everything touched in the most recent commit:
284 git clang-format HEAD~1
286 If you're on a branch off main, to format everything touched on your branch:
287 git clang-format main
289 If two commits are given (requires --diff), run clang-format on all lines in the
290 second <commit> that differ from the first <commit>.
292 The following git-config settings set the default of the corresponding option:
295 clangFormat.extensions
298 positional arguments:
299 <commit> revision from which to compute the diff
300 <file>... if specified, only consider differences in these files
303 -h, --help show this help message and exit
304 --binary BINARY path to clang-format
305 --commit COMMIT default commit to use if none is specified
306 --diff print a diff instead of applying the changes
307 --diffstat print a diffstat instead of applying the changes
308 --extensions EXTENSIONS
309 comma-separated list of file extensions to format, excluding the period and case-insensitive
310 -f, --force allow changes to unstaged files
311 -p, --patch select hunks interactively
312 -q, --quiet print less information
313 --staged, --cached format lines in the stage instead of the working dir
314 --style STYLE passed to clang-format
315 -v, --verbose print extra information
318 Script for patch reformatting
319 =============================
321 The python script `clang/tools/clang-format/clang-format-diff.py` parses the
322 output of a unified diff and reformats all contained lines with
323 :program:`clang-format`.
325 .. code-block:: console
327 usage: clang-format-diff.py [-h] [-i] [-p NUM] [-regex PATTERN] [-iregex PATTERN] [-sort-includes] [-v] [-style STYLE]
328 [-fallback-style FALLBACK_STYLE] [-binary BINARY]
330 This script reads input from a unified diff and reformats all the changed
331 lines. This is useful to reformat all the lines touched by a specific patch.
332 Example usage for git/svn users:
334 git diff -U0 --no-color --relative HEAD^ | clang-format-diff.py -p1 -i
335 svn diff --diff-cmd=diff -x-U0 | clang-format-diff.py -i
337 It should be noted that the filename contained in the diff is used unmodified
338 to determine the source file to update. Users calling this script directly
339 should be careful to ensure that the path in the diff is correct relative to the
340 current working directory.
343 -h, --help show this help message and exit
344 -i apply edits to files instead of displaying a diff
345 -p NUM strip the smallest prefix containing P slashes
346 -regex PATTERN custom pattern selecting file paths to reformat (case sensitive, overrides -iregex)
347 -iregex PATTERN custom pattern selecting file paths to reformat (case insensitive, overridden by -regex)
348 -sort-includes let clang-format sort include blocks
349 -v, --verbose be more verbose, ineffective without -i
350 -style STYLE formatting style to apply (LLVM, GNU, Google, Chromium, Microsoft, Mozilla, WebKit)
351 -fallback-style FALLBACK_STYLE
352 The name of the predefined style used as a fallback in case clang-format is invoked with-style=file, but can not
353 find the .clang-formatfile to use.
354 -binary BINARY location of binary to use for clang-format
356 To reformat all the lines in the latest Mercurial/:program:`hg` commit, do:
358 .. code-block:: console
360 hg diff -U0 --color=never | clang-format-diff.py -i -p1
362 The option `-U0` will create a diff without context lines (the script would format
365 These commands use the file paths shown in the diff output
366 so they will only work from the root of the repository.