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> ...]
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: .mjs .js .ts
55 Proto: .proto .protodevel
57 TextProto: .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 --fallback-style=<string> - The name of the predefined style used as a
65 fallback in case clang-format is invoked with
66 -style=file, but can not find the .clang-format
67 file to use. Defaults to 'LLVM'.
68 Use -fallback-style=none to skip formatting.
69 --ferror-limit=<uint> - Set the maximum number of clang-format errors to emit
70 before stopping (0 = no limit).
71 Used only with --dry-run or -n
72 --files=<string> - Provide a list of files to run clang-format
73 -i - Inplace edit <file>s, if specified.
74 --length=<uint> - Format a range of this length (in bytes).
75 Multiple ranges can be formatted by specifying
76 several -offset and -length pairs.
77 When only a single -offset is specified without
78 -length, clang-format will format up to the end
80 Can only be used with one input file.
81 --lines=<string> - <start line>:<end line> - format a range of
83 Multiple ranges can be formatted by specifying
84 several -lines arguments.
85 Can't be used with -offset and -length.
86 Can only be used with one input file.
87 -n - Alias for --dry-run
88 --offset=<uint> - Format a range starting at this byte offset.
89 Multiple ranges can be formatted by specifying
90 several -offset and -length pairs.
91 Can only be used with one input file.
92 --output-replacements-xml - Output replacements as XML.
93 --qualifier-alignment=<string> - If set, overrides the qualifier alignment style
94 determined by the QualifierAlignment style flag
95 --sort-includes - If set, overrides the include sorting behavior
96 determined by the SortIncludes style flag
97 --style=<string> - Set coding style. <string> can be:
98 1. A preset: LLVM, GNU, Google, Chromium, Microsoft,
100 2. 'file' to load style configuration from a
101 .clang-format file in one of the parent directories
102 of the source file (for stdin, see --assume-filename).
103 If no .clang-format file is found, falls back to
105 --style=file is the default.
106 3. 'file:<format_file_path>' to explicitly specify
107 the configuration file.
108 4. "{key: value, ...}" to set specific parameters, e.g.:
109 --style="{BasedOnStyle: llvm, IndentWidth: 8}"
110 --verbose - If set, shows the list of processed files
114 --help - Display available options (--help-hidden for more)
115 --help-list - Display list of available options (--help-list-hidden for more)
116 --version - Display the version of this program
121 When the desired code formatting style is different from the available options,
122 the style can be customized using the ``-style="{key: value, ...}"`` option or
123 by putting your style configuration in the ``.clang-format`` or ``_clang-format``
124 file in your project's directory and using ``clang-format -style=file``.
126 An easy way to create the ``.clang-format`` file is:
128 .. code-block:: console
130 clang-format -style=llvm -dump-config > .clang-format
132 Available style options are described in :doc:`ClangFormatStyleOptions`.
138 There is an integration for :program:`vim` which lets you run the
139 :program:`clang-format` standalone tool on your current buffer, optionally
140 selecting regions to reformat. The integration has the form of a `python`-file
141 which can be found under `clang/tools/clang-format/clang-format.py`.
143 This can be integrated by adding the following to your `.vimrc`:
147 map <C-K> :pyf <path-to-this-file>/clang-format.py<cr>
148 imap <C-K> <c-o>:pyf <path-to-this-file>/clang-format.py<cr>
150 The first line enables :program:`clang-format` for NORMAL and VISUAL mode, the
151 second line adds support for INSERT mode. Change "C-K" to another binding if
152 you need :program:`clang-format` on a different key (C-K stands for Ctrl+k).
154 With this integration you can press the bound key and clang-format will
155 format the current line in NORMAL and INSERT mode or the selected region in
156 VISUAL mode. The line or region is extended to the next bigger syntactic
159 It operates on the current, potentially unsaved buffer and does not create
160 or save any files. To revert a formatting, just undo.
162 An alternative option is to format changes when saving a file and thus to
163 have a zero-effort integration into the coding workflow. To do this, add this to
168 function! Formatonsave()
170 pyf ~/llvm/tools/clang/tools/clang-format/clang-format.py
172 autocmd BufWritePre *.h,*.cc,*.cpp call Formatonsave()
178 Similar to the integration for :program:`vim`, there is an integration for
179 :program:`emacs`. It can be found at `clang/tools/clang-format/clang-format.el`
180 and used by adding this to your `.emacs`:
182 .. code-block:: common-lisp
184 (load "<path-to-clang>/tools/clang-format/clang-format.el")
185 (global-set-key [C-M-tab] 'clang-format-region)
187 This binds the function `clang-format-region` to C-M-tab, which then formats the
188 current line or selected region.
194 :program:`clang-format` cannot be used as a text filter with BBEdit, but works
195 well via a script. The AppleScript to do this integration can be found at
196 `clang/tools/clang-format/clang-format-bbedit.applescript`; place a copy in
197 `~/Library/Application Support/BBEdit/Scripts`, and edit the path within it to
198 point to your local copy of :program:`clang-format`.
200 With this integration you can select the script from the Script menu and
201 :program:`clang-format` will format the selection. Note that you can rename the
202 menu item by renaming the script, and can assign the menu item a keyboard
203 shortcut in the BBEdit preferences, under Menus & Shortcuts.
209 :program:`clang-format` is integrated into `CLion <https://www.jetbrains
210 .com/clion/>`_ as an alternative code formatter. CLion turns it on
211 automatically when there is a ``.clang-format`` file under the project root.
212 Code style rules are applied as you type, including indentation,
213 auto-completion, code generation, and refactorings.
215 :program:`clang-format` can also be enabled without a ``.clang-format`` file.
216 In this case, CLion prompts you to create one based on the current IDE settings
217 or the default LLVM style.
220 Visual Studio Integration
221 =========================
223 Download the latest Visual Studio extension from the `alpha build site
224 <https://llvm.org/builds/>`_. The default key-binding is Ctrl-R,Ctrl-F.
227 Visual Studio Code Integration
228 ==============================
230 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.
235 The script `clang/tools/clang-format/git-clang-format` can be used to
236 format just the lines touched in git commits:
238 .. code-block:: console
240 % git clang-format -h
241 usage: git clang-format [OPTIONS] [<commit>] [<commit>|--staged] [--] [<file>...]
243 If zero or one commits are given, run clang-format on all lines that differ
244 between the working directory and <commit>, which defaults to HEAD. Changes are
245 only applied to the working directory, or in the stage/index.
248 To format staged changes, i.e everything that's been `git add`ed:
251 To also format everything touched in the most recent commit:
252 git clang-format HEAD~1
254 If you're on a branch off main, to format everything touched on your branch:
255 git clang-format main
257 If two commits are given (requires --diff), run clang-format on all lines in the
258 second <commit> that differ from the first <commit>.
260 The following git-config settings set the default of the corresponding option:
263 clangFormat.extensions
266 positional arguments:
267 <commit> revision from which to compute the diff
268 <file>... if specified, only consider differences in these files
271 -h, --help show this help message and exit
272 --binary BINARY path to clang-format
273 --commit COMMIT default commit to use if none is specified
274 --diff print a diff instead of applying the changes
275 --diffstat print a diffstat instead of applying the changes
276 --extensions EXTENSIONS
277 comma-separated list of file extensions to format, excluding the period and case-insensitive
278 -f, --force allow changes to unstaged files
279 -p, --patch select hunks interactively
280 -q, --quiet print less information
281 --staged, --cached format lines in the stage instead of the working dir
282 --style STYLE passed to clang-format
283 -v, --verbose print extra information
286 Script for patch reformatting
287 =============================
289 The python script `clang/tools/clang-format/clang-format-diff.py` parses the
290 output of a unified diff and reformats all contained lines with
291 :program:`clang-format`.
293 .. code-block:: console
295 usage: clang-format-diff.py [-h] [-i] [-p NUM] [-regex PATTERN] [-iregex PATTERN] [-sort-includes] [-v] [-style STYLE]
296 [-fallback-style FALLBACK_STYLE] [-binary BINARY]
298 This script reads input from a unified diff and reformats all the changed
299 lines. This is useful to reformat all the lines touched by a specific patch.
300 Example usage for git/svn users:
302 git diff -U0 --no-color --relative HEAD^ | clang-format-diff.py -p1 -i
303 svn diff --diff-cmd=diff -x-U0 | clang-format-diff.py -i
305 It should be noted that the filename contained in the diff is used unmodified
306 to determine the source file to update. Users calling this script directly
307 should be careful to ensure that the path in the diff is correct relative to the
308 current working directory.
311 -h, --help show this help message and exit
312 -i apply edits to files instead of displaying a diff
313 -p NUM strip the smallest prefix containing P slashes
314 -regex PATTERN custom pattern selecting file paths to reformat (case sensitive, overrides -iregex)
315 -iregex PATTERN custom pattern selecting file paths to reformat (case insensitive, overridden by -regex)
316 -sort-includes let clang-format sort include blocks
317 -v, --verbose be more verbose, ineffective without -i
318 -style STYLE formatting style to apply (LLVM, GNU, Google, Chromium, Microsoft, Mozilla, WebKit)
319 -fallback-style FALLBACK_STYLE
320 The name of the predefined style used as a fallback in case clang-format is invoked with-style=file, but can not
321 find the .clang-formatfile to use.
322 -binary BINARY location of binary to use for clang-format
324 To reformat all the lines in the latest Mercurial/:program:`hg` commit, do:
326 .. code-block:: console
328 hg diff -U0 --color=never | clang-format-diff.py -i -p1
330 The option `-U0` will create a diff without context lines (the script would format
333 These commands use the file paths shown in the diff output
334 so they will only work from the root of the repository.
336 Current State of Clang Format for LLVM
337 ======================================
339 The following table :doc:`ClangFormattedStatus` shows the current status of clang-formatting for the entire LLVM source tree.