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: .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=<filename> - A file containing a list of files to process, one
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`.
139 There is an integration for :program:`vim` which lets you run the
140 :program:`clang-format` standalone tool on your current buffer, optionally
141 selecting regions to reformat. The integration has the form of a `python`-file
142 which can be found under `clang/tools/clang-format/clang-format.py`.
144 This can be integrated by adding the following to your `.vimrc`:
148 map <C-K> :pyf <path-to-this-file>/clang-format.py<cr>
149 imap <C-K> <c-o>:pyf <path-to-this-file>/clang-format.py<cr>
151 The first line enables :program:`clang-format` for NORMAL and VISUAL mode, the
152 second line adds support for INSERT mode. Change "C-K" to another binding if
153 you need :program:`clang-format` on a different key (C-K stands for Ctrl+k).
155 With this integration you can press the bound key and clang-format will
156 format the current line in NORMAL and INSERT mode or the selected region in
157 VISUAL mode. The line or region is extended to the next bigger syntactic
160 It operates on the current, potentially unsaved buffer and does not create
161 or save any files. To revert a formatting, just undo.
163 An alternative option is to format changes when saving a file and thus to
164 have a zero-effort integration into the coding workflow. To do this, add this to
169 function! Formatonsave()
171 pyf <path-to-this-file>/clang-format.py
173 autocmd BufWritePre *.h,*.cc,*.cpp call Formatonsave()
179 Similar to the integration for :program:`vim`, there is an integration for
180 :program:`emacs`. It can be found at `clang/tools/clang-format/clang-format.el`
181 and used by adding this to your `.emacs`:
183 .. code-block:: common-lisp
185 (load "<path-to-clang>/tools/clang-format/clang-format.el")
186 (global-set-key [C-M-tab] 'clang-format-region)
188 This binds the function `clang-format-region` to C-M-tab, which then formats the
189 current line or selected region.
195 :program:`clang-format` cannot be used as a text filter with BBEdit, but works
196 well via a script. The AppleScript to do this integration can be found at
197 `clang/tools/clang-format/clang-format-bbedit.applescript`; place a copy in
198 `~/Library/Application Support/BBEdit/Scripts`, and edit the path within it to
199 point to your local copy of :program:`clang-format`.
201 With this integration you can select the script from the Script menu and
202 :program:`clang-format` will format the selection. Note that you can rename the
203 menu item by renaming the script, and can assign the menu item a keyboard
204 shortcut in the BBEdit preferences, under Menus & Shortcuts.
210 :program:`clang-format` is integrated into `CLion <https://www.jetbrains
211 .com/clion/>`_ as an alternative code formatter. CLion turns it on
212 automatically when there is a ``.clang-format`` file under the project root.
213 Code style rules are applied as you type, including indentation,
214 auto-completion, code generation, and refactorings.
216 :program:`clang-format` can also be enabled without a ``.clang-format`` file.
217 In this case, CLion prompts you to create one based on the current IDE settings
218 or the default LLVM style.
221 Visual Studio Integration
222 =========================
224 Download the latest Visual Studio extension from the `alpha build site
225 <https://llvm.org/builds/>`_. The default key-binding is Ctrl-R,Ctrl-F.
228 Visual Studio Code Integration
229 ==============================
231 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.
236 The script `clang/tools/clang-format/git-clang-format` can be used to
237 format just the lines touched in git commits:
239 .. code-block:: console
241 % git clang-format -h
242 usage: git clang-format [OPTIONS] [<commit>] [<commit>|--staged] [--] [<file>...]
244 If zero or one commits are given, run clang-format on all lines that differ
245 between the working directory and <commit>, which defaults to HEAD. Changes are
246 only applied to the working directory, or in the stage/index.
249 To format staged changes, i.e everything that's been `git add`ed:
252 To also format everything touched in the most recent commit:
253 git clang-format HEAD~1
255 If you're on a branch off main, to format everything touched on your branch:
256 git clang-format main
258 If two commits are given (requires --diff), run clang-format on all lines in the
259 second <commit> that differ from the first <commit>.
261 The following git-config settings set the default of the corresponding option:
264 clangFormat.extensions
267 positional arguments:
268 <commit> revision from which to compute the diff
269 <file>... if specified, only consider differences in these files
272 -h, --help show this help message and exit
273 --binary BINARY path to clang-format
274 --commit COMMIT default commit to use if none is specified
275 --diff print a diff instead of applying the changes
276 --diffstat print a diffstat instead of applying the changes
277 --extensions EXTENSIONS
278 comma-separated list of file extensions to format, excluding the period and case-insensitive
279 -f, --force allow changes to unstaged files
280 -p, --patch select hunks interactively
281 -q, --quiet print less information
282 --staged, --cached format lines in the stage instead of the working dir
283 --style STYLE passed to clang-format
284 -v, --verbose print extra information
287 Script for patch reformatting
288 =============================
290 The python script `clang/tools/clang-format/clang-format-diff.py` parses the
291 output of a unified diff and reformats all contained lines with
292 :program:`clang-format`.
294 .. code-block:: console
296 usage: clang-format-diff.py [-h] [-i] [-p NUM] [-regex PATTERN] [-iregex PATTERN] [-sort-includes] [-v] [-style STYLE]
297 [-fallback-style FALLBACK_STYLE] [-binary BINARY]
299 This script reads input from a unified diff and reformats all the changed
300 lines. This is useful to reformat all the lines touched by a specific patch.
301 Example usage for git/svn users:
303 git diff -U0 --no-color --relative HEAD^ | clang-format-diff.py -p1 -i
304 svn diff --diff-cmd=diff -x-U0 | clang-format-diff.py -i
306 It should be noted that the filename contained in the diff is used unmodified
307 to determine the source file to update. Users calling this script directly
308 should be careful to ensure that the path in the diff is correct relative to the
309 current working directory.
312 -h, --help show this help message and exit
313 -i apply edits to files instead of displaying a diff
314 -p NUM strip the smallest prefix containing P slashes
315 -regex PATTERN custom pattern selecting file paths to reformat (case sensitive, overrides -iregex)
316 -iregex PATTERN custom pattern selecting file paths to reformat (case insensitive, overridden by -regex)
317 -sort-includes let clang-format sort include blocks
318 -v, --verbose be more verbose, ineffective without -i
319 -style STYLE formatting style to apply (LLVM, GNU, Google, Chromium, Microsoft, Mozilla, WebKit)
320 -fallback-style FALLBACK_STYLE
321 The name of the predefined style used as a fallback in case clang-format is invoked with-style=file, but can not
322 find the .clang-formatfile to use.
323 -binary BINARY location of binary to use for clang-format
325 To reformat all the lines in the latest Mercurial/:program:`hg` commit, do:
327 .. code-block:: console
329 hg diff -U0 --color=never | clang-format-diff.py -i -p1
331 The option `-U0` will create a diff without context lines (the script would format
334 These commands use the file paths shown in the diff output
335 so they will only work from the root of the repository.
337 Current State of Clang Format for LLVM
338 ======================================
340 The following table :doc:`ClangFormattedStatus` shows the current status of clang-formatting for the entire LLVM source tree.