INDENT(1)INDENT(1)NAME
indent - indent and format Objective-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 ] [ -osa | -nosa ] [ -npro ] [ -pcs | -npcs ]
[ -ps | -nps ] [ -psl | -npsl ] [ -sc | -nsc ] [ -sob | -nsob ]
[ -st ] [ -troff ] [ -tsn ] [ -v | -nv ]
DESCRIPTION
Indent is an Objective-C program formatter. It reformats the C program
in the input-file according to the switches. The switches that can be
specified 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 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(;;)
is handled properly.
FILES
./.indent.pro profile file
~/.indent.pro profile file
BUGS
Indent doesn't accept Objective-C style (//) comments.
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 March 13, 1989 INDENT(1)