INDENT(1)                                                            INDENT(1)


NAME
       indent - indent and format 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 ]   [ -npro ]    [ -pcs | -npcs ]    [ -ps | -nps ]
              [ -psl | -npsl ]    [ -sc | -nsc ]    [ -sob | -nsob ]   [ -st ]
              [ -troff ] [ -v | -nv ]

DESCRIPTION
       Indent is a C program formatter.  It reformats the  C  program  in  the
       input-file according to the switches.  The switches which can be speci‐
       fied 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  col‐
                      umn 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 expres‐
                      sions have extra indentation added to indicate the nest‐
                      ing,  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  declara‐
                      tions 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 indenta‐
                      tion 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  pro‐
                      grammer.   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 declara‐
                      tions from the left margin.  The default is -ip.

       -ln            Maximum length of an output line.  The default is 78.

       -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));

       -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 accu‐
                      mulate: -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.

       -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 cur‐
       rent 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  accu‐
       mulate).   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  col‐
       umn’,  which  is set by the -cn command line parameter.  Otherwise, the
       comment is started at n indentation levels less than where code is cur‐
       rently  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 auto‐
       matically extended in extreme cases.

       Preprocessor lines

       In general, indent leaves preprocessor lines alone.  The only reformat‐
       ting  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 syntac‐
       tic 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 has even more switches than ls.

       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     September 10, 1985                     INDENT(1)
 
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