indent(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | INVOKING INDENT | BACKUP FILES | COMMON STYLES | BLANK LINES | --blank-lines-after-declarations | --blank-lines-after-procedures | COMMENTS | STATEMENTS | DECLARATIONS | INDENTATION | BREAKING LONG LINES | DISABLING FORMATTING | MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS | BUGS | COPYRIGHT | Options’ Cross Key | RETURN VALUE | FILES | AUTHORS | HISTORY | COPYING | COLOPHON

INDENT(1)                General Commands Manual               INDENT(1)

NAME         top

       indent - changes the appearance of a C program by inserting or
       deleting whitespace.

SYNOPSIS         top

       indent [options] [input-files]

       indent [options] [single-input-file] [-o output-file]

       indent --version

DESCRIPTION         top

       This man page is generated from the file indent.texinfo.  This is
       Edition  of "The indent Manual", for Indent Version , last
       updated .

       The indent program can be used to make code easier to read.  It
       can also convert from one style of writing C to another.

       indent understands a substantial amount about the syntax of C,
       but it also attempts to cope with incomplete and misformed
       syntax.

       In version 1.2 and more recent versions, the GNU style of
       indenting is the default.

OPTIONS         top

       -as, --align-with-spaces
           If using tabs for indentation, use spaces for alignment.
           See  INDENTATION.

       -bad, --blank-lines-after-declarations
           Force blank lines after the declarations.
           See  BLANK LINES.

       -bap, --blank-lines-after-procedures
           Force blank lines after procedure bodies.
           See  BLANK LINES.

       -bbb, --blank-lines-before-block-comments
           Force blank lines before block comments.
           See  BLANK LINES.

       -bbo, --break-before-boolean-operator
           Prefer to break long lines before boolean operators.
           See  BREAKING LONG LINES.

       -bc, --blank-lines-after-commas
           Force newline after comma in declaration.
           See  DECLARATIONS.

       -bl, --braces-after-if-line
           Put braces on line after if, etc.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -blf, --braces-after-func-def-line
           Put braces on line following function definition line.
           See  DECLARATIONS.

       -blin, --brace-indentn
           Indent braces n spaces.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -bls, --braces-after-struct-decl-line
           Put braces on the line after struct declaration lines.
           See  DECLARATIONS.

       -br, --braces-on-if-line
           Put braces on line with if, etc.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -brf, --braces-on-func-def-line
           Put braces on function definition line.
           See  DECLARATIONS.

       -brs, --braces-on-struct-decl-line
           Put braces on struct declaration line.
           See  DECLARATIONS.

       -bs, --Bill-Shannon, --blank-before-sizeof
           Put a space between sizeof and its argument.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -cn, --comment-indentationn
           Put comments to the right of code in column n.
           See  COMMENTS.

       -cbin, --case-brace-indentationn
           Indent braces after a case label N spaces.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -cdn, --declaration-comment-columnn
           Put comments to the right of the declarations in column n.
           See  COMMENTS.

       -cdb, --comment-delimiters-on-blank-lines
           Put comment delimiters on blank lines.
           See  COMMENTS.

       -cdw, --cuddle-do-while
           Cuddle while of do {} while; and preceding ‘}’.
           See  COMMENTS.

       -ce, --cuddle-else
           Cuddle else and preceding ‘}’.
           See  COMMENTS.

       -cin, --continuation-indentationn
           Continuation indent of n spaces.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -clin, --case-indentationn
           Case label indent of n spaces.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -cpn, --else-endif-columnn
           Put comments to the right of #else and #endif statements in
           column n.
           See  COMMENTS.

       -cs, --space-after-cast
           Put a space after a cast operator.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -dn, --line-comments-indentationn
           Set indentation of comments not to the right of code to n
           spaces.
           See  COMMENTS.

       -bfda, --break-function-decl-args
           Break the line before all arguments in a declaration.
           See  DECLARATIONS.

       -bfde, --break-function-decl-args-end
           Break the line after the last argument in a declaration.
           See  DECLARATIONS.

       -dj, --left-justify-declarations
           If -cd 0 is used then comments after declarations are left
           justified behind the declaration.
           See  DECLARATIONS.

       -din, --declaration-indentationn
           Put variables in column n.
           See  DECLARATIONS.

       -fc1, --format-first-column-comments
           Format comments in the first column.
           See  COMMENTS.

       -fca, --format-all-comments
           Do not disable all formatting of comments.
           See  COMMENTS.

       -fnc, --fix-nested-comments
           Fix nested comments.
           See  COMMENTS.

       -gnu, --gnu-style
           Use GNU coding style.  This is the default.
           See  COMMON STYLES.

       -gts, --gettext-strings
           Treat gettext _("...") and N_("...") as strings rather than
           as functions.
           See  BREAKING LONG LINES.

       -hnl, --honour-newlines
           Prefer to break long lines at the position of newlines in the
           input.
           See  BREAKING LONG LINES.

       -in, --indent-leveln
           Set indentation level to n spaces.
           See  INDENTATION.

       -iln, --indent-labeln
           Set offset for labels to column n.
           See  INDENTATION.

       -ipn, --parameter-indentationn
           Indent parameter types in old-style function definitions by n
           spaces.
           See  INDENTATION.

       -kr, --k-and-r-style
           Use Kernighan & Ritchie coding style.
           See  COMMON STYLES.

       -ln, --line-lengthn
           Set maximum line length for non-comment lines to n.
           See  BREAKING LONG LINES.

       -lcn, --comment-line-lengthn
           Set maximum line length for comment formatting to n.
           See  COMMENTS.

       -linux, --linux-style
           Use Linux coding style.
           See  COMMON STYLES.

       -lp, --continue-at-parentheses
           Line up continued lines at parentheses.
           See  INDENTATION.

       -lps, --leave-preprocessor-space
           Leave space between ‘#’ and preprocessor directive.
           See  INDENTATION.

       -nlps, --remove-preprocessor-space
           Remove space between ‘#’ and preprocessor directive.
           See  INDENTATION.

       -nbad, --no-blank-lines-after-declarations
           Do not force blank lines after declarations.
           See  BLANK LINES.

       -nbap, --no-blank-lines-after-procedures
           Do not force blank lines after procedure bodies.
           See  BLANK LINES.

       -nbbo, --break-after-boolean-operator
           Do not prefer to break long lines before boolean operators.
           See  BREAKING LONG LINES.

       -nbc, --no-blank-lines-after-commas
           Do not force newlines after commas in declarations.
           See  DECLARATIONS.

       -nbfda, --dont-break-function-decl-args
           Don’t put each argument in a function declaration on a
           separate line.
           See  DECLARATIONS.

       -ncdb, --no-comment-delimiters-on-blank-lines
           Do not put comment delimiters on blank lines.
           See  COMMENTS.

       -ncdw, --dont-cuddle-do-while
           Do not cuddle } and the while of a do {} while;.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -nce, --dont-cuddle-else
           Do not cuddle } and else.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -ncs, --no-space-after-casts
           Do not put a space after cast operators.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -ndjn, --dont-left-justify-declarations
           Comments after declarations are treated the same as comments
           after other statements.
           See  DECLARATIONS.

       -nfc1, --dont-format-first-column-comments
           Do not format comments in the first column as normal.
           See  COMMENTS.

       -nfca, --dont-format-comments
           Do not format any comments.
           See  COMMENTS.

       -ngts, --no-gettext-strings
           Treat gettext _("...") and N_("...") as normal functions.
           This is the default.
           See  BREAKING LONG LINES.

       -nhnl, --ignore-newlines
           Do not prefer to break long lines at the position of newlines
           in the input.
           See  BREAKING LONG LINES.

       -nip, --no-parameter-indentation
           Zero width indentation for parameters.
           See  INDENTATION.

       -nlp, --dont-line-up-parentheses
           Do not line up parentheses.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -npcs, --no-space-after-function-call-names
           Do not put space after the function in function calls.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -nprs, --no-space-after-parentheses
           Do not put a space after every ’(’ and before every ’)’.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -npsl, --dont-break-procedure-type
           Put the type of a procedure on the same line as its name.
           See  DECLARATIONS.

       -nsaf, --no-space-after-for
           Do not put a space after every for.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -nsai, --no-space-after-if
           Do not put a space after every if.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -nsaw, --no-space-after-while
           Do not put a space after every while.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -nsc, --dont-star-comments
           Do not put the ‘*’ character at the left of comments.
           See  COMMENTS.

       -nsob, --leave-optional-blank-lines
           Do not swallow optional blank lines.
           See  BLANK LINES.

       -nss, --dont-space-special-semicolon
           Do not force a space before the semicolon after certain
           statements.  Disables ‘-ss’.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -ntac, --dont-tab-align-comments
           Do not pad comments out to the nearest tabstop.
           See  COMMENTS.

       -nut, --no-tabs
           Use spaces instead of tabs.
           See  INDENTATION.

       -nv, --no-verbosity
           Disable verbose mode.
           See  MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS.

       -orig, --original
           Use the original Berkeley coding style.
           See  COMMON STYLES.

       -npro, --ignore-profile
           Do not read ‘.indent.pro’ files.
           See  INVOKING INDENT.

       -pal, --pointer-align-left
           Put asterisks in pointer declarations on the left of spaces,
           next to types: ‘‘char* p’’.

       -par, --pointer-align-right
           Put asterisks in pointer declarations on the right of spaces,
           next to variable names: ‘‘char *p’’. This is the default
           behavior.

       -pcs, --space-after-procedure-calls
           Insert a space between the name of the procedure being called
           and the ‘(’.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -pin, --paren-indentationn
           Specify the extra indentation per open parentheses ’(’ when a
           statement is broken.See  STATEMENTS.

       -pmt, --preserve-mtime
           Preserve access and modification times on output files.See
            MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS.

       -ppin, --preprocessor-indentationn
           Specify the indentation for preprocessor conditional
           statements.See  INDENTATION.

       -prs, --space-after-parentheses
           Put a space after every ’(’ and before every ’)’.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -psl, --procnames-start-lines
           Put the type of a procedure on the line before its name.
           See  DECLARATIONS.

       -saf, --space-after-for
           Put a space after each for.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -sai, --space-after-if
           Put a space after each if.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -sar, --spaces-around-initializers
           Put a space after the ‘{’ and before the ‘}’ in initializers.
           See  DECLARATIONS.

       -saw, --space-after-while
           Put a space after each while.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -sbin, --struct-brace-indentationn
           Indent braces of a struct, union or enum N spaces.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -sc, --start-left-side-of-comments
           Put the ‘*’ character at the left of comments.
           See  COMMENTS.

       -slc, --single-line-conditionals
           Allow for unbraced conditionals (if, else, etc.) to have
           their inner statement on the same line.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -sob, --swallow-optional-blank-lines
           Swallow optional blank lines.
           See  BLANK LINES.

       -ss, --space-special-semicolon
           On one-line for and while statements, force a blank before
           the semicolon.
           See  STATEMENTS.

       -st, --standard-output
           Write to standard output.
           See  INVOKING INDENT.

       -T  Tell indent the name of typenames.
           See  DECLARATIONS.

       -tsn, --tab-sizen
           Set tab size to n spaces.
           See  INDENTATION.

       -ut, --use-tabs
           Use tabs. This is the default.
           See  INDENTATION.

       -v, --verbose
           Enable verbose mode.
           See  MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS.

       -version
           Output the version number of indent.
           See  MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS.

INVOKING INDENT         top

       As of version 1.3, the format of the indent command is:

            indent [options] [input-files]

            indent [options] [single-input-file] [-o output-file]

       This format is different from earlier versions and other versions
       of indent.

       In the first form, one or more input files are specified.  indent
       makes  a  backup  copy  of  each  file,  and the original file is
       replaced with its indented version.   See  BACKUP FILES,  for  an
       explanation of how backups are made.

       In  the  second  form, only one input file is specified.  In this
       case, or when the standard input is  used,  you  may  specify  an
       output file after the ‘-o’ option.

       To  cause  indent  to  write  to  standard  output, use the ‘-st’
       option.  This is only allowed when there is only one input  file,
       or when the standard input is used.

       If  no  input  files  are  named,  the standard input is read for
       input.  Also, if a filename named  ‘-’  is  specified,  then  the
       standard input is read.

       As  an  example,  each  of  the following commands will input the
       program  ‘slithy_toves.c’  and  write  its   indented   text   to
       ‘slithy_toves.out’:

            indent slithy_toves.c -o slithy_toves.out

            indent -st slithy_toves.c > slithy_toves.out

            cat slithy_toves.c | indent -o slithy_toves.out

       Most  other options to indent control how programs are formatted.
       As of version 1.2, indent also recognizes a long  name  for  each
       option name.  Long options are prefixed by either ‘--’ or ‘+’.  [
       ‘+’  is being superseded by ‘--’ to maintain consistency with the
       POSIX standard.]
        In most of this document, the traditional, short names are  used
       for  the  sake  of  brevity.   See  OPTION SUMMARY, for a list of
       options, including both long and short names.

       Here is another example:

            indent -br test/metabolism.c -l85

       This will indent the program ‘test/metabolism.c’ using the  ‘-br’
       and ‘-l85’ options, write the output back to ‘test/metabolism.c’,
       and  write  the  original  contents  of  ‘test/metabolism.c’ to a
       backup file in the directory ‘test’.

       Equivalent invocations using long option names for  this  example
       would be:

            indent --braces-on-if-line --line-length185 test/metabolism.c

            indent +braces-on-if-line +line-length185 test/metabolism.c

       If  you find that you often use indent with the same options, you
       may put those options into a file  named  ‘.indent.pro’.   indent
       will look for a profile file in three places. First it will check
       the environment variable INDENT_PROFILE. If that exists its value
       is  expected  to  name  the  file  that  is  to  be  used. If the
       environment  variable  does   not   exist,   indent   looks   for
       ‘.indent.pro’ in the current directory
        and  use  that  if  found.  Finally indent will search your home
       directory for ‘.indent.pro’ and use that file  if  it  is  found.
       This  behaviour  is  different  from  that  of  other versions of
       indent, which load both files if they both exist.

       The format of ‘.indent.pro’ is simply a list of options, just  as
       they  would  appear on the command line, separated by white space
       (tabs, spaces, and newlines).  Options in  ‘.indent.pro’  may  be
       surrounded by C or C++ comments, in which case they are ignored.

       Command line switches are handled after processing ‘.indent.pro’.
       Options  specified  later  override  arguments specified earlier,
       with one exception: Explicitly specified options always  override
       background  options  (See COMMON STYLES).  You can prevent indent
       from reading an ‘.indent.pro’  file  by  specifying  the  ‘-npro’
       option.

BACKUP FILES         top

       As  of  version 1.3, GNU indent makes GNU-style backup files, the
       same way GNU Emacs  does.   This  means  that  either  simple  or
       numbered backup filenames may be made.

       Simple  backup  file names are generated by appending a suffix to
       the original file name.  The default for this suffix is the  one-
       character   string  ‘~’  (tilde).   Thus,  the  backup  file  for
       ‘python.c’ would be ‘python.c~’.

       Instead of the default, you may specify any string as a suffix by
       setting the environment  variable  SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX  to  your
       preferred suffix.

       Numbered  backup  versions  of  a  file  ‘momeraths.c’  look like
       ‘momeraths.c.~23~’, where 23 is the version  of  this  particular
       backup.    When   making   a   numbered   backup   of   the  file
       ‘src/momeraths.c’,   the    backup    file    will    be    named
       ‘src/momeraths.c.~V~’,  where  V  is one greater than the highest
       version  currently  existing  in  the   directory   ‘src’.    The
       environment variable VERSION_WIDTH controls the number of digits,
       using  left  zero  padding when necessary.  For instance, setting
       this variable to "2" will lead to the  backup  file  being  named
       ‘momeraths.c.~04~’.

       The  type  of  backup file made is controlled by the value of the
       environment  variable  VERSION_CONTROL.   If  it  is  the  string
       ‘simple’, then only simple backups will be made.  If its value is
       the  string  ‘numbered’,  then numbered backups will be made.  If
       its value is ‘numbered-existing’, then numbered backups  will  be
       made  if  there already exist numbered backups for the file being
       indented; otherwise, a simple backup is made.  If VERSION_CONTROL
       is not set, then  indent  assumes  the  behaviour  of  ‘numbered-
       existing’.

       Other  versions  of indent use the suffix ‘.BAK’ in naming backup
       files.    This   behaviour   can   be   emulated    by    setting
       SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX to ‘.BAK’.

       Note  also  that  other  versions  of  indent make backups in the
       current directory, rather than in the  directory  of  the  source
       file as GNU indent now does.

COMMON STYLES         top

       There  are  several  common  styles  of C code, including the GNU
       style, the Kernighan & Ritchie style, and the  original  Berkeley
       style.   A style may be selected with a single background option,
       which specifies a set of values for all other options.   However,
       explicitly specified options always override options implied by a
       background option.

       As  of  version  1.2,  the default style of GNU indent is the GNU
       style.  Thus, it is no longer necessary  to  specify  the  option
       ‘-gnu’ to obtain this format, although doing so will not cause an
       error.  Option settings which correspond to the GNU style are:

            -nbad -bap -nbc -bbo -bl -bli2 -bls -ncdb -nce -cp1 -cs -di2
            -ndj -nfc1 -nfca -hnl -i2 -ip5 -lp -pcs -nprs -psl -saf -sai
            -saw -nsc -nsob

       The GNU coding style is that preferred by the GNU project.  It is
       the  style that the GNU Emacs C mode encourages and which is used
       in the C portions of GNU Emacs.  (People  interested  in  writing
       programs  for  Project  GNU  should get a copy of "The GNU Coding
       Standards", which also covers  semantic  and  portability  issues
       such as memory usage, the size of integers, etc.)

       The Kernighan & Ritchie style is used throughout their well-known
       book  "The C Programming Language".  It is enabled with the ‘-kr’
       option.   The  Kernighan  &  Ritchie  style  corresponds  to  the
       following set of options:

            -nbad -bap -bbo -nbc -br -brs -c33 -cd33 -ncdb -ce -ci4 -cli0
            -cp33 -cs -d0 -di1 -nfc1 -nfca -hnl -i4 -ip0 -l75 -lp -npcs
            -nprs -npsl -saf -sai -saw -nsc -nsob -nss -par

       Kernighan  &  Ritchie style does not put comments to the right of
       code in the same column at all times (nor does it  use  only  one
       space  to  the  right  of the code), so for this style indent has
       arbitrarily chosen column 33.

       The style of the original Berkeley  indent  may  be  obtained  by
       specifying ‘-orig’ (or by specifying ‘--original’, using the long
       option   name).   This  style  is  equivalent  to  the  following
       settings:

            -nbad -nbap -bbo -bc -br -brs -c33 -cd33 -cdb -ce -ci4 -cli0
            -cp33 -di16 -fc1 -fca -hnl -i4 -ip4 -l75 -lp -npcs -nprs -psl
            -saf -sai -saw -sc -nsob -nss -ts8

       The Linux style is used in the linux  kernel  code  and  drivers.
       Code  generally  has  to  follow  the  Linux  coding  style to be
       accepted.  This style is equivalent to the following settings:

            -nbad -bap -nbc -bbo -hnl -br -brs -c33 -cd33 -ncdb -ce -ci4
            -cli0 -d0 -di1 -nfc1 -i8 -ip0 -l80 -lp -npcs -nprs -npsl -sai
            -saf -saw -ncs -nsc -sob -nfca -cp33 -ss -ts8 -il1

BLANK LINES         top

       Various programming styles use blank lines in  different  places.
       indent has a number of options to insert or delete blank lines in
       specific places.

       The ‘-bad’ option causes indent to force a blank line after every
       block  of  declarations.  The ‘-nbad’ option causes indent not to
       force such blank lines.

       The ‘-bap’ option forces a blank line after every procedure body.
       The ‘-nbap’ option forces no such blank line.

       The ‘-bbb’ option forces a blank line before every boxed  comment
       (See  COMMENTS.)   The  ‘-nbbb’  option does not force such blank
       lines.

       The ‘-sob’ option causes indent to swallow optional  blank  lines
       (that  is,  any optional blank lines present in the input will be
       removed from the output).  If the ‘-nsob’ is specified, any blank
       lines present in the input file will  be  copied  to  the  output
       file.

--blank-lines-after-declarations         top

       The  ‘-bad’  option  forces  a  blank  line  after every block of
       declarations.  The ‘-nbad’ option does not  add  any  such  blank
       lines.

       For example, given the input
            char *foo;
            char *bar;
            /* This separates blocks of declarations.  */
            int baz;

       indent -bad produces

            char *foo;
            char *bar;

            /* This separates blocks of declarations.  */
            int baz;

       and indent -nbad produces

            char *foo;
            char *bar;
            /* This separates blocks of declarations.  */
            int baz;

--blank-lines-after-procedures         top

       The ‘-bap’ option forces a blank line after every procedure body.

       For example, given the input

            int
            foo ()
            {
              puts("Hi");
            }
            /* The procedure bar is even less interesting.  */
            char *
            bar ()
            {
              puts("Hello");
            }

       indent -bap produces

            int
            foo ()
            {
              puts ("Hi");
            }

            /* The procedure bar is even less interesting.  */
            char *
            bar ()
            {
              puts ("Hello");
            }

       and indent -nbap produces

            int
            foo ()
            {
              puts ("Hi");
            }
            /* The procedure bar is even less interesting.  */
            char *
            bar ()
            {
              puts ("Hello");
            }

       No blank line will be added after the procedure foo.

COMMENTS         top

       indent formats both C and C++ comments. C comments are begun with
       ‘/*’,  terminated  with  ‘*/’ and may contain newline characters.
       C++ comments begin  with  the  delimiter  ‘//’  and  end  at  the
       newline.

       indent handles comments differently depending upon their context.
       indent  attempts  to  distinguish  between  comments which follow
       statements,  comments   which   follow   declarations,   comments
       following  preprocessor  directives,  and  comments which are not
       preceded by code of any sort, i.e., they begin the  text  of  the
       line (although not necessarily in column 1).

       indent  further  distinguishes  between comments found outside of
       procedures and aggregates,  and  those  found  within  them.   In
       particular,  comments  beginning  a line found within a procedure
       will be indented  to  the  column  at  which  code  is  currently
       indented.   The  exception  to this is a comment beginning in the
       leftmost column;  such a comment is output at that column.

       indent attempts to leave boxed comments unmodified.  The  general
       idea  of  such a comment is that it is enclosed in a rectangle or
       ‘‘box’’ of stars or  dashes  to  visually  set  it  apart.   More
       precisely,  boxed  comments  are  defined  as  those in which the
       initial ‘/*’ is followed immediately by the character  ‘*’,  ‘=’,
       ‘_’,  or  ‘-’,  or those in which the beginning comment delimiter
       (‘/*’) is on a line by itself, and the following line begins with
       a ‘*’ in the same column as the star of the opening delimiter.

       Examples of boxed comments are:

            /**********************
             * Comment in a box!! *
             **********************/

                   /*
                    * A different kind of scent,
                    * for a different kind of comment.
                    */

       indent attempts to leave boxed comments exactly as they are found
       in the source file.  Thus  the  indentation  of  the  comment  is
       unchanged,  and  its  length is not checked in any way.  The only
       alteration  made  is  that  an  embedded  tab  character  may  be
       converted into the appropriate number of spaces.

       If  the  ‘-bbb’ option is specified, all such boxed comments will
       be preceded by a blank line, unless such a comment is preceded by
       code.

       Comments which are not boxed comments  may  be  formatted,  which
       means  that  the  line is broken to fit within a right margin and
       left-filled with whitespace.  Single newlines are equivalent to a
       space, but blank lines (two or more newlines in a row) are  taken
       to  mean  a  paragraph break.  Formatting of comments which begin
       after the first column is enabled with  the  ‘-fca’  option.   To
       format  those  beginning  in  column  one,  specify ‘-fc1’.  Such
       formatting is disabled by default.

       The right margin for  formatting  defaults  to  78,  but  may  be
       changed  with the ‘-lc’ option.  If the margin specified does not
       allow the comment to be printed, the margin will be automatically
       extended for the duration of that comment.   The  margin  is  not
       respected if the comment is not being formatted.

       If  the  ‘-fnc’  option  is  specified,  all  comments  with ‘/*’
       embedded will have that character sequence replaced  by  a  space
       followed by the character ‘*’ thus eliminating nesting.

       If  the  comment begins a line (i.e., there is no program text to
       its left), it will be indented to the  column  it  was  found  in
       unless the comment is within a block of code.  In that case, such
       a  comment  will  be aligned with the indented code of that block
       (unless the comment began in the first column).   This  alignment
       may  be affected by the ‘-d’ option, which specifies an amount by
       which such comments are moved to the left,  or  unindented.   For
       example,  ‘-d2’  places  comments two spaces to the left of code.
       By default, comments are aligned with code, unless they begin  in
       the  first  column,  in which case they are left there by default
       --- to get them aligned with the code, specify ‘-fc1’.

       Comments to the right of code will appear by  default  in  column
       33.   This  may  be changed with one of three options.  ‘-c’ will
       specify the column for comments following code,  ‘-cd’  specifies
       the   column  for  comments  following  declarations,  and  ‘-cp’
       specifies  the  column  for   comments   following   preprocessor
       directives  #else  and  #endif. ‘-dj’ together with ‘-cd0’ can be
       used  to  suppress  alignment  of  comments  to  the   right   of
       declarations,  causing the comment to follow one tabstop from the
       end of the declaration. Normally ‘-cd0’  causes  ‘-c’  to  become
       effective.

       If  the  code  to  the  left of the comment exceeds the beginning
       column, the comment column will be extended to the  next  tabstop
       column  past  the  end  of the code, unless the ‘-ntac’ option is
       specified.  In the case of preprocessor  directives,comments  are
       extended  to  to  one  space past the end of the directive.  This
       extension lasts only for the output of that particular comment.

       The ‘-cdb’ option places the comment delimiters on  blank  lines.
       Thus,  a  single  line  comment  like  /*  Loving  hug  */ can be
       transformed into:

            /*
               Loving hug
             */

       Stars can be placed at the beginning of multi-line comments  with
       the  ‘-sc’  option.   Thus,  the single-line comment above can be
       transformed (with ‘-cdb -sc’) into:

            /*
             * Loving hug
             */

STATEMENTS         top

       The ‘-br’ or ‘-bl’ option specifies how to format braces.

       The ‘-br’ option formats statement braces like this:

            if (x > 0) {
              x--;
            }

       The ‘-bl’ option formats them like this:

            if (x > 0)
              {
                x--;
              }

       If you use the ‘-bl’ option, you may also  want  to  specify  the
       ‘-bli’  option.   This  option  specifies the number of spaces by
       which braces are  indented.   ‘-bli2’,  the  default,  gives  the
       result shown above.  ‘-bli0’ results in the following:

            if (x > 0)
            {
              x--;
            }

       If  you are using the ‘-br’ option, you probably want to also use
       the ‘-ce’ option.   This  causes  the  else  in  an  if-then-else
       construct  to  cuddle  up  to the immediately preceding ‘}’.  For
       example, with ‘-br -ce’ you get the following:

            if (x > 0) {
              x--;
            } else {
              fprintf (stderr, "...something wrong?\n");
            }

       With ‘-br -nce’ that code would appear as

            if (x > 0) {
              x--;
            }
            else {
              fprintf (stderr, "...something wrong?\n");
            }

       An exception to the behavior  occurs  when  there  is  a  comment
       between the right brace and the subsequent else statement.  While
       the  ‘-br’  option  will  cause  a  left  brace  to jump over the
       comment, the else does  not  jump  over  the  comment  to  cuddle
       because it has a strong likelihood of changing the meaning of the
       comment.

       The  ‘-cdw’  option causes the while in a do-while loop to cuddle
       up to the immediately preceding ‘}’.  For  example,  with  ‘-cdw’
       you get the following:

            do {
              x--;
            } while (x);

       With ‘-ncdw’ that code would appear as

            do {
              x--;
            }
            while (x);

       The  ‘-slc’  option  allows  for  an unbraced conditional and its
       inner statement to appear on the same line. For example:

            if (x) x--;
            else x++;

       Without ‘-slc’ that code would appear as

            if (x)
              x--;
            else
              x++;

       The ‘-cli’ option specifies the number of spaces that case labels
       should  be  indented  to  the  right  of  the  containing  switch
       statement.

       The default gives code like:

            switch (i)
              {
              case 0:
                break;
              case 1:
                {
                  ++i;
                }
              default:
                break;
              }

       Using the ‘-cli2’ that would become:

            switch (i)
              {
                case 0:
                  break;
                case 1:
                  {
                    ++i;
                  }
                default:
                  break;
              }

       The  indentation  of  the  braces  below  a case statement can be
       controlled with the ‘-cbin’ option.  For  example,  using  ‘-cli2
       -cbi0’ results in:

            switch (i)
              {
                case 0:
                  break;
                case 1:
                {
                  ++i;
                }
                default:
                  break;
              }

       If  a  semicolon is on the same line as a for or while statement,
       the ‘-ss’ option will cause a  space  to  be  placed  before  the
       semicolon.   This  emphasizes the semicolon, making it clear that
       the body of the for or while statement  is  an  empty  statement.
       ‘-nss’ disables this feature.

       The ‘-pcs’ option causes a space to be placed between the name of
       the   procedure   being   called   and   the  ‘(’  (for  example,
       puts ("Hi");.  The ‘-npcs’ option would give puts("Hi");).

       If the ‘-cs’ option is specified, indent puts a space  between  a
       cast  operator and the object to be cast. The ‘-ncs’ ensures that
       there is no space between  the  cast  operator  and  the  object.
       Remember  that  indent only knows about the standard C data types
       and  so  cannot  recognise  user-defined  types  in  casts.  Thus
       (mytype)thing is not treated as a cast.

       The  ‘-bs’  option  ensures  that  there  is  a space between the
       keyword sizeof and its argument.  In some versions, this is known
       as the ‘Bill_Shannon’ option.

       The ‘-saf’ option forces a space between a for and the  following
       parenthesis.  This is the default.

       The  ‘-sai’  option forces a space between a if and the following
       parenthesis.  This is the default.

       The ‘-saw’  option  forces  a  space  between  a  while  and  the
       following parenthesis.  This is the default.

       The  ‘-prs’  option causes all parentheses to be separated with a
       space from whatever is between them.  For example,  using  ‘-prs’
       results in code like:

              while ( ( e_code - s_code ) < ( dec_ind - 1 ) )
                {
                  set_buf_break ( bb_dec_ind );
                  *e_code++ = ’ ’;
                }

DECLARATIONS         top

       By  default  indent  will  line  up  identifiers,  in  the column
       specified by the ‘-di’ option.  For example, ‘-di16’ makes things
       look like:

            int             foo;
            char           *bar;

       Using a small value (such as one or two) for the ‘-di’ option can
       be used to cause the  identifiers  to  be  placed  in  the  first
       available position; for example:

            int foo;
            char *bar;

       The  value  given to the ‘-di’ option will still affect variables
       which are put on separate lines from  their  types,  for  example
       ‘-di2’ will lead to:

            int
              foo;

       If  the ‘-bc’ option is specified, a newline is forced after each
       comma in a declaration.  For example,

            int a,
              b,
              c;

       With the ‘-nbc’ option this would look like

            int a, b, c;

       The ‘-bfda’ option causes a newline to be forced after the  comma
       separating   the   arguments  of  a  function  declaration.   The
       arguments will appear at one  indention  level  deeper  than  the
       function declaration.  This is particularly helpful for functions
       with long argument lists.  The option ‘-bfde’ causes a newline to
       be forced before the closing bracket of the function declaration.
       For  both  options  the  ’n’  setting  is the default: -nbfda and
       -nbfde.

       For example,

            void foo (int arg1, char arg2, int *arg3, long arg4, char arg5);
       With the ‘-bfda’ option this would look like

            void foo (
                int arg1,
                char arg2,
                int *arg3,
                long arg4,
                char arg5);

       With, in addition, the ‘-bfde’ option this would look like

            void foo (
                int arg1,
                char arg2,
                int *arg3,
                long arg4,
                char arg5
                );

       The ‘-psl’ option causes the type of a procedure being defined to
       be placed on the line before the name  of  the  procedure.   This
       style  is  required  for  the etags program to work correctly, as
       well as some of the c-mode functions of Emacs.

       You must use the ‘-T’ option to tell indent the name of  all  the
       typenames  in your program that are defined by typedef.  ‘-T’ can
       be specified more than once, and all names  specified  are  used.
       For example, if your program contains

            typedef unsigned long CODE_ADDR;
            typedef enum {red, blue, green} COLOR;

       you would use the options ‘-T CODE_ADDR -T COLOR’.

       The  ‘-brs’  or  ‘-bls’  option specifies how to format braces in
       struct declarations.  The ‘-brs’ option formats braces like this:

            struct foo {
              int x;
            };

       The ‘-bls’ option formats them like this:

            struct foo
            {
              int x;
            };

       Similarly to the structure brace ‘-brs’ and ‘-bls’ options,
        the function brace options  ‘-brf’  or  ‘-blf’  specify  how  to
       format  the  braces  in  function definitions.  The ‘-brf’ option
       formats braces like this:

            int one(void) {
              return 1;
            };

       The ‘-blf’ option formats them like this:

            int one(void)
            {
              return 1;
            };

       The ‘-sar’ option affects  how  indent  will  render  initializer
       lists. Without ‘-sar’ they are formatted like this:

            int a[] = {1, 2, 3, 4};

            struct s {
              const char *name;
              int x;
            } a[] = {
              {"name", 0},
              {"a", 1}
            };

       With  ‘-sar’ they are formatted like this, with spaces inside the
       braces:

            int a[] = { 1, 2, 3, 4 };

            struct s {
              const char *name;
              int x;
            } a[] = {
              { "name", 0 },
              { "a", 1 }
            };

INDENTATION         top

       The most basic, and most controversial issues with regard to code
       formatting is precisely how indentation should  be  acoomplished.
       Fortunately,   indent   supports   several  different  styles  of
       identation.  The default is to use tabs for indentation, which is
       specified by the ‘-ut’ option. Assuming the default tab  size  of
       8, the code would look like this:

            int a(int b)
            {
                    return b;
            |------|
             1 tab
            }

       For  those  that  prefer  spaces  to  tabs, ‘indent’ provides the
       ‘-nut’ option. The same code would look like this:

            int a(int b)
            {
                    return b;
            |------|
            8 spaces
            }

       Another issue in the formatting of code  is  how  far  each  line
       should be indented from the left margin.  When the beginning of a
       statement such as if or for is encountered, the indentation level
       is  increased  by  the  value  specified by the ‘-i’ option.  For
       example, use ‘-i8’ to specify an eight character indentation  for
       each  level.   When  a  statement is broken across two lines, the
       second  line  is  indented  by  a  number  of  additional  spaces
       specified by the ‘-ci’ option.  ‘-ci’ defaults to 0.  However, if
       the  ‘-lp’ option is specified, and a line has a left parenthesis
       which is not closed on that line, then continuation lines will be
       lined up to start at the character position just after  the  left
       parenthesis.   This processing also applies to ‘[’ and applies to
       ‘{’ when it occurs in initialization lists.  For example, a piece
       of continued code might  look  like  this  with  ‘-nlp  -ci3’  in
       effect:

              p1 = first_procedure (second_procedure (p2, p3),
                 third_procedure (p4, p5));

       With ‘-lp’ in effect the code looks somewhat clearer:

              p1 = first_procedure (second_procedure (p2, p3),
                                    third_procedure (p4, p5));

       When  a  statement  is  broken in between two or more paren pairs
       (...),  each  extra  pair  causes  the  indentation  level  extra
       indentation:

            if ((((i < 2 &&
                    k > 0) || p == 0) &&
                q == 1) ||
              n = 0)

       The  option ‘-ipN’ can be used to set the extra offset per paren.
       For instance, ‘-ip0’ would format the above as:

            if ((((i < 2 &&
              k > 0) || p == 0) &&
              q == 1) ||
              n = 0)

       indent assumes that tabs are placed at regular intervals of  both
       input  and  output  character  streams.   These  intervals are by
       default 8 columns wide, but (as of version 1.2) may be changed by
       the ‘-ts’ option.  Tabs are treated as the equivalent  number  of
       spaces.

       By  default,  indent  will use tabs to indent as far as possible,
       and then pad with spaces until the desired position  is  reached.
       However, with the ‘-as’ option, spaces will be used for alignment
       beyond  the current indentation level. By default, assuming ‘-lp’
       is enabled, the code would be indented like  so  (‘t’  represents
       tabs, ‘s’ represents spaces):

            unsigned long really_long_proc_name(unsigned long x, unsigned long y,
                                                int a)
            |------||-------||------||-------|__
               t        t       t       t     ss
            {
                    p1 = first_procedure (second_procedure (p2, p3),
                                          third_procedure (p4, p5));
            |------||------||------|_____
               t       t       t    sssss
            }

       This is fine, if you assume that whoever is reading the code will
       honor  your  assumption  of 8-space tabs. If the reader was using
       4-space tabs, it would look like this:

            unsigned long really_long_proc_name(unsigned long x, unsigned long y,
                                  int a)
            |---||---||---||---|__
              t    t    t    t  ss
            {
                    p1 = first_procedure (second_procedure (p2, p3),
                                 third_procedure (p4, p5));
            |---||---||---|______
              t    t    t  ssssss
            }

       The ‘-as’  option  fixes  this  so  that  the  code  will  appear
       consistent regardless of what tab size the user users to read the
       code. This looks like:

            unsigned long really_long_proc_name(unsigned long x, unsigned long y,
                                                int a)
            ____________________________________
            ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
            {
                    p1 = first_procedure (second_procedure (p2, p3),
                                          third_procedure (p4, p5));
            |------|______________________
               t    ssssssssssssssssssssss
            }

       The  indentation  of  type  declarations  in  old-style  function
       definitions is controlled by the  ‘-ip’  parameter.   This  is  a
       numeric  parameter  specifying  how  many  spaces  to indent type
       declarations.  For example, the default ‘-ip5’ makes  definitions
       look like this:

            char *
            create_world (x, y, scale)
                 int x;
                 int y;
                 float scale;
            {
              . . .
            }

       For  compatibility  with  other  versions  of  indent, the option
       ‘-nip’ is provided, which is equivalent to ‘-ip0’.

       ANSI C allows white space to be placed  on  preprocessor  command
       lines  between  the  character  ‘#’  and  the  command  name.  By
       default, indent removes this space,  but  specifying  the  ‘-lps’
       option  directs indent to leave this space unmodified. The option
       ‘-ppi’ overrides  ‘-nlps’ and  ‘-lps’.

       This option can be used to request that preprocessor  conditional
       statements  can  be  indented  by  to given number of spaces, for
       example with the option ‘-ppi 3’

            #if X
            #if Y
            #define Z 1
            #else
            #define Z 0
            #endif
            #endif
       becomes
            #if X
            #   if Y
            #      define Z 1
            #   else
            #      define Z 0
            #   endif
            #endif

       This option sets the offset at which a label (except case labels)
       will be positioned. If it is set to zero or  a  positive  number,
       this  indicates  how  far from the left margin to indent a label.
       If it is set to a negative number, this indicates  how  far  back
       from  the  current  indent level to place the label.  The default
       setting is -2 which matches the behaviour of earlier versions  of
       indent.   Note that this parameter does not affect the placing of
       case labels; see the ‘-cli’ parameter for that. For example  with
       the option ‘-il 1’

            group
            function()
            {
                if (do_stuff1() == ERROR)
                    goto cleanup1;

                if (do_stuff2() == ERROR)
                    goto cleanup2;

                return SUCCESS;

              cleanup2:
                do_cleanup2();

              cleanup1:
                do_cleanup1();

                return ERROR;
            }
       becomes
            group
            function()
            {
                if (do_stuff1() == ERROR)
                    goto cleanup1;

                if (do_stuff2() == ERROR)
                    goto cleanup2;

                return SUCCESS;

             cleanup2:
                do_cleanup2();

             cleanup1:
                do_cleanup1();

                return ERROR;
            }

BREAKING LONG LINES         top

       With  the  option  ‘-ln’,  or ‘--line-lengthn’, it is possible to
       specify the maximum length of a line of  C  code,  not  including
       possible comments that follow it.

       When  lines  become  longer  than  the specified line length, GNU
       indent tries to break the line at a logical place.  This  is  new
       as  of  version  2.1 however and not very intelligent or flexible
       yet.

       Currently there are three options that  allow  one  to  interfere
       with the algorithm that determines where to break a line.

       The ‘-bbo’ option causes GNU indent to prefer to break long lines
       before  the  boolean  operators  &&  and  ||.  The ‘-nbbo’ option
       causes GNU indent not have that  preference.   For  example,  the
       default   option  ‘-bbo’  (together  with  ‘--line-length60’  and
       ‘--ignore-newlines’) makes code look like this:

              if (mask
                  && ((mask[0] == ’\0’)
                      || (mask[1] == ’\0’
                          && ((mask[0] == ’0’) || (mask[0] == ’*’)))))

       Using the option ‘-nbbo’ will make it look like this:

              if (mask &&
                  ((mask[0] == ’\0’) ||
                   (mask[1] == ’\0’ &&
                    ((mask[0] == ’0’) || (mask[0] == ’*’)))))

       The default ‘-hnl’, however, honours newlines in the  input  file
       by  giving  them the highest possible priority to break lines at.
       For example, when the input file looks like this:

              if (mask
                  && ((mask[0] == ’\0’)
                  || (mask[1] == ’\0’ && ((mask[0] == ’0’) || (mask[0] == ’*’)))))

       then using the option ‘-hnl’,  or  ‘--honour-newlines’,  together
       with the previously mentioned ‘-nbbo’ and ‘--line-length60’, will
       cause  the output not to be what is given in the last example but
       instead will prefer to break at the positions where the code  was
       broken in the input file:

              if (mask
                  && ((mask[0] == ’\0’)
                      || (mask[1] == ’\0’ &&
                          ((mask[0] == ’0’) || (mask[0] == ’*’)))))

       The idea behind this option is that lines which are too long, but
       are already broken up, will not be touched by GNU indent.  Really
       messy  code  should be run through indent at least once using the
       ‘--ignore-newlines’ option though.

       The ‘-gts’ option affects how the gettext standard macros _() and
       N_() are treated.  The default behavior (or the use  of  ‘-ngts’)
       causes indent to treat them as it does other functions, so that a
       long string is broken like the following example.

              if (mask)
                {
                  warning (_
                           ("This is a long string that stays together."));
                }

       With  the  ‘-gts’  option, the underscore is treated as a part of
       the string, keeping it tied to the  string,  and  respecting  the
       fact  that gettext is unobtrusively providing a localized string.
       This only works if _(" is together as a unit at the beginning  of
       the string and ") is together as a unit at the end.

              if (mask)
                {
                  warning
                    (_("This is a long string that stays together."));
                }

DISABLING FORMATTING         top

       Formatting of C code may be disabled for portions of a program by
       embedding  special  control comments in the program.  To turn off
       formatting for a  section  of  a  program,  place  the  disabling
       control  comment  /*  *INDENT-OFF*  */  on  a line by itself just
       before that section.  Program text  scanned  after  this  control
       comment  is output precisely as input with no modifications until
       the corresponding enabling  comment  is  scanned  on  a  line  by
       itself.   The  enabling control comment is /* *INDENT-ON* */, and
       any text following  the  comment  on  the  line  is  also  output
       unformatted.    Formatting  begins  again  with  the  input  line
       following the enabling control comment.

       More precisely, indent does not attempt  to  verify  the  closing
       delimiter  (*/)  for  these C comments, and any whitespace on the
       line is totally transparent.

       These control comments also function in their C++ formats, namely
       // *INDENT-OFF* and // *INDENT-ON*.

       It should be noted that the  internal  state  of  indent  remains
       unchanged  over the course of the unformatted section.  Thus, for
       example, turning off formatting in the middle of a  function  and
       continuing  it  after the end of the function may lead to bizarre
       results.   It  is  therefore  wise  to  be  somewhat  modular  in
       selecting code to be left unformatted.

       As  a  historical  note, some earlier versions of indent produced
       error messages  beginning  with  *INDENT**.   These  versions  of
       indent  were  written  to ignore any input text lines which began
       with such error messages.  I have removed this incestuous feature
       from GNU indent.

MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS         top

       To find out what version of indent  you  have,  use  the  command
       indent  -version.  This will report the version number of indent,
       without doing any of the normal processing.

       The ‘-v’ option can be used to turn on  verbose  mode.   When  in
       verbose  mode,  indent  reports  when it splits one line of input
       into  two  more  more  lines  of  output,  and  gives  some  size
       statistics at completion.

       The  ‘-pmt’  option  causes  indent  to  preserve  the access and
       modification times on the output files.  Using  this  option  has
       the  advantage that running indent on all source and header files
       in a project won’t cause  make  to  rebuild  all  targets.   This
       option is only available on Operating Systems that have the POSIX
       utime(2) function.

BUGS         top

       Please report any bugs to [email protected].

       When  indent  is  run  twice on a file, with the same profile, it
       should never change that file the second time.  With the  current
       design of indent, this can not be guaranteed, and it has not been
       extensively tested.

       indent  does  not  understand  C. In some cases this leads to the
       inability to join lines.  The  result  is  that  running  a  file
       through  indent  is irreversible, even if the used input file was
       the   result   of   running   indent   with   a   given   profile
       (‘.indent.pro’).

       While  an attempt was made to get indent working for C++, it will
       not do a good job on any C++ source except the very simplest.

       indent does not look at the  given  ‘--line-length’  option  when
       writing  comments  to  the  output  file.   This results often in
       comments being put far to the right.  In order to prohibit indent
       from joining a broken line that has a comment at  the  end,  make
       sure that the comments start on the first line of the break.

       indent  does  not  count lines and comments (see the ‘-v’ option)
       when indent is turned off with /* *INDENT-OFF* */.

       Comments of the form /*UPPERCASE*/ are not treated as comment but
       as an identifier, causing them to be joined with the  next  line.
       This  renders  comments  of  this  type  useless, unless they are
       embedded in the code to begin with.

COPYRIGHT         top

       The following copyright notice applies  to  the  indent  program.
       The copyright and copying permissions for this manual appear near
       the beginning of ‘indent.texinfo’ and ‘indent.info’, and near the
       end of ‘indent.1’.

       Copyright (c) 2015 Tim Hentenaar.
       Copyright (c) 2001 David Ingamells.
       Copyright (c) 1999 Carlo Wood.
       Copyright (c) 1995, 1996 Joseph Arceneaux.
       Copyright (c) 1989, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2014 Free Software Foundation
       Copyright (c) 1985 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
       Copyright (c) 1980 The Regents of the University of California.
       Copyright (c) 1976 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.
       All rights reserved.

       Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted
       provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
       duplicated in all such forms and that any documentation,
       advertising materials, and other materials related to such
       distribution and use acknowledge that the software was developed
       by the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Illinois,
       Urbana, and Sun Microsystems, Inc.  The name of either University
       or Sun Microsystems may not be used to endorse or promote products
       derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
       THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ‘‘AS IS’’ AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
       IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
       WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
       PURPOSE.

Options’ Cross Key         top

       Here  is  a  list of options alphabetized by long option, to help
       you find the corresponding short option.

            --align-with-spaces                             -as
            --blank-lines-after-commas                      -bc
            --blank-lines-after-declarations                -bad
            --blank-lines-after-procedures                  -bap
            --blank-lines-before-block-comments             -bbb
            --braces-after-if-line                          -bl
            --braces-after-func-def-line                    -blf
            --brace-indent                                  -bli
            --braces-after-struct-decl-line                 -bls
            --braces-on-if-line                             -br
            --braces-on-func-def-line                       -brf
            --braces-on-struct-decl-line                    -brs
            --break-after-boolean-operator                  -nbbo
            --break-before-boolean-operator                 -bbo
            --break-function-decl-args                      -bfda
            --break-function-decl-args-end                  -bfde
            --case-indentation                              -clin
            --case-brace-indentation                        -cbin
            --comment-delimiters-on-blank-lines             -cdb
            --comment-indentation                           -cn
            --continuation-indentation                      -cin
            --continue-at-parentheses                       -lp
            --cuddle-do-while                               -cdw
            --cuddle-else                                   -ce
            --declaration-comment-column                    -cdn
            --declaration-indentation                       -din
            --dont-break-function-decl-args                 -nbfda
            --dont-break-function-decl-args-end             -nbfde
            --dont-break-procedure-type                     -npsl
            --dont-cuddle-do-while                          -ncdw
            --dont-cuddle-else                              -nce
            --dont-format-comments                          -nfca
            --dont-format-first-column-comments             -nfc1
            --dont-line-up-parentheses                      -nlp
            --dont-left-justify-declarations                -ndj
            --dont-space-special-semicolon                  -nss
            --dont-star-comments                            -nsc
            --dont-tab-align-comments                       -ntac
            --else-endif-column                             -cpn
            --format-all-comments                           -fca
            --format-first-column-comments                  -fc1
            --gnu-style                                     -gnu
            --honour-newlines                               -hnl
            --ignore-newlines                               -nhnl
            --ignore-profile                                -npro
            --indent-label                                  -iln
            --indent-level                                  -in
            --k-and-r-style                                 -kr
            --leave-optional-blank-lines                    -nsob
            --leave-preprocessor-space                      -lps
            --left-justify-declarations                     -dj
            --line-comments-indentation                     -dn
            --line-length                                   -ln
            --linux-style                                   -linux
            --no-blank-lines-after-commas                   -nbc
            --no-blank-lines-after-declarations             -nbad
            --no-blank-lines-after-procedures               -nbap
            --no-blank-lines-before-block-comments          -nbbb
            --no-comment-delimiters-on-blank-lines          -ncdb
            --no-space-after-casts                          -ncs
            --no-parameter-indentation                      -nip
            --no-space-after-for                    -nsaf
            --no-space-after-function-call-names            -npcs
            --no-space-after-if                -nsai
            --no-space-after-parentheses                    -nprs
            --no-space-after-while                  -nsaw
            --no-tabs                                       -nut
            --no-verbosity                                  -nv
            --original                                      -orig
            --parameter-indentation                         -ipn
            --paren-indentation                             -pin
            --preserve-mtime                   -pmt
            --preprocessor-indentation                      -ppin
            --procnames-start-lines                         -psl
            --remove-preprocessor-space                     -nlps
            --single-line-conditionals                      -slc
            --space-after-cast                              -cs
            --space-after-for                  -saf
            --space-after-if                   -sai
            --space-after-parentheses                       -prs
            --space-after-procedure-calls                   -pcs
            --space-after-while                -saw
            --space-special-semicolon                       -ss
            --spaces-around-initializers                    -sar
            --standard-output                               -st
            --start-left-side-of-comments                   -sc
            --struct-brace-indentation                      -sbin
            --swallow-optional-blank-lines                  -sob
            --tab-size                                      -tsn
            --use-tabs                                      -ut
            --verbose                                       -v

RETURN VALUE         top

       • 0 means no errors or warnings were found during a successful
         invocation of the program.

       • 2 is returned if errors occur during formatting which do not
         prevent completion of the formatting, but which appear to be
         manifested by incorrect code (i.e. code which wouldn't
         compile).

       • 3 is returned if formatting of a file is halted because of an
         error with the file which prevents completion of formatting. If
         more than one input file was specified, indent continues to the
         next file.

       • 4 is returned if a serious internal problem occurs and the
         entire indent process is terminated, even if all specified
         files have not been processed.

       • 64 is returned if an invocation problem (like an incorrect
         option) prevents any formatting to occur.

FILES         top

       $HOME/.indent.pro   holds default options for indent.

AUTHORS         top

       Tim Hentenaar
       Carlo Wood
       Joseph Arceneaux
       Jim Kingdon
       David Ingamells

HISTORY         top

       Derived from the UCB program "indent".

COPYING         top

       Copyright (C) 1989, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2014, 2015 Free
       Software Foundation, Inc.  Copyright (C) 1995, 1996 Joseph
       Arceneaux.  Copyright (C) 1999 Carlo Wood.  Copyright (C) 2001
       David Ingamells.  Copyright (C) 2013 Łukasz Stelmach.  Copyright
       (C) 2015 Tim Hentenaar.

       Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
       this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission
       notice are preserved on all copies.

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the GNU indent (a C program formatter)
       project.  Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/indent/⟩.  If you have a bug report
       for this manual page, send it to [email protected].  This page
       was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/indent.git⟩ on 2024-06-14.  (At
       that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
       the repository was 2024-03-08.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
       is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       [email protected]

                                                               INDENT(1)