INDENT(1)	    UNIX Programmer's Manual		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 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


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			}
		    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 com-
		    ments 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.  Con-
		    tinuation 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 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 state-
		    ment.  -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.


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     -din	    Specifies the indentation, in character posi-
		    tions, from a declaration keyword to the fol-
		    lowing 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 process-
		    ing.  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 parame-
		    ter declarations 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.


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     -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 pro-
		    cessing 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 for-
		    matting 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 statis-
		    tics at completion. The default is -nv.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION


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     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 what-
     ever 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 para-
     graphs.

     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 indenta-
     tion 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 com-
     ment 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 trail-
     ing comments.  It leaves embedded comments alone.	Condi-
     tional 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(;;)


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     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.


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