clang format

This page describes how to use and configure clang-format (v3.4). clang-format is a command line tool built on top of llvm that enforces whitespace conventions for c/c++ code. The configuration for it (.clang-format) is in the root directory of the repository and is discovered by the tool automatically. Mantid uses the llvm style.

Using git to format

There is a tool, git-clang-format, which adds support to git to automatically format code that is added before it is committed. This only changes the formatting of the lines that you have already edited. In general, after you make your changes you can do the following

git add <list of files>
git clang-format
git add <list of files that got formatting changes>
git commit

This will format only the lines that you had edited already, eliminating the possibility of introducing merge conflicts.

Configure your favorite IDE or editor for using clang-format

Most everything can attach to clang-format. The list in clang-format's documentation.

• BBEdit
• emacs
• vim
• Visual Studio
• git-clang-format

Others have plugins/config from other sources:

• Sublime (hiding in the page)
• QTCreator (gist describing howto)
• XCode (on github)