Adding a clang-format file
Like other Postgres hackers [1]/messages/by-id/55665327.2060508@gmx.net -- Peter Geoghegan, I have a custom .clang-format file
that I use for my work on Postgres. It's a useful tool, despite some
notable problems.
First, I should mention the problems. The config that I use makes an
awkward trade-off that results in function declarations getting
mangled. This trade-off seems unavoidable, perhaps owing to a design
problem with the tool. I also generally prefer the way that pgindent
indents blocks of variables at the start of each scope; clang-format
aligns them in a column-perfect way, which is less aesthetically
pleasing and more distracting than what pgindent will do.
clang-format also has some notable advantages over pgindent when used
as a tool, day to day. I find that clang-format can reliably fix some
things that pgindent just won't fix. This includes misformated
function parameters with a line break that puts the name on a separate
line to the type. As a general rule, it tends to do better with code
that is *very* poorly formatted. It also has the advantage of being
easy to run from my text editor. It can reformat even a range of lines
in a way that is passably close to Postgres style, without any of the
hassles of setting up pgindent.
Since many of us are using clang-format anyway, it occurs to me that
we should perhaps commit a clang-format dot file, so that new
contributors have a reasonable way of formatting code that "just
works". Using pgindent is easy enough when you get used to it, but
it's not easy to set up for the first time. I think that some editors
can use a project's clang-format file automatically, even. If a new
contributor can use the existing clang-format file it's likely to be
significantly better than using nothing.
I really don't see any real problem with making something available,
without changing any official project guidelines. It's commonplace to
provide a clang-format file these days.
[1]: /messages/by-id/55665327.2060508@gmx.net -- Peter Geoghegan
--
Peter Geoghegan
Hi Peter,
I really don't see any real problem with making something available,
without changing any official project guidelines. It's commonplace to
provide a clang-format file these days.
Personally I don't have anything against the idea. TimescaleDB uses
clang-format to mimic pgindent and it works quite well. One problem
worth mentioning though is that the clang-format file is dependent on
the particular version of clang-format. TSDB requires version 7 or 8
and the reason why the project can't easily switch to a newer version
is that the format has changed. So perhaps a directory would be more
appropriate than a single file.
--
Best regards,
Aleksander Alekseev
On Tue, Sep 27, 2022 at 5:35 AM Aleksander Alekseev
<aleksander@timescale.com> wrote:
Personally I don't have anything against the idea. TimescaleDB uses
clang-format to mimic pgindent and it works quite well. One problem
worth mentioning though is that the clang-format file is dependent on
the particular version of clang-format.
I was hoping that something generic could work here. Something that we
could provide that didn't claim to be authoritative, that has a
reasonable degree of compatibility that allows most people to use the
file without much fuss. Kind of like our .editorconfig file. That
might not be a realistic goal, though, since the clang-format settings
are all quite complicated.
--
Peter Geoghegan
Hi, Just wondering would you mind sharing your .clang-format file? I find
the attachment you pointed to is only a demo with a “…” line and it doesn’t
format PG code very well.
btw I’m also greatly in favor of this idea. clang-format is tightly integrated into
CLion and it’s very convenient. right now I’m using a CLion preset by Greenplum [1]https://groups.google.com/a/greenplum.org/g/gpdb-dev/c/rDYSYotssbE/m/7HgsWuj7AwAJ
but it doesn’t handle struct fields and variables column alignment very well.
[1]: https://groups.google.com/a/greenplum.org/g/gpdb-dev/c/rDYSYotssbE/m/7HgsWuj7AwAJ
Show quoted text
On Sep 28, 2022, at 08:43, Peter Geoghegan <pg@bowt.ie> wrote:
On Tue, Sep 27, 2022 at 5:35 AM Aleksander Alekseev
<aleksander@timescale.com> wrote:Personally I don't have anything against the idea. TimescaleDB uses
clang-format to mimic pgindent and it works quite well. One problem
worth mentioning though is that the clang-format file is dependent on
the particular version of clang-format.I was hoping that something generic could work here. Something that we
could provide that didn't claim to be authoritative, that has a
reasonable degree of compatibility that allows most people to use the
file without much fuss. Kind of like our .editorconfig file. That
might not be a realistic goal, though, since the clang-format settings
are all quite complicated.--
Peter Geoghegan