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Source Code Formatter Plugin

General

The source code formatter plugin integrates various code formatters (aka beautifiers) tools into CodeLite Once integrated, you can format your code using a single key stroke, by default it is set to Ctrl+I

Tool configurations

Each supported tool contains the following properties:

Property name Description
Enabled controls whether the formatter is enabled or not
Inplace edit tells CodeLite whether the formatter outputs the fixed source to stdout, or edit the file directly
Format on save? enable this if you want to format files automatically after saving them
Working directory CodeLite executes the formatter from this directory. Macros are allowed. By default CodeLite uses $(WorkspacePath)
Command the command to execute. Macros are allowed

Formatting with the language server

The LSP formatter asks the language server of the file to format it (textDocument/formatting). It has only the Enabled, Format on save? and Supported languages properties. It is used when:

  • No formatter higher in the list is enabled for the file's language
  • The file's language is in its Supported languages list (all languages by default)
  • A language server is running for the file, and it supports formatting

To use the language server instead of a command formatter (for example clangd instead of clang-format), disable the command formatter. To never use the language server for a language, remove that language from the LSP formatter's Supported languages.

The language server can only format files that are open in an editor. Formatting a whole project or folder does not use it.

When text is selected, Format Current Source (Ctrl+I) formats only the selection (textDocument/rangeFormatting). If the language server can not format a selection, nothing is changed and the status bar says so. Without a selection, and when formatting on save, the whole file is formatted.

Upgrading CodeLite

New versions of CodeLite might introduce a new supported formatters. However, CodeLite will not override your local configuration, in order to enable any new formatter added by a more recent version of CodeLite, click the Defaults button in the Options dialog from: Plugins → Source Code Formatter → Options...

Integration with remote workspace

Once a remote workspace is loaded (e.g. via Remoty plugin), the plugin replaces the commands defined in the UI with the commands taken from codelite-remote.json configuration file.

Installing tools

Language Tool name Command to install
C/C++ clang-format pacman -Sy mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-clang-tools-extra
JSON jq pacman -Sy mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-jq
Python black pip install black --upgrade
Rust rustfmt pacman -Sy mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-rust
Xml xmllint pacman -Sy mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-libxml2
Yaml yq wget https://github.com/mikefarah/yq/releases/download/v4.28.1/yq_windows_amd64.exe|mv yq_windows_amd64.exe /usr/bin/yq.exe
CMake cmake-format pip3 install cmake-format
Language Tool name Command to install
C/C++ clang-format brew install llvm
JSON jq sudo apt-get install jq
Python black pip install black --upgrade
Rust rustfmt curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
Xml xmllint sudo apt-get install libxml2-utils
Yaml yq brew install yq
CMake cmake-format pip3 install cmake-format
Language Tool name Command to install
C/C++ clang-format brew install llvm
JSON jq brew install jq
Python black pip install black --upgrade
Rust rustfmt curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
Xml xmllint Already installed
Yaml yq brew install yq
CMake cmake-format pip3 install cmake-format