Like other Postgres hackers [1], 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] https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/flat/55665327.2060508%40gmx.net#080983bfcee12d46a33854e1064fdcca -- Peter Geoghegan
