Configuration

File Location

Basic

Place your .clang-format (or .clang-format-ignore if necessary) configuration file in the root of your project. The clang-format and git-clang-format command will automatically find it and apply the rules.

my-project/
├── src/
│   ├── file1.cpp
│   ├── file2.js
│   └── ...
├── .clang-format
├── .clang-format-ignore # Optional
├── package.json
└── ...

Monorepo

If you are using monorepo, you can place the configuration file in the root of the monorepo.

my-monorepo/
├── packages/
│   ├── package1/
│   │   ├── src/
│   │   │   ├── file1.cpp
│   │   │   ├── file2.js
│   │   │   └── ...
│   │   ├── .clang-format
│   │   ├── .clang-format-ignore # Optional
│   │   ├── package.json
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── package2/
│   │   ├── src/
│   │   │   ├── file1.cpp
│   │   │   ├── file2.js
│   │   │   └── ...
│   │   ├── package.json
│   │   └── ...
│   └── ...
├── package.json
└── ...

File Format

IMPORTANT

To see the full list of options, check the Clang-Format Style Options page.

You can use the .clang-format file to configure the style of your code. Here is a brief example of a .clang-format file:

• Simple:

  .clang-format

  BasedOnStyle: Google
  ColumnLimit: 90

• Advanced:

  Node.js project's configuration. See Node.js repository.

  .clang-format

  ---
  Language:        Cpp
  # BasedOnStyle:  Google
  AccessModifierOffset: -1
  AlignAfterOpenBracket: Align
  AlignConsecutiveAssignments: false
  AlignConsecutiveDeclarations: false
  AlignEscapedNewlines: Right
  AlignOperands:   true
  AlignTrailingComments: true
  AllowAllParametersOfDeclarationOnNextLine: true
  AllowShortBlocksOnASingleLine: false
  AllowShortCaseLabelsOnASingleLine: false
  AllowShortFunctionsOnASingleLine: Inline
  AllowShortIfStatementsOnASingleLine: true
  AllowShortLoopsOnASingleLine: true
  AlwaysBreakAfterDefinitionReturnType: None
  AlwaysBreakAfterReturnType: None
  AlwaysBreakBeforeMultilineStrings: false
  AlwaysBreakTemplateDeclarations: true
  BinPackArguments: false
  BinPackParameters: false
  BraceWrapping:
    AfterClass:      false
    AfterControlStatement: false
    AfterEnum:       false
    AfterFunction:   false
    AfterNamespace:  false
    AfterObjCDeclaration: false
    AfterStruct:     false
    AfterUnion:      false
    AfterExternBlock: false
    BeforeCatch:     false
    BeforeElse:      false
    IndentBraces:    false
    SplitEmptyFunction: true
    SplitEmptyRecord: true
    SplitEmptyNamespace: true
  BreakBeforeBinaryOperators: None
  BreakBeforeBraces: Attach
  BreakBeforeInheritanceComma: false
  BreakBeforeTernaryOperators: true
  BreakConstructorInitializersBeforeComma: false
  BreakConstructorInitializers: BeforeColon
  BreakAfterJavaFieldAnnotations: false
  BreakStringLiterals: true
  ColumnLimit:      80
  CommentPragmas:  '^ IWYU pragma:'
  CompactNamespaces: false
  ConstructorInitializerAllOnOneLineOrOnePerLine: true
  ConstructorInitializerIndentWidth: 4
  ContinuationIndentWidth: 4
  Cpp11BracedListStyle: true
  DerivePointerAlignment: false
  DisableFormat:   false
  ExperimentalAutoDetectBinPacking: false
  FixNamespaceComments: true
  ForEachMacros:
    - foreach
    - Q_FOREACH
    - BOOST_FOREACH
  IncludeBlocks:   Preserve
  IncludeCategories:
    - Regex:           '^<ext/.*\.h>'
      Priority:        2
    - Regex:           '^<.*\.h>'
      Priority:        1
    - Regex:           '^<.*'
      Priority:        2
    - Regex:           '.*'
      Priority:        3
  IncludeIsMainRegex: '([-_](test|unittest))?$'
  IndentCaseLabels: true
  IndentPPDirectives: None
  IndentWidth:     2
  IndentWrappedFunctionNames: false
  JavaScriptQuotes: Leave
  JavaScriptWrapImports: true
  KeepEmptyLinesAtTheStartOfBlocks: false
  MacroBlockBegin: ''
  MacroBlockEnd:   ''
  MaxEmptyLinesToKeep: 1
  NamespaceIndentation: None
  ObjCBlockIndentWidth: 2
  ObjCSpaceAfterProperty: false
  ObjCSpaceBeforeProtocolList: false
  PenaltyBreakAssignment: 2
  PenaltyBreakBeforeFirstCallParameter: 1
  PenaltyBreakComment: 300
  PenaltyBreakFirstLessLess: 120
  PenaltyBreakString: 1000
  PenaltyExcessCharacter: 1000000
  PenaltyReturnTypeOnItsOwnLine: 200
  PointerAlignment: Left
  ReflowComments:  true
  SortIncludes:    true
  SortUsingDeclarations: true
  SpaceAfterCStyleCast: false
  SpaceAfterTemplateKeyword: true
  SpaceBeforeAssignmentOperators: true
  SpaceBeforeParens: ControlStatements
  SpaceInEmptyParentheses: false
  SpacesBeforeTrailingComments: 2
  SpacesInAngles:  false
  SpacesInContainerLiterals: true
  SpacesInCStyleCastParentheses: false
  SpacesInParentheses: false
  SpacesInSquareBrackets: false
  Standard:        Auto
  TabWidth:        8
  UseTab:          Never

  Electron project's configuration. See Electron repository.

  .clang-format

  # Defines the Chromium style for automatic reformatting.
  # http://clang.llvm.org/docs/ClangFormatStyleOptions.html
  BasedOnStyle: Chromium
  # This defaults to 'Auto'. Explicitly set it for a while, so that
  # 'vector<vector<int> >' in existing files gets formatted to
  # 'vector<vector<int>>'. ('Auto' means that clang-format will only use
  # 'int>>' if the file already contains at least one such instance.)
  Standard: Cpp11
  # Make sure code like:
  # IPC_BEGIN_MESSAGE_MAP()
  #   IPC_MESSAGE_HANDLER(WidgetHostViewHost_Update, OnUpdate)
  # IPC_END_MESSAGE_MAP()
  # gets correctly indented.
  MacroBlockBegin: "^\
  BEGIN_MSG_MAP|\
  BEGIN_MSG_MAP_EX|\
  BEGIN_SAFE_MSG_MAP_EX|\
  CR_BEGIN_MSG_MAP_EX|\
  IPC_BEGIN_MESSAGE_MAP|\
  IPC_BEGIN_MESSAGE_MAP_WITH_PARAM|\
  IPC_PROTOBUF_MESSAGE_TRAITS_BEGIN|\
  IPC_STRUCT_BEGIN|\
  IPC_STRUCT_BEGIN_WITH_PARENT|\
  IPC_STRUCT_TRAITS_BEGIN|\
  POLPARAMS_BEGIN|\
  PPAPI_BEGIN_MESSAGE_MAP$"
  MacroBlockEnd: "^\
  CR_END_MSG_MAP|\
  END_MSG_MAP|\
  IPC_END_MESSAGE_MAP|\
  IPC_PROTOBUF_MESSAGE_TRAITS_END|\
  IPC_STRUCT_END|\
  IPC_STRUCT_TRAITS_END|\
  POLPARAMS_END|\
  PPAPI_END_MESSAGE_MAP$"