Configure clang-format to traverse subdirectories?

Clang Frontend
#1

Hello,

I would like to run clang-format on a large codebase. I noticed that you
can use wildcards to specify input files to clang-format, however these
wildcards seem to only pick up files in the current directory and not
subdirectories. Is there a way to specify a recursive search with a
wildcard (similar to Artistic Style's --recursive option:
http://astyle.sourceforge.net/astyle.html#_recursive)? Perhaps using a
special wildcard syntax I'm not aware of?

If this isn't currently a feature, what's the likelihood it could make
it in the upcoming release? I have found Artistic Style's --recursive
and --exclude options quite powerful and useful and would love to see
similar functionality in clang-format.

Thanks!

#2

I think that this is basic shell functionality which should not be replicated in each tool. E.g. in most linux shells, just do:

find | xargs clang-format -i

#3

Hi Daniel,

#4

Hi Daniel,

> I think that this is basic shell functionality which should not be
> replicated in each tool. E.g. in most linux shells, just do:
>
> find | xargs clang-format -i

Some legacy OSes (e.g. Windows) have less capable shells :slight_smile:

then the solution is to use more capable shells, more capable OSes or both.

Even with those less capable shells, it should be possible to write a .bat
file that traverses a hierarchy and call commands on files.
Not that I would know how to do it, but the google, harnessing the power of
the intertubes, tells me:

for /r %%f in (*) do echo %%f

#5

Ok, I can certainly wrap it in a find call. I just thought my use case would be fairly common (I’ve come across some other posts online trying to do something similar) and that, being a common use case, it may make sense to support it well from within the tool itself rather than requiring the user to come up with a solution of their own.