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3 Source code formatting uses 4 column tab spacing, with
4 tabs preserved (i.e., tabs are not expanded to spaces).
5 Each logical indentation level is one additional tab stop.
7 Layout rules (brace positioning, etc.) follow BSD conventions. In
8 particular, curly braces for the controlled blocks of <code class="literal">if</code>,
9 <code class="literal">while</code>, <code class="literal">switch</code>, etc. go on their own lines.
11 Limit line lengths so that the code is readable in an 80-column window.
12 (This doesn't mean that you must never go past 80 columns. For instance,
13 breaking a long error message string in arbitrary places just to keep the
14 code within 80 columns is probably not a net gain in readability.)
16 To maintain a consistent coding style, do not use C++ style comments
17 (<code class="literal">//</code> comments). <span class="application">pgindent</span>
18 will replace them with <code class="literal">/* ... */</code>.
20 The preferred style for multi-line comment blocks is
21 </p><pre class="programlisting">
23 * comment text begins here
27 Note that comment blocks that begin in column 1 will be preserved as-is
28 by <span class="application">pgindent</span>, but it will re-flow indented comment blocks
29 as though they were plain text. If you want to preserve the line breaks
30 in an indented block, add dashes like this:
31 </p><pre class="programlisting">
33 * comment text begins here
39 While submitted patches do not absolutely have to follow these formatting
40 rules, it's a good idea to do so. Your code will get run through
41 <span class="application">pgindent</span> before the next release, so there's no point in
42 making it look nice under some other set of formatting conventions.
43 A good rule of thumb for patches is <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">make the new code look like
44 the existing code around it</span>”</span>.
46 The <code class="filename">src/tools/editors</code> directory contains sample settings
47 files that can be used with the <span class="productname">Emacs</span>,
48 <span class="productname">xemacs</span> or <span class="productname">vim</span>
49 editors to help ensure that they format code according to these
52 If you'd like to run <span class="application">pgindent</span> locally
53 to help make your code match project style, see
54 the <code class="filename">src/tools/pgindent</code> directory.
56 The text browsing tools <span class="application">more</span> and
57 <span class="application">less</span> can be invoked as:
58 </p><pre class="programlisting">
62 to make them show tabs appropriately.
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