README.md
1# rustfmt [](https://github.com/rust-lang/rustfmt/actions/workflows/linux.yml) [](https://github.com/rust-lang/rustfmt/actions/workflows/mac.yml) [](https://github.com/rust-lang/rustfmt/actions/workflows/windows.yml) [](https://crates.io/crates/rustfmt-nightly)
2
3A tool for formatting Rust code according to style guidelines.
4
5If you'd like to help out (and you should, it's a fun project!), see
6[Contributing.md](Contributing.md) and our [Code of
7Conduct](CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md).
8
9You can use rustfmt in Travis CI builds. We provide a minimal Travis CI
10configuration (see [here](#checking-style-on-a-ci-server)).
11
12## Quick start
13
14You can run `rustfmt` with Rust 1.24 and above.
15
16### On the Stable toolchain
17
18To install:
19
20```sh
21rustup component add rustfmt
22```
23
24To run on a cargo project in the current working directory:
25
26```sh
27cargo fmt
28```
29
30### On the Nightly toolchain
31
32For the latest and greatest `rustfmt`, nightly is required.
33
34To install:
35
36```sh
37rustup component add rustfmt --toolchain nightly
38```
39
40To run on a cargo project in the current working directory:
41
42```sh
43cargo +nightly fmt
44```
45
46## Limitations
47
48Rustfmt tries to work on as much Rust code as possible. Sometimes, the code
49doesn't even need to compile! In general, we are looking to limit areas of
50instability; in particular, post-1.0, the formatting of most code should not
51change as Rustfmt improves. However, there are some things that Rustfmt can't
52do or can't do well (and thus where formatting might change significantly,
53even post-1.0). We would like to reduce the list of limitations over time.
54
55The following list enumerates areas where Rustfmt does not work or where the
56stability guarantees do not apply (we don't make a distinction between the two
57because in the future Rustfmt might work on code where it currently does not):
58
59* a program where any part of the program does not parse (parsing is an early
60 stage of compilation and in Rust includes macro expansion).
61* Macro declarations and uses (current status: some macro declarations and uses
62 are formatted).
63* Comments, including any AST node with a comment 'inside' (Rustfmt does not
64 currently attempt to format comments, it does format code with comments inside, but that formatting may change in the future).
65* Rust code in code blocks in comments.
66* Any fragment of a program (i.e., stability guarantees only apply to whole
67 programs, even where fragments of a program can be formatted today).
68* Code containing non-ascii unicode characters (we believe Rustfmt mostly works
69 here, but do not have the test coverage or experience to be 100% sure).
70* Bugs in Rustfmt (like any software, Rustfmt has bugs, we do not consider bug
71 fixes to break our stability guarantees).
72
73
74## Running
75
76You can run Rustfmt by just typing `rustfmt filename` if you used `cargo
77install`. This runs rustfmt on the given file, if the file includes out of line
78modules, then we reformat those too. So to run on a whole module or crate, you
79just need to run on the root file (usually mod.rs or lib.rs). Rustfmt can also
80read data from stdin. Alternatively, you can use `cargo fmt` to format all
81binary and library targets of your crate.
82
83You can run `rustfmt --help` for information about available arguments.
84The easiest way to run rustfmt against a project is with `cargo fmt`. `cargo fmt` works on both
85single-crate projects and [cargo workspaces](https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ch14-03-cargo-workspaces.html).
86Please see `cargo fmt --help` for usage information.
87
88You can specify the path to your own `rustfmt` binary for cargo to use by setting the`RUSTFMT`
89environment variable. This was added in v1.4.22, so you must have this version or newer to leverage this feature (`cargo fmt --version`)
90
91### Running `rustfmt` directly
92
93To format individual files or arbitrary codes from stdin, the `rustfmt` binary should be used. Some
94examples follow:
95
96- `rustfmt lib.rs main.rs` will format "lib.rs" and "main.rs" in place
97- `rustfmt` will read a code from stdin and write formatting to stdout
98 - `echo "fn main() {}" | rustfmt` would emit "fn main() {}".
99
100For more information, including arguments and emit options, see `rustfmt --help`.
101
102### Verifying code is formatted
103
104When running with `--check`, Rustfmt will exit with `0` if Rustfmt would not
105make any formatting changes to the input, and `1` if Rustfmt would make changes.
106In other modes, Rustfmt will exit with `1` if there was some error during
107formatting (for example a parsing or internal error) and `0` if formatting
108completed without error (whether or not changes were made).
109
110
111
112## Running Rustfmt from your editor
113
114* [Vim](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust.vim#formatting-with-rustfmt)
115* [Emacs](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust-mode)
116* [Sublime Text 3](https://packagecontrol.io/packages/RustFmt)
117* [Atom](atom.md)
118* [Visual Studio Code](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=rust-lang.rust-analyzer)
119* [IntelliJ or CLion](intellij.md)
120
121
122## Checking style on a CI server
123
124To keep your code base consistently formatted, it can be helpful to fail the CI build
125when a pull request contains unformatted code. Using `--check` instructs
126rustfmt to exit with an error code if the input is not formatted correctly.
127It will also print any found differences. (Older versions of Rustfmt don't
128support `--check`, use `--write-mode diff`).
129
130A minimal Travis setup could look like this (requires Rust 1.31.0 or greater):
131
132```yaml
133language: rust
134before_script:
135- rustup component add rustfmt
136script:
137- cargo build
138- cargo test
139- cargo fmt --all -- --check
140```
141
142See [this blog post](https://medium.com/@ag_dubs/enforcing-style-in-ci-for-rust-projects-18f6b09ec69d)
143for more info.
144
145## How to build and test
146
147`cargo build` to build.
148
149`cargo test` to run all tests.
150
151To run rustfmt after this, use `cargo run --bin rustfmt -- filename`. See the
152notes above on running rustfmt.
153
154
155## Configuring Rustfmt
156
157Rustfmt is designed to be very configurable. You can create a TOML file called
158`rustfmt.toml` or `.rustfmt.toml`, place it in the project or any other parent
159directory and it will apply the options in that file. See `rustfmt
160--help=config` for the options which are available, or if you prefer to see
161visual style previews, [GitHub page](https://rust-lang.github.io/rustfmt/).
162
163By default, Rustfmt uses a style which conforms to the [Rust style guide][style
164guide] that has been formalized through the [style RFC
165process][fmt rfcs].
166
167Configuration options are either stable or unstable. Stable options can always
168be used, while unstable ones are only available on a nightly toolchain, and opt-in.
169See [GitHub page](https://rust-lang.github.io/rustfmt/) for details.
170
171### Rust's Editions
172
173Rustfmt is able to pick up the edition used by reading the `Cargo.toml` file if
174executed through the Cargo's formatting tool `cargo fmt`. Otherwise, the edition
175needs to be specified in `rustfmt.toml`, e.g., with `edition = "2018"`.
176
177## Tips
178
179* For things you do not want rustfmt to mangle, use `#[rustfmt::skip]`
180* To prevent rustfmt from formatting a macro or an attribute,
181 use `#[rustfmt::skip::macros(target_macro_name)]` or
182 `#[rustfmt::skip::attributes(target_attribute_name)]`
183
184 Example:
185
186 ```rust
187 #![rustfmt::skip::attributes(custom_attribute)]
188
189 #[custom_attribute(formatting , here , should , be , Skipped)]
190 #[rustfmt::skip::macros(html)]
191 fn main() {
192 let macro_result1 = html! { <div>
193 Hello</div>
194 }.to_string();
195 ```
196* When you run rustfmt, place a file named `rustfmt.toml` or `.rustfmt.toml` in
197 target file directory or its parents to override the default settings of
198 rustfmt. You can generate a file containing the default configuration with
199 `rustfmt --print-config default rustfmt.toml` and customize as needed.
200* After successful compilation, a `rustfmt` executable can be found in the
201 target directory.
202* If you're having issues compiling Rustfmt (or compile errors when trying to
203 install), make sure you have the most recent version of Rust installed.
204
205* You can change the way rustfmt emits the changes with the --emit flag:
206
207 Example:
208
209 ```sh
210 cargo fmt -- --emit files
211 ```
212
213 Options:
214
215 | Flag |Description| Nightly Only |
216 |:---:|:---:|:---:|
217 | files | overwrites output to files | No |
218 | stdout | writes output to stdout | No |
219 | coverage | displays how much of the input file was processed | Yes |
220 | checkstyle | emits in a checkstyle format | Yes |
221 | json | emits diffs in a json format | Yes |
222
223## License
224
225Rustfmt is distributed under the terms of both the MIT license and the
226Apache License (Version 2.0).
227
228See [LICENSE-APACHE](LICENSE-APACHE) and [LICENSE-MIT](LICENSE-MIT) for details.
229
230[rust]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust
231[fmt rfcs]: https://github.com/rust-dev-tools/fmt-rfcs
232[style guide]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/style-guide/
233