Coding standards and conventions are essential in software development for several reasons.
They ensure consistency and readability in the codebase, making it easier for developers to
understand and collaborate on projects. They promote best practices and maintainability,
reducing the likelihood of bugs and making code easier to debug and maintain in the long run.
Lastly, adherence to coding standards improves code quality and enhances software reliability,
scalability, and performance. Overall, coding standards and conventions are necessary to foster
efficient and effective development processes and produce high-quality, maintainable software.
Consistent conventions make it easier to navigate and debug code, reduce errors, improve code quality,
facilitate efficient code reviews and last but not least improve Git merges.
Overall, coding conventions enhance code clarity and foster a unified coding style across projects and teams.
Tools can be used, such as code linters, formatters, and analyzers to automate and enforce the standards.
Coding standards should be agreed upon by the team and documented in a shared repository.
Enforcement can be accomplished by running a check script on all committed files from .git/hooks before a commit.
C++ example:
#!/bin/env bash
# Run Clang-Tidy on staged files
staged_files=$(git diff --cached --name-only --diff-filter=ACMR "*.cpp" "*.h")
if [ -n "$staged_files" ]; then
echo "Running Clang-Tidy on staged files..."
clang-tidy -p build/ $staged_files
CLANG_TIDY_RESULT=$?
if [ $CLANG_TIDY_RESULT -ne 0 ]; then
echo "Clang-Tidy check failed. Please fix the reported issues before committing."
exit 1
fi
fi
# Continue with the commit
exit 0
GitLab can be configured to run the checks for each pushed branch using the first stage or step in the pipeline.
C++ example:
stages:
- check
- build
clang-tidy:
stage: check
image: clang:latest
script:
- apt-get update && apt-get install -y clang-tidy
- clang-tidy -p build/ source/**/*.cpp
only:
- branches
build:
stage: build
script:
- mkdir build && cd build
- cmake ..
- make
only:
- branches
Clang-Tidy is specifically used because it is tightly integrated with the Clang compiler,
providing accurate code analysis for C and C++. It supports modern C++ features, offers
extensive customization options, and has a wide range of checks tailored to Clang's parsing
and compilation process. Clang-Tidy's integration with popular tools and its extensive set of
built-in checks make it a popular choice for bug detection, coding style enforcement,
and code quality improvements in C and C++ projects.
File: .clang-tidy
Checks: '-*,modernize-*'
WarningsAsErrors: 'modernize-*'
HeaderFilterRegex: '.*'
File: .clang-format
# Compatible with clang-format version 18.
---
Language: Cpp
BasedOnStyle: LLVM
AccessModifierOffset: 0
AlignAfterOpenBracket: BlockIndent
AlignArrayOfStructures: None
AlignConsecutiveAssignments:
Enabled: false
AcrossEmptyLines: false
AcrossComments: false
AlignCompound: false
PadOperators: false
AlignConsecutiveBitFields:
Enabled: false
AcrossEmptyLines: false
AcrossComments: false
AlignCompound: false
PadOperators: false
AlignConsecutiveDeclarations:
Enabled: false
AcrossEmptyLines: false
AcrossComments: false
AlignCompound: false
PadOperators: false
AlignConsecutiveMacros:
Enabled: false
AcrossEmptyLines: false
AcrossComments: false
AlignCompound: false
PadOperators: false
AlignConsecutiveShortCaseStatements:
Enabled: false
AcrossEmptyLines: false
AcrossComments: false
AlignCaseColons: false
AlignEscapedNewlines: Right
AlignOperands: DontAlign
AlignTrailingComments:
Kind: Never
OverEmptyLines: 0
AllowAllArgumentsOnNextLine: false
AllowAllConstructorInitializersOnNextLine: false
AllowAllParametersOfDeclarationOnNextLine: false
AllowBreakBeforeNoexceptSpecifier: Never
AllowShortBlocksOnASingleLine: Never
AllowShortCaseLabelsOnASingleLine: false
AllowShortEnumsOnASingleLine: false
AllowShortFunctionsOnASingleLine: Empty
AllowShortIfStatementsOnASingleLine: Never
AllowShortLambdasOnASingleLine: Empty
AllowShortLoopsOnASingleLine: false
AlwaysBreakAfterDefinitionReturnType: None
AlwaysBreakAfterReturnType: None
AlwaysBreakBeforeMultilineStrings: false
AlwaysBreakTemplateDeclarations: Yes
AttributeMacros:
- __capability
BinPackArguments: true
BinPackParameters: true
BitFieldColonSpacing: Both
BreakAfterAttributes: Leave
BreakAfterJavaFieldAnnotations: false
BreakArrays: true
BreakBeforeBinaryOperators: None
BreakBeforeConceptDeclarations: Always
BreakBeforeBraces: Custom
BraceWrapping:
AfterCaseLabel: true
AfterClass: true
AfterControlStatement: Always
AfterEnum: true
AfterFunction: true
AfterNamespace: true
AfterUnion: true
BeforeCatch: true
BeforeElse: true
IndentBraces: false
SplitEmptyFunction: false
SplitEmptyRecord: true
AfterExternBlock: false
AfterObjCDeclaration: false
AfterStruct: true
BeforeLambdaBody: false
BeforeWhile: false
SplitEmptyNamespace: true
BreakBeforeInlineASMColon: OnlyMultiline
BreakBeforeTernaryOperators: true
BreakConstructorInitializers: BeforeComma
BreakInheritanceList: BeforeComma
BreakStringLiterals: true
ColumnLimit: 160
CommentPragmas: '^ IWYU pragma:'
CompactNamespaces: true
ConstructorInitializerIndentWidth: 2
ContinuationIndentWidth: 2
Cpp11BracedListStyle: true
DerivePointerAlignment: false
DisableFormat: false
EmptyLineAfterAccessModifier: Never
EmptyLineBeforeAccessModifier: LogicalBlock
ExperimentalAutoDetectBinPacking: false
FixNamespaceComments: true
ForEachMacros:
- foreach
- Q_FOREACH
- BOOST_FOREACH
IfMacros:
- KJ_IF_MAYBE
IncludeBlocks: Preserve
IncludeCategories:
- Regex: '^"(llvm|llvm-c|clang|clang-c)/'
Priority: 2
SortPriority: 0
CaseSensitive: false
- Regex: '^(<|"(gtest|gmock|isl|json)/)'
Priority: 3
SortPriority: 0
CaseSensitive: false
- Regex: '.*'
Priority: 1
SortPriority: 0
CaseSensitive: false
IncludeIsMainRegex: '(Test)?$'
IncludeIsMainSourceRegex: ''
IndentAccessModifiers: true
IndentCaseBlocks: false
IndentCaseLabels: true
IndentExternBlock: AfterExternBlock
IndentGotoLabels: true
IndentPPDirectives: BeforeHash
IndentRequiresClause: true
IndentWidth: 2
IndentWrappedFunctionNames: false
InsertBraces: false
InsertNewlineAtEOF: false
InsertTrailingCommas: None
IntegerLiteralSeparator:
Binary: 0
BinaryMinDigits: 0
Decimal: 0
DecimalMinDigits: 0
Hex: 0
HexMinDigits: 0
JavaScriptQuotes: Leave
JavaScriptWrapImports: true
KeepEmptyLinesAtTheStartOfBlocks: true
KeepEmptyLinesAtEOF: false
LambdaBodyIndentation: Signature
LineEnding: DeriveLF
MacroBlockBegin: ''
MacroBlockEnd: ''
MaxEmptyLinesToKeep: 1
NamespaceIndentation: None
ObjCBinPackProtocolList: Auto
ObjCBlockIndentWidth: 2
ObjCBreakBeforeNestedBlockParam: true
ObjCSpaceAfterProperty: false
ObjCSpaceBeforeProtocolList: true
PackConstructorInitializers: BinPack
PenaltyBreakAssignment: 2
PenaltyBreakBeforeFirstCallParameter: 19
PenaltyBreakComment: 300
PenaltyBreakFirstLessLess: 120
PenaltyBreakOpenParenthesis: 0
PenaltyBreakString: 1000
PenaltyBreakTemplateDeclaration: 10
PenaltyExcessCharacter: 1000000
PenaltyIndentedWhitespace: 0
PenaltyReturnTypeOnItsOwnLine: 60
PointerAlignment: Left
PPIndentWidth: -1
QualifierAlignment: Leave
ReferenceAlignment: Pointer
ReflowComments: false
RemoveBracesLLVM: false
RemoveParentheses: Leave
RemoveSemicolon: false
RequiresClausePosition: OwnLine
RequiresExpressionIndentation: OuterScope
SeparateDefinitionBlocks: Leave
ShortNamespaceLines: 1
SortIncludes: CaseSensitive
SortJavaStaticImport: Before
SortUsingDeclarations: LexicographicNumeric
SpaceAfterCStyleCast: true
SpaceAfterLogicalNot: false
SpaceAfterTemplateKeyword: false
SpaceAroundPointerQualifiers: Default
SpaceBeforeAssignmentOperators: true
SpaceBeforeCaseColon: false
SpaceBeforeCpp11BracedList: false
SpaceBeforeCtorInitializerColon: true
SpaceBeforeInheritanceColon: true
SpaceBeforeJsonColon: false
SpaceBeforeParens: ControlStatements
SpaceBeforeParensOptions:
AfterControlStatements: true
AfterForeachMacros: true
AfterFunctionDefinitionName: false
AfterFunctionDeclarationName: false
AfterIfMacros: true
AfterOverloadedOperator: false
AfterRequiresInClause: false
AfterRequiresInExpression: false
BeforeNonEmptyParentheses: false
SpaceBeforeRangeBasedForLoopColon: false
SpaceBeforeSquareBrackets: false
SpaceInEmptyBlock: false
SpaceInEmptyParentheses: false
SpacesBeforeTrailingComments: 0
SpacesInAngles: false
SpacesInCStyleCastParentheses: false
SpacesInContainerLiterals: false
SpacesInParentheses: false
SpacesInLineCommentPrefix:
Minimum: 1
Maximum: -1
SpacesInParens: Never
SpacesInParensOptions:
InCStyleCasts: false
InConditionalStatements: false
InEmptyParentheses: false
Other: false
SpacesInSquareBrackets: false
Standard: Latest
StatementAttributeLikeMacros:
- Q_EMIT
StatementMacros:
- Q_UNUSED
- QT_REQUIRE_VERSION
TabWidth: 2
UseTab: ForContinuationAndIndentation
VerilogBreakBetweenInstancePorts: true
WhitespaceSensitiveMacros:
- BOOST_PP_STRINGIZE
- CF_SWIFT_NAME
- NS_SWIFT_NAME
- PP_STRINGIZE
- STRINGIZE
...
Use the PHP Standard Recommendations (PSRs) like.
PSR-4
TODO: Needs implementing
TODO: Needs implementing
TODO: Needs implementing