:tools editorconfig

Let someone else argue about tabs vs spaces

1. Description

This module integrates EditorConfig into Emacs, allowing users to dictate code style on a per-project basis with an .editorconfig file (formal specification).

1.2. Module flags

This module has no flags.

1.4. Hacks

  • Added logic to guess an extension-less file’s type from its shebang line. For example, editorconfig rules for *.py files will apply to bin/myscript assuming its first line is #!/usr/bin/env python. See +editorconfig-mode-alist for adding support for more languages.
  • Special integration for dtrt-indent: If the local editorconfig file specifies indent_style or indent_size, the dtrt-indent (which tries to guess your indent settings by analyzing your text file) will bow out.
  • Special integration for ws-butler: this module will use ws-butler to enforce trim_trailing_whitespace.

2. Prerequisites

This module has one optional dependency: the editorconfig native binary. Without it, a built-in elisp implementation will be used, but it has fewer features and can be a bit slower.

The editorconfig binary has many implementations you can choose from, typically available through your OS package manager (or build it yourself).

3. Usage

You will need to write an .editorconfig file in your project (this is usually in the root of your project) you can find out about all the properties here

4. Configuration

4.1. Adding support for more major modes

Out the box, the editorconfig plugin supports many Emacs major modes, but it’s possible you’ll find one it doesn’t support. Adding support is easy so long as you know that mode’s indentation variables. For example, coffee-mode has a coffee-tab-width variable that controls indentation width in CoffeeScript files. Editorconfig already supports this language, but let’s pretend it doesn’t:

The editorconfig-indentation-alist variable contains a list of major modes and their indentation variables. To add coffee-mode to it:

# ⎘
(after! editorconfig
  (add-to-list 'editorconfig-indentation-alist '(coffee-mode coffee-tab-width)))

But what if you don’t know the correct indentation variable(s). Use SPC h v (C-h v for non-evil users) to peruse all the available variables in your current session of Emacs. Look for variables that have the words indent, offset or tab-width in them. They will be prefixed with the plugin they belong to (e.g. rustic-indent-offset).

5. TODO Troubleshooting

There are no known problems with this module. Report one?

6. TODO Appendix

This module has no appendix yet. Write one?