9. Fine tuning

latexindent.pl operates by looking for the code blocks detailed in Table 2. The fine tuning of the details of such code blocks is controlled by the fineTuning field, detailed in Listing 574.

This field is for those that would like to peek under the bonnet/hood and make some fine tuning to latexindent.pl’s operating.

Warning

Making changes to the fine tuning may have significant consequences for your indentation scheme, proceed with caution!

Listing 574 fineTuning
627fineTuning:
628    environments:
629      name: [a-zA-Z@\*0-9_\\]+
630    ifElseFi:
631      name: (?!@?if[a-zA-Z@]*?\{)@?if[a-zA-Z@]*?
632    commands:
633      name: [+a-zA-Z@\*0-9_\:]+?
634    items:
635      canBeFollowedBy: (?:\[[^]]*?\])|(?:<[^>]*?>)
636    keyEqualsValuesBracesBrackets:
637      name: [a-zA-Z@\*0-9_\/.:\#-]+[a-zA-Z@\*0-9_\/.\h\{\}:\#-]*?
638      follow: (?:(?<!\\)\{)|,|(?:(?<!\\)\[)
639    namedGroupingBracesBrackets:
640      name: [0-9\.a-zA-Z@\*><]+?
641      follow: \h|\R|\{|\[|\$|\)|\(
642    UnNamedGroupingBracesBrackets:
643      follow: \{|\[|,|&|\)|\(|\$
644    arguments:
645      before: (?:#\d\h*;?,?\/?)+|\<.*?\>
646      between: _|\^|\*
647    trailingComments:
648      notPreceededBy: (?<!\\)
649    modifyLineBreaks:
650      doubleBackSlash: \\\\(?:\h*\[\h*\d+\h*[a-zA-Z]+\h*\])?
651      comma: ','
652      betterFullStop: |-
653        (?x)                                # ignore spaces in the below
654        (?:                                 #
655          \.\)                              # .) 
656          (?!\h*[a-z])                      # not *followed by* a-z
657        )                                   #
658        |                                   # OR
659        (?:                                 #
660          (?<!                              # not *preceded by*
661            (?:                             #
662              (?:[eE]\.[gG])                # e.g OR E.g OR e.G OR E.G
663              |                             #
664              (?:[iI]\.[eE])                # i.e OR I.e OR i.E OR I.E
665              |                             #
666              (?:etc)                       # etc
667            )                               #
668          )                                 #
669        )                                   # 
670        \.                                  # .
671        (?!                                 # not *followed by*
672          (?:                               #
673            [a-zA-Z0-9-~,]                  #
674            |                               #
675            \),                             # ),
676            |                               #
677            \)\.                            # ).
678          )                                 #
679        )                                   #

The fields given in Listing 574 are all regular expressions. This manual is not intended to be a tutorial on regular expressions; you might like to read, for example, (Friedl, n.d.) for a detailed covering of the topic.

We make the following comments with reference to Listing 574:

  1. the environments:name field details that the name of an environment can contain:

    1. a-z lower case letters

    2. A-Z upper case letters

    3. @ the @ ’letter’

    4. \* stars

    5. 0-9 numbers

    6. _ underscores

    7. \ backslashes

    The + at the end means at least one of the above characters.

  2. the ifElseFi:name field:

    1. @? means that it can possibly begin with @

    2. followed by if

    3. followed by 0 or more characters from a-z, A-Z and @

    4. the ? the end means non-greedy, which means ‘stop the match as soon as possible’

  3. the keyEqualsValuesBracesBrackets contains some interesting syntax:

    1. | means ‘or’

    2. (?:(?<!\\)\{) the (?:...) uses a non-capturing group – you don’t necessarily need to worry about what this means, but just know that for the fineTuning feature you should only ever use non-capturing groups, and not capturing groups, which are simply (...)

    3. (?<!\\)\{) means a { but it can not be immediately preceded by a \

  4. in the arguments:before field

    1. \d\h* means a digit (i.e. a number), followed by 0 or more horizontal spaces

    2. ;?,? means possibly a semi-colon, and possibly a comma

    3. \<.*?\> is designed for ’beamer’-type commands; the .*? means anything in between <...>

  5. the modifyLineBreaks field refers to fine tuning settings detailed in Section 6. In particular:

    1. betterFullStop is in relation to the one sentence per line routine, detailed in Section 6.2

    2. doubleBackSlash is in relation to the DBSStartsOnOwnLine and DBSFinishesWithLineBreak polyswitches surrounding double backslashes, see Section 6.3.2

    3. comma is in relation to the CommaStartsOnOwnLine and CommaFinishesWithLineBreak polyswitches surrounding commas in optional and mandatory arguments; see Table 3

It is not obvious from Listing 574, but each of the follow, before and between fields allow trailing comments, line breaks, and horizontal spaces between each character.

Warning

For the fineTuning feature you should only ever use non-capturing groups, such as (?:...) and not capturing groups, which are (...)

Example 157

As a demonstration, consider the file given in Listing 575, together with its default output using the command

latexindent.pl finetuning1.tex

is given in Listing 576.

Listing 575 finetuning1.tex
\mycommand{
    \rule{G -> +H[-G]CL}
    \rule{H -> -G[+H]CL}
    \rule{g -> +h[-g]cL}
    \rule{h -> -g[+h]cL}
}
Listing 576 finetuning1.tex default
\mycommand{
\rule{G -> +H[-G]CL}
\rule{H -> -G[+H]CL}
\rule{g -> +h[-g]cL}
\rule{h -> -g[+h]cL}
}

It’s clear from Listing 576 that the indentation scheme has not worked as expected. We can fine tune the indentation scheme by employing the settings given in Listing 578 and running the command

latexindent.pl finetuning1.tex -l=fine-tuning1.yaml

and the associated (desired) output is given in Listing 577.

Listing 577 finetuning1.tex using Listing 578
\mycommand{
	\rule{G -> +H[-G]CL}
	\rule{H -> -G[+H]CL}
	\rule{g -> +h[-g]cL}
	\rule{h -> -g[+h]cL}
}
Listing 578 finetuning1.yaml
fineTuning:
    arguments:
      between: '_|\^|\*|\->|\-|\+|h|H|g|G'
Example 158

Let’s have another demonstration; consider the file given in Listing 579, together with its default output using the command

latexindent.pl finetuning2.tex

is given in Listing 580.

Listing 579 finetuning2.tex
@misc{ wikilatex,
author = "{Wikipedia contributors}",
title = "LaTeX --- {Wikipedia}{,}",
note = "[Online; accessed 3-March-2020]"
}
Listing 580 finetuning2.tex default
@misc{ wikilatex,
author = "{Wikipedia contributors}",
title = "LaTeX --- {Wikipedia}{,}",
note = "[Online; accessed 3-March-2020]"
}

It’s clear from Listing 580 that the indentation scheme has not worked as expected. We can fine tune the indentation scheme by employing the settings given in Listing 582 and running the command

latexindent.pl finetuning2.tex -l=fine-tuning2.yaml

and the associated (desired) output is given in Listing 581.

Listing 581 finetuning2.tex using Listing 582
@misc{ wikilatex,
	author = "{Wikipedia contributors}",
	title = "LaTeX --- {Wikipedia}{,}",
	note = "[Online; accessed 3-March-2020]"
}
Listing 582 finetuning2.yaml
fineTuning:
    NamedGroupingBracesBrackets:
      follow: '\h|\R|\{|\[|\$|\)|\(|"'
    UnNamedGroupingBracesBrackets: 
      follow: '\{|\[|,|&|\)|\(|\$|"'
    arguments:
      between: '_|\^|\*|---'

In particular, note that the settings in Listing 582 specify that NamedGroupingBracesBrackets and UnNamedGroupingBracesBrackets can follow " and that we allow --- between arguments.

Example 159

You can tweak the fineTuning using the -y switch, but to be sure to use quotes appropriately. For example, starting with the code in Listing 583 and running the following command

latexindent.pl -m -y='modifyLineBreaks:oneSentencePerLine:manipulateSentences: 1, modifyLineBreaks:oneSentencePerLine:sentencesBeginWith:a-z: 1, fineTuning:modifyLineBreaks:betterFullStop: "(?:\.|;|:(?![a-z]))|(?:(?<!(?:(?:e\.g)|(?:i\.e)|(?:etc))))\.(?!(?:[a-z]|[A-Z]|\-|~|\,|[0-9]))"' issue-243.tex -o=+-mod1

gives the output shown in Listing 584.

Listing 583 finetuning3.tex
We go; you see: this sentence \cite{tex:stackexchange} finishes here.
Listing 584 finetuning3.tex using -y switch
We go;
you see:
this sentence \cite{tex:stackexchange} finishes here.
Example 160

We can tweak the fineTuning for how trailing comments are classified. For motivation, let’s consider the code given in Listing 585

Listing 585 finetuning4.tex
some before text
 \href{Handbook%20for%30Spoken%40document.pdf}{my document}
some after text

We will compare the settings given in Listing 586 and Listing 587.

Listing 586 href1.yaml
modifyLineBreaks:
    textWrapOptions:
        columns: -1
        blocksEndBefore:
           verbatim: 0
        blocksFollow:
           verbatim: 0

removeTrailingWhitespace:
    beforeProcessing: 1
Listing 587 href2.yaml
fineTuning:
    trailingComments:
      notPreceededBy: '(?:(?<!Handbook)(?<!for)(?<!Spoken))'

modifyLineBreaks:
    textWrapOptions:
        columns: -1
        blocksEndBefore:
           verbatim: 0
        blocksFollow:
           verbatim: 0

removeTrailingWhitespace:
    beforeProcessing: 1

Upon running the following commands

latexindent.pl -m finetuning4.tex -o=+-mod1 -l=href1
latexindent.pl -m finetuning4.tex -o=+-mod2 -l=href2

we receive the respective output in Listing 588 and Listing 589.

Listing 588 finetuning4.tex using Listing 586
some before text \href{Handbooksome after text%20for%30Spoken%40document.pdf}{my document}
Listing 589 finetuning4.tex using Listing 587
some before text \href{Handbook%20for%30Spoken%40document.pdf}{my document} some after text

We note that in:

  • Listing 588 the trailing comments are assumed to be everything following the first comment symbol, which has meant that everything following it has been moved to the end of the line; this is undesirable, clearly!

  • Listing 589 has fine-tuned the trailing comment matching, and says that % cannot be immediately preceded by the words ‘Handbook’, ‘for’ or ‘Spoken’, which means that none of the % symbols have been treated as trailing comments, and the output is desirable.

Example 161

Another approach to this situation, which does not use fineTuning, is to use noIndentBlock which we discussed in Listing 60; using the settings in Listing 590 and running the command

latexindent.pl -m finetuning4.tex -o=+-mod3 -l=href3

then we receive the same output given in Listing 589.

Listing 590 href3.yaml
modifyLineBreaks:
    textWrapOptions:
        columns: -1
        blocksEndBefore:
           verbatim: 0
        blocksFollow:
           verbatim: 0

noIndentBlock:
    href:
        begin: '\\href\{[^}]*?\}\{'
        body: '[^}]*?'
        end: '\}'

With reference to the body field in Listing 590, we note that the body field can be interpreted as: the fewest number of zero or more characters that are not right braces. This is an example of character class.

Example 162

We can use the fineTuning field to assist in the formatting of bibliography files.

Starting with the file in Listing 591 and running the command

latexindent.pl bib1.tex -o=+-mod1

gives the output in Listing 592.

Listing 591 bib1.bib
@online{paulo,
title="arararule,indent.yaml",
author="PauloCereda",
date={2013-05-23},
urldate={2021-03-19},
keywords={contributor},}
Listing 592 bib1-mod1.bib
@online{paulo,
	title="arararule,indent.yaml",
	author="PauloCereda",
	date={2013-05-23},
	urldate={2021-03-19},
	keywords={contributor},}

Let’s assume that we would like to format the output so as to align the = symbols. Using the settings in Listing 594 and running the command

latexindent.pl bib1.bib -l bibsettings1.yaml -o=+-mod2

gives the output in Listing 593.

Listing 593 bib1.bib using Listing 594
@online{paulo,
	title    = "arararule,indent.yaml",
	author   = "PauloCereda",
	date     = {2013-05-23},
	urldate  = {2021-03-19},
	keywords = {contributor},}
Listing 594 bibsettings1.yaml
lookForAlignDelims:
   online: 
      delimiterRegEx: '(=)'

fineTuning:
    keyEqualsValuesBracesBrackets:
      follow: '(?:(?<!\\)\{)|(?:(?<!\\)\[)'
    UnNamedGroupingBracesBrackets: 
      follow: '\{|\[|,|&|\)|\(|\$|='

Some notes about Listing 594:

  • we have populated the lookForAlignDelims field with the online command, and have used the delimiterRegEx, discussed in Section 5.5.4;

  • we have tweaked the keyEqualsValuesBracesBrackets code block so that it will not be found following a comma; this means that, in contrast to the default behaviour, the lines such as date={2013-05-23}, will not be treated as key-equals-value braces;

  • the adjustment to keyEqualsValuesBracesBrackets necessitates the associated change to the UnNamedGroupingBracesBrackets field so that they will be searched for following = symbols.

Example 163

We can build upon Listing 594 for slightly more complicated bibliography files.

Starting with the file in Listing 595 and running the command

latexindent.pl bib2.bib -l bibsettings1.yaml -o=+-mod1

gives the output in Listing 596.

Listing 595 bib2.bib
@online{cmh:videodemo,
title="Videodemonstrationofpl.latexindentonyoutube",
url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo38aaH2F4E&spfreload=10",
urldate={2017-02-21},
}
Listing 596 bib2-mod1.bib
@online{cmh:videodemo,
	title   = "Videodemonstrationofpl.latexindentonyoutube",
	url     = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v               = wo38aaH2F4E&spfreload = 10",
	urldate = {2017-02-21},
}

The output in Listing 596 is not ideal, as the = symbol within the url field has been incorrectly used as an alignment delimiter.

We address this by tweaking the delimiterRegEx field in Listing 597.

Listing 597 bibsettings2.yaml
lookForAlignDelims:
   online: 
      delimiterRegEx: '(?<!v)(?<!spfreload)(=)'

Upon running the command

latexindent.pl bib2.bib -l bibsettings1.yaml,bibsettings2.yaml -o=+-mod2

we receive the desired output in Listing 598.

Listing 598 bib2-mod2.bib
@online{cmh:videodemo,
	title   = "Videodemonstrationofpl.latexindentonyoutube",
	url     = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo38aaH2F4E&spfreload=10",
	urldate = {2017-02-21},
}

With reference to Listing 597 we note that the delimiterRegEx has been adjusted so that = symbols are used as the delimiter, but only when they are not preceded by either v or spfreload.

Friedl, Jeffrey E. F. n.d. Mastering Regular Expressions.