Smartcode

Smartcode (sc) is a source code formatting and pretty-printing tool for C/C++ developed with the goal of improving code readability and maintainability. It was forked from GC Greatcode by Christophe Beaudet, with enhancements specifically for modern C++ codebases.

Overview

Smartcode reads C/C++ source files and reformats them according to configurable style rules. The tool focuses on:

• Consistent indentation and spacing
• Comment formatting and alignment
• Preprocessor directive handling
• Configurable brace styles
• Flexible code organization options

The original project (GC Greatcode) provided a solid foundation, and Smartcode builds upon it with additional formatting options, better C++11+ support, and improved configurability.

Features

• Source Code Formatting - Indents C/C++ code based on language rules
• Configurable Style Rules - Over 100 command-line options for fine-grained control
• Comment Handling - Formats both // and /* */ comments with alignment options
• Preprocessor Support - Handles #include, #define, and other directives intelligently
• Cross-platform - Compiles on Windows (MSVC), Linux, and macOS

Key Capabilities

• Configurable brace styles (attachment, end of line, next line)
• Space insertion rules for various contexts (if, for, function calls, etc.)
• Comment formatting with configurable alignment and splitting
• Preprocessor directive handling with special alignment options
• Support for template specializations and modern C++ constructs
• Optional tag file generation for code navigation

Installation

Building from Source

This project uses Jam as its build system. To build:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/dreamraster/smartcode.git
cd smartcode

# Build with Jam
jam

# Or for debug build
jam -sCONFIG=debug

The executable sc.exe (or sc) will be created in the project directory.

Note: On Windows, you may need to copy msvc.install to Jamfile.jam first and run Jam with the Visual Studio environment.

Usage

# Show help
sc -help
sc -h

# Format a single file (overwrites in place)
sc myfile.cpp

# Format with specific config
sc -c myconfig.cfg myfile.cpp

# Verbose mode to see what's happening
sc -v *.cpp

Command Line Options

Option	Description
-h, -help, /?	Display help message
-v, -verbose	Enable verbose output
-bak	Create backup files (.orig extension)
-c <file>	Specify configuration file (default: sc.cfg)
-d	Generate dependency information
-da	Include system headers in dependencies

Exit Codes

• 0: Success
• <128: Non-fatal errors (files processed, some may have failed)
• >=128: Fatal errors or invalid arguments

Configuration

Smartcode reads settings from sc.cfg in the current directory or parent directories. The configuration file uses a simple format:

-option1-value
-option2-
option3-123

See the Configuration Guide for all available options.

Common Configuration Options

# Tab and indentation
-tab_size-4     # Number of spaces per tab
-out_tab          # Use tabs in output (0=spaces, 1=tab, 2=tab/indent)

# Brace styles
-brace_style-0    # GNU style (brace with statement)
-brace_style-1    # K&R style (brace on same line as function)

# Spacing
-space_if-1       # Add space after if/while/for/catch
-space_return-2   # Add space between return and expression

# Comment formatting
-cmt_cpp2c_keep_eol-0   # Convert C++ comments to C at EOL
-cmt_first_space_cpp-1  # Space after C++ comment marker

Project Structure

.
├── main.c          # Entry point, CLI parsing
├── config.c/.h     # Configuration handling
├── tools.c/.h      # Utility functions
├── error.c         # Error reporting
├── debug.c         # Debug utilities
├── in.c            # File input handling
├── out.c           # Output generation
├── lexi.c          # Lexical analysis (tokenization)
├── grammar.c       # Grammar analysis
├── grammar_pp.c    # Preprocessor directives handling
├── grammar_decl.c  # Declaration parsing
├── indent.c        # Indentation logic
├── indent_*.c      # Specialized formatters (comments, C++, etc.)
├── os.h            # OS-specific definitions
└── Jamfile.jam     # Jam build system file

History

Smartcode is a fork of GC Greatcode by Christophe Beaudet, with the first version released in 2012. The Smartcode branch was started by dreamraster to add modern C++ support and additional formatting options beyond the original project's capabilities.

Version Information

Current version: 1.403

Based on GC Greatcode by Christophe Beaudet et al.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

Acknowledgments

• Original GC Greatcode by Christophe Beaudet - The foundation upon which Smartcode was built
• Contributors - All who helped test, report issues, and improve Smartcode

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This README was generated automatically from the project source on 2026-03-08