clang-format vs gofmt
clang-format
clang.llvm.orggofmt
go.devSide by side
| Figure | clang-format | gofmt |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · Code formatters | 7.7 (#8) | 7.8 (#6) |
| Spec score · Code Formatting Tools | 7.6 (#20) | 7.8 (#13) |
| Distribution | The LLVM project provides source and pre-built binary downloads, with listed binaries including Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms. | The Go installation process installs an executable called gofmt, equivalent to go fmt. |
| Editor integrations | The documentation describes integrations for Vim, Emacs, BBEdit, CLion, Visual Studio, and Visual Studio Code. | The Go project documents gofmt integrations for Vim, Emacs, Eclipse, Sublime Text, Git pre-commit hooks, and Mercurial. |
| License | LLVM releases are distributed under the Apache-2.0 license with LLVM exceptions, which the download page describes as OSI-approved. | Go is an open source project distributed under a BSD-style license. |
| Purpose | ClangFormat is a set of tools built on LibFormat for formatting source code, available as a standalone tool and through editor integrations. | Gofmt automatically formats Go programs using tabs for indentation and blanks for alignment. |
| Support | The Clang guide directs users who encounter problems to file bugs on the LLVM bug tracker. | Questions about using Go or announcements relevant to Go users should be sent to the golang-nuts mailing list. |
Plans
In their own words
clang-format
clang-format has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
gofmt
gofmt is the Go source formatter distributed with Go installations, available on Linux, macOS, and Windows. It formats Go programs using tabs for indentation and spaces for alignment. With no path, it reads standard input; given a directory, it processes .go files recursively while skipping files whose names begin with a period. By default, reformatted source is written to standard output. Flags can show differences, list files that need formatting, apply rewrite rules, simplify code, or report all errors. The rewrite option uses patterns and replacements written as valid Go expressions. gofmt can also arrange documentation comments into canonical paragraphs, lists, headings, links, and code blocks. The Go project documents integrations for Vim, Emacs, Eclipse, and Sublime Text, plus Git pre-commit hooks and Mercurial. Since Go 1.18, it reads and formats files concurrently, with memory use limited in proportion to GOMAXPROCS. The executable is equivalent to go fmt. It is free, included in the Go installation, and distributed under a BSD-style license.