Formatting breaks after certain nesting level for tab indentation

[alexdima]

Moved from microsoft/vscode#24485
From @slaiyer

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• VSCode Version: 1.11.1
• OS Version: Windows 10 64-bit

Steps to reproduce:

1. Convert to/use tab indentation
2. Save or perform auto-format with "editor.formatOnSave": true and/or "C_Cpp.clang_format_formatOnSave": true

Tab indentation example (indentation is forcibly replaced with spaces when Step 2 is performed):

Space indentation example (missing indentation guides reappear when zoom level is brought back up):

It appears as though indentation levels reset (in a way) after 4 nesting levels, but only for tab indentation.

I have tried without success:

• Changing the line endings
• Disabling any extensions not installed by default

[sean-mcmanus]

@slaiyer The blank rendering with editor.renderIndentGuides seems like a bug with VS Code that is fixed with 1.12.0-Insiders (although with 1.11.0 I was only able to repro a dimmer Indent Guide).

The issue with clang-format is "by design". You need to add a .clang-format file and change the settings appropriately, such as the TabWith, IndentWidth, and UseTab settings.

If you're still having problems, let us know.

[slaiyer]

@sean-mcmanus The issue persists even with only the native option "editor.formatOnSave": true. I have removed all non-native plugins and settings include clang formatting.

[sean-mcmanus]

@slaiyer What issue exactly? Do you have the C/C++ (cpptools) 0.10.5 installed? What version of VS Code are you using? Our extension doesn't have any effect on the renderIndentGuides, and it renders fine on 1.12-Insiders. Our extension calls clang-format to implement formatting for C++ files, but the settings have to be setup correctly in the .clang-format file to match the tab/spacing you want.

[slaiyer]

@sean-mcmanus VS Code updated to 1.11.2 x64 on Windows 10. ms-vscode.cpptools0.10.5 installed and enabled by default.

The original post in this thread has screenshots showing the tab-based indentation issue (of resetting visual indentation levels after 4 code nesting levels) that occurs with C/C++ sources. I have narrowed it down to 2 mutually exclusive triggers:

• "editor.formatOnSave": true in settings.json
• Use of auto-format (Alt-Shift-F)

"editor.formatOnType": true and "editor.formatOnPaste": true do not trigger this issue by themselves.

No other formatting/code beautifying extensions installed nor settings enabled to get this minimal example.

[sean-mcmanus]

@slaiyer What are the contents of the .clang-format file you are using? If your tabsSize isn't 4, you'll need to change the .clang-format settings to match VS Code's settings. Maybe our default "Visual Studio" style should take into account the Visual Studio Code tab settings. I'll re-open this issue to consider that, so we work better out of the box without a .clang-format file.

[slaiyer]

@sean-mcmanus I apologize for the continued misunderstanding. I have stopped using clang-format in its entirety and the issue depicted in the screenshots still persists.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Convert to/use tab indentation
2. Save with "editor.formatOnSave": true or perform auto-format (Alt-Shift-F)

Since the original post here is by @alexandrudima and I cannot edit it, I have updated the original issue post as well.

EDIT:

Without "editor.formatOnSave": true or performing auto-format (Alt-Shift-F):

With either "editor.formatOnSave": true or auto-format (Alt-Shift-F) performed (auto-format with "editor.formatOnSave": false produces same issue as well):

[sean-mcmanus]

@slaiyer Our cpptools extension uses the clang-format.exe 3.8 under the covers (there's another clang-format extension that does something similar). VS Code and the cpptools extension do not provide any other means of formatting C++ code.

[slaiyer]

@sean-mcmanus I was not aware of that. In that case, seeing as "C_Cpp.clang_format_fallbackStyle": "Visual Studio" by default, this minimal case should be reproducible at your end.

I hope you have seen the screenshots I have added to my previous post in this thread as an afterthought. Please let me know if I can do more troubleshooting at my end. Thanks a lot for your patience.

[sean-mcmanus]

@slaiyer Yes, I can repro the issue. You can work around this via using the setting: "C_Cpp.clang_format_style": "{ BasedOnStyle: LLVM, UseTab: Always, IndentWidth: 2, BreakBeforeBraces: Allman, AllowShortIfStatementsOnASingleLine: false, IndentCaseLabels: false, ColumnLimit: 0, TabWidth: 2 }"
modifying the IndentWidth, TabWidth, and other settings as desired. Our code uses that for the Visual Studio style under the cover (also with sort_includes set to false), except we weren't setting the TabWidth, which is what leads to this bug. I thought we had a reason for not setting the TabWidth, but I don't remember what it was. A fix should be in the next update.

[bobbrow]

This issue should be fixed with v0.11.0. Please let us know if it is not.