How to display code in certain format but commit in another?

Question

Me and a friend of mine are working on a codebase and a problem has arisen. So, I gladly adhere to any common style standard which has some tooling support for auto-format. My friend has harder to read code and strongly prefers things like functions in the following format

function foo()
{
    console.log('bar');
}

This helps him to distinguish the beginning and end of blocks.

Compare to this format where the opening bracket is on the same line as the function keyword.

function foo() {
    console.log('bar');
}

Is there any smooth way of enforcing a code style in the project while allowing a developer to view and seemingly add code in their preferred format? I've read about git hooks which I assume could be a part of formatting the code before commit. I cannot however find a full solution for the described scenario.

See https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-170216. – CrazyCoder Apr 23 '17 at 13:50 — CrazyCoder, Apr 23 '17 at 13:50

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

Yes, this is called content filter driver, using .gitattributes declaration.

^{(image from "Customizing Git - Git Attributes", from "Pro Git book")}

The idea is do apply a code format on checkout, and apply another one on checkin, automatically.

So for any *.java file, you would called a formatter able to display the function block with the right curly brace policy on checkout, or with the original policy on commit.

How to display code in certain format but commit in another?

1 Answers1