Emacs and using multiple C code styles

I primarily work on Linux, so I put this in my Emacs config:

; Linux mode for C
(setq c-default-style
      '((c-mode . "linux") (other . "gnu")))

However, other projects like QEMU have their own style preferences. So here’s what I added to use a different style for that. First, I found the qemu C style defined here. Then, to only use this on some C code, we attach a hook that only overrides the default C style if the filename contains “qemu”, an imperfect but decent-enough test.

(defconst qemu-c-style
  '((indent-tabs-mode . nil)
    (c-basic-offset . 4)
    (tab-width . 8)
    (c-comment-only-line-offset . 0)
    (c-hanging-braces-alist . ((substatement-open before after)))
    (c-offsets-alist . ((statement-block-intro . +)
                        (substatement-open . 0)
                        (label . 0)
                        (statement-cont . +)
                        (innamespace . 0)
                        (inline-open . 0)
                        ))
    (c-hanging-braces-alist .
                            ((brace-list-open)
                             (brace-list-intro)
                             (brace-list-entry)
                             (brace-list-close)
                             (brace-entry-open)
                             (block-close . c-snug-do-while)
                             ;; structs have hanging braces on open
                             (class-open . (after))
                             ;; ditto if statements
                             (substatement-open . (after))
                             ;; and no auto newline at the end
                             (class-close)
                             ))
    )
  "QEMU C Programming Style")

(c-add-style "qemu" qemu-c-style)

(defun maybe-qemu-style ()
  (when (and buffer-file-name
       (string-match "qemu" buffer-file-name))
    (c-set-style "qemu")))

(add-hook 'c-mode-hook 'maybe-qemu-style)

4 thoughts on “Emacs and using multiple C code styles

  1. Anonymous

    I find that it works more reliably to match buffer-file-name against “/project/” rather than just “project”, assuming you keep it in an appropriately named directory.

    Also, to do the same thing in vim:
    autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead ~/src/qemu/* set …

  2. Q

    The link to the Emacs docs above has info about the .dir-locals.el file that is even more useful:
    put the desired indentation style in such a file and get that checked in your projects, that way all Emacs
    users get the right style automatically when editing files in each project.

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