Specify a path for .clang-format via VS Code settings.json

[rongxin-liu]

Feature Request

Currently, per this documentation, VS Code would look for a .clang-format file in user's workspace and apply those settings. If .clang-format file is not found, it uses its default formatting style shipped with the C/C++ extension.

Would it be possible for users to specify the .clang-format file at a location other than the workspace, perhaps in settings.json, allowing more flexibility?

[rongxin-liu]

The context is we want to ship our customized .clang-format file in a Docker image. Users launching a dev container using our image (with the accompanied .devcontainer.json) can automatically use our formatting styles without extra configuration.

[michelleangela]

@rongxin-liu
Thank you for submitting this request. It is a duplicate of #10006. The current workaround is to add the clang-tidy arg --config-file=<path> to the setting C_Cpp.codeAnalysis.clangTidy.args.

[rongxin-liu]

@michelleangela Thanks! But I'm looking into specifying a file path for .clang-format file, not clang-tidy config file. Is there a workaround for that?

[rongxin-liu]

@michelleangela Ah, just found out that this setting does exactly what we need:

"C_Cpp.clang_format_style": "file:/home/ubuntu/.clang-format"

[michelleangela]

@rongxin-liu
My apologies, I misread and thought of clang-tidy. Yes, the setting C_Cpp.clang_format_style can be set with a path to .clang-format file.