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Features

  • Smart formatting: Tabs for recipes, consistent spacing, line continuation cleanup
  • Intelligent .PHONY detection: Automatically identifies and manages phony targets
  • Syntax validation: Ensures Makefiles are valid before and after formatting
  • Configurable rules: Customize behavior via {XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/bake.toml
  • CI/CD ready: Check mode for automated formatting validation
  • VSCode extension: Full editor integration available

Installation

# Install from PyPI
pip install mbake
# Or install VSCode extension
# Search for "mbake Makefile Formatter" in VSCode Extensions

Quick Start

# Format a Makefile
mbake format Makefile
# Check if formatting is needed (CI/CD mode)
mbake format --check Makefile
# Validate Makefile syntax
mbake validate Makefile
# Initialize configuration
mbake init

Usage

Basic Commands

# Format files
mbake format Makefile                   # Format single file
mbake format --check Makefile           # Check formatting (CI/CD)
mbake format --diff Makefile            # Show changes without modifying
# Validate syntax
mbake validate Makefile                 # Check Makefile syntax with GNU make
# Configuration
mbake init                              # Create config file
mbake config                            # Show current settings
mbake update                            # Update to latest version

Key Options

  • --check: Check formatting without making changes (perfect for CI/CD)
  • --diff: Show what changes would be made
  • --backup: Create backup before formatting
  • --validate: Validate syntax after formatting
  • --timeout: Timeout to use for syntax checks
  • --config: Use custom configuration file

Configuration

Create a config file with mbake init. Key settings:

[formatter]
# Spacing and formatting
space_around_assignment = true          # CC=gcc to CC = gcc
space_after_colon = true                # myapp.o:myapp.c to myapp.o: myapp.c
normalize_line_continuations = true     # Clean up backslash continuations
remove_trailing_whitespace = true       # Remove trailing spaces
fix_missing_recipe_tabs = true          # Convert spaces to tabs in recipes
# Variable alignment
align_variable_assignments = false      # Align consecutive assignments
align_across_comments = false           # Continue alignment across comments
# .PHONY management
auto_insert_phony_declarations = false  # Auto-detect and insert .PHONY
group_phony_declarations = false        # Group multiple .PHONY lines
phony_at_top = false                    # Place .PHONY at file top

Smart .PHONY Detection

mbake intelligently detects phony targets by analyzing recipe commands:

# These are automatically detected as phony
test:
 npm test
clean:
 rm -f *.o
deploy:
 ssh user@server 'systemctl restart app'
# This creates a file, so it's NOT phony
myapp.o: myapp.c
 gcc -c myapp.c -o myapp.o

Enable auto-insertion in your config:

[formatter]
auto_insert_phony_declarations = true

Examples

Before and After

# Before: Inconsistent spacing and indentation
CC:=gcc
CFLAGS= -Wall -g
SOURCES=main.c \
  utils.c \
    helper.c
all: $(TARGET)
    $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -o $@ $^
clean:
    rm -f *.o
# After: Clean, consistent formatting
CC := gcc
CFLAGS = -Wall -g
SOURCES = main.c \
  utils.c \
  helper.c
all: $(TARGET)
	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -o $@ $^
clean:
	rm -f *.o

Disable Formatting

Use special comments to disable formatting in specific regions:

# bake-format off
CUSTOM_FORMAT= \
      1 \
  45678 \
#bake-format on

CI/CD Integration

# GitHub Actions example
- name: Check Makefile formatting
  run: |
    pip install mbake
    mbake format --check Makefile

Exit codes: 0 (success), 1 (needs formatting), 2 (error)

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

# Development setup
git clone https://github.com/ebodshojaei/bake.git
cd mbake
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest  # Run tests

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Read the original on github.com ↗