Re: [PATCH 1/4] editorconfig: set maximum line length to 120 characters

From: Karthik Nayak <karthik.188@gmail.com>
Date: Jun 26, 2025, 08:27 UTC
Message-ID: <CAOLa=ZRu-fBsNpoSzb8z2xUfM7WUUcdR1XRd8zr1U+P61QRccA@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqo6ubu0ic.fsf@gitster.g>

Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:

Show 14 quoted lines

> Karthik Nayak <karthik.188@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> As per 'Documentation/CodingGuidelines', we try to keep to at most 80
>> characters per line. However, there are often certain cases where we
>> extend this for the sake of readability.
>>
>> Add a maximum limit of 120 characters to the '.editorconfig'. This means
>> that if an individual line exceeds 120 characters, the editor will wrap
>> that line. This provides a lot wiggle room over the recommended 80
>> character limit.
>
> Ideally "when the line is overly long to be more than 120 columns,
> please wrap it to 80 columns or less" is what we want.
>

Yup, this would be nice, but neither '.editorconfig' or '.clang-format' support a rule like this.

Show 8 quoted lines

> If the
> result of formatting a single 125 column line leaves us with two
> lines, one with 100 columns and another with 25 columns, this would
> not be very useful.  As this is meant to give suggestions without
> enforcing hard rule, wouldn't it make more sense to set it to 80?
>
> I dunno.
>

So my intent was to instead was to allow the user to be in charge of line-wrapping, but for no reason should that go beyond 120 columns.

I'm happy to change that to 80 columns, this does mean that supported editors will start wrapping at 80 columns. Users will have to override as necessary.

Show 13 quoted lines

>> Contrary to settings within '.clang-format' which are used for
>> statically formatting source code, the '.editorconfig' rules are hints
>> to the editor. These are not enforced by CI and are guidelines for
>> editors to follow. As such, the 'max_line_length' used here is only
>> supported in a set of editors [1].
>>
>> [1]: https://github.com/editorconfig/editorconfig/wiki/EditorConfig-Properties#max_line_length
>
> Thanks.
>
> The discussion around "rulers" https://github.com/editorconfig/editorconfig/issues/89
> was also interesting.
>

Indeed. That would be a really nice feature and in line with what we would want.

Show 17 quoted lines

>> Signed-off-by: Karthik Nayak <karthik.188@gmail.com>
>> ---
>>  .editorconfig | 1 +
>>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
>>
>> diff --git a/.editorconfig b/.editorconfig
>> index 2d3929b591..d0f940fd23 100644
>> --- a/.editorconfig
>> +++ b/.editorconfig
>> @@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ insert_final_newline = true
>>  [{*.{c,h,sh,bash,perl,pl,pm,txt,adoc},config.mak.*,Makefile}]
>>  indent_style = tab
>>  tab_width = 8
>> +max_line_length = 120
>>
>>  [*.py]
>>  indent_style = space