-
Verify the tool is available.
command -v latexindent || { echo "latexindent not found (install via TeX Live)"; exit 0; }
If it is missing, report that and stop — do not attempt a manual reformat.
-
Establish the formatting profile. If the project has no
.latexindent.yaml, write a sensible one at the project root before
running. Defaults: two-space indentation, line-break modification disabled
(so prose lines are never rewrapped), backups handled by the -w/-b
flags. Create the file only if it does not already exist:
test -f .latexindent.yaml || cat > .latexindent.yaml <<'YAML'
defaultIndent: " "
modifyLineBreaks: 0
removeTrailingWhitespace: 1
indentPreamble: 0
YAML
If a .latexindent.yaml already exists, respect it and do not overwrite.
-
Select tracked .tex files. Prefer git-tracked files; fall back to all
.tex files under the project, excluding build artefacts:
if git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree >/dev/null 2>&1; then
FILES=$(git ls-files '*.tex')
else
FILES=$(find . -name '*.tex' -not -path './*build*/*' -not -path './.git/*')
fi
echo "$FILES"
(Listing files is read-only; running git here is for discovery, not commits.)
-
Run latexindent in place with backups, silently. The -w flag writes
changes in place and creates a backup; -s silences the log chatter; -l
picks up the local .latexindent.yaml; -g /tmp/... keeps the indent log
out of the project. Process each file:
for f in $FILES; do
latexindent -w -s -l -g /tmp/latexindent.log "$f"
done
The *.bak0 backups latexindent leaves behind let the user revert; mention
them in the summary and offer to remove them once the result is approved.
-
Normalize straight quotes to \enquote where it is unambiguously safe.
Replace paired ASCII double quotes "..." in prose with \enquote{...} and
ensure csquotes is loaded. Only transform clearly textual quotes — never
touch quotes inside verbatim, listings, code, URLs, tikz, or math, and
skip any line where a quote is part of a key=value option. When in doubt,
leave it and list it as a manual candidate. Ensure the preamble has:
\usepackage{csquotes}
Use \enquote{...} (which adapts to the active polyglossia language) rather
than hard-coding ...'' ``. For nested quotes, \enquote{outer \enquote{inner}} produces correct primary/secondary marks automatically.
-
Report a diff summary. Show what changed per file without dumping full
files:
for f in $FILES; do
if [ -f "$f.bak0" ]; then
echo "== $f =="
diff -u "$f.bak0" "$f" | sed -n '1,40p'
echo " $(diff "$f.bak0" "$f" | grep -c '^>') lines changed"
fi
done
Summarize: files touched, indentation fixes, quote conversions, and any
manual-review candidates that were intentionally skipped.
-
Verify formatting did not break the build. Compile with the project
engine (default xelatex):
latexmk -xelatex -interaction=nonstopmode -file-line-error "$MAIN"
If the compile fails, the formatting itself is rarely the cause, but restore
from the *.bak0 backup of the offending file and report before proceeding.
-
Hand off visual polish. Mechanical formatting is now done. If the user
asked for spacing, float/figure placement, table alignment, or microtype
tuning, delegate that to the typesetter agent rather than attempting it
with latexindent.
