Ardent idleberg

ardent

> An opinionated code formatter for NSIS scripts

Description

This is a Rust implementation of dent, a NodeJS-based formatting tool for NSIS scripts.

It aims to be fully compatible while making distribution easier for people outside the NodeJS ecosystem.

Installation

There is a variety of ways to install (or run) ardent, pick your favourite:

Cargo

cargo install ardent

Winget

winget install idleberg.ardent

Scoop

scoop bucket add nsis https://github.com/NSIS-Dev/scoop-nsis
scoop install nsis/ardent

Homebrew

brew install idleberg/asahi/ardent

Nix

nix profile install github:idleberg/ardent

Docker

docker run idleberg/ardent

Pkgx

pkgx ardent

Mise

mise plugin install ardent https://github.com/idleberg/mise-ardent
mise use ardent

Alternatively, you can build it from source:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/idleberg/ardent.git
cd ardent

# Setup tooling
mise install

# Build
cargo build --release

The binary is at target/release/ardent.

CLI Usage

ardent [OPTIONS] [COMMAND]

Commands:
  format  Format NSIS scripts
  check   Check if NSIS scripts are formatted correctly

Options:
  -D, --debug    Print debug messages
  -h, --help     Print help
  -V, --version  Print version

Format

Formats one or more .nsi / .nsh files.

# Print formatted output to stdout
ardent format installer.nsi

# Edit files in-place
ardent format --write src/**/*.nsi

See ardent format --help for available options.

Check

Checks whether files are already formatted.

# Check only (reports drift)
ardent check src/**/*.nsi

# Check and auto-fix (still exits 1 if drift was found)
ardent check --write src/**/*.nsi

# Print a unified diff of what would change
ardent check --diff src/**/*.nsi

See ardent check --help for available options.

Library Usage

Formatting

use ardent::{FormatterOptions, EndOfLine, Formatter};

let formatter = Formatter::new(FormatterOptions {
    end_of_line: Some(EndOfLine::Lf),
    use_tabs: true,
    indent_size: 2,
    trim_empty_lines: true,
    print_width: 120,
}).expect("valid options");

let input = r#"section "My Section"
detailprint "Hello"
sectionend
"#;

let output = formatter.format(input).expect("valid NSIS");
assert_eq!(output, "Section \"My Section\"\n\tDetailPrint \"Hello\"\nSectionEnd\n");

Checking

Returns None if the input is already formatted, or Some(formatted) if it needs changes.

use ardent::{FormatterOptions, Formatter};

let formatter = Formatter::new(FormatterOptions::default()).unwrap();

match formatter.check(input).unwrap() {
    None => println!("Already formatted"),
    Some(formatted) => println!("Needs formatting"),
}

Options

Field	Type	Default	Description
end_of_line	Option	None (auto-detect)	Force CRLF or LF line endings
indent_size	usize	2	Spaces per indent level (ignored when using tabs)
print_width	usize	120	Maximum line width before wrapping with \ continuations (0 disables)
single_quote	bool	false	Prefer single quotes instead of double quotes
trim_empty_lines	bool	true	Collapse consecutive blank lines and strip leading/trailing blanks
use_tabs	bool	true	Indent with tabs instead of spaces

> [!TIP] > While many follow their personal preferences in the tabs vs spaces discussion, accessibility is probably the strongest argument to prefer tabs. See this discussion for more context.

Benchmark

Speed is a neglectible factor for formatting NSIS files, which are usually relatively short. However, if this is an important factor for you, take note of these benchmarks run on an Apple M2 Pro with 32GB of RAM.

Benchmark 1: ardent check Examples/bigtest.nsi
  Time (mean ± σ):       1.7 ms ±   0.3 ms    [User: 1.3 ms, System: 0.4 ms]
  Range (min … max):     1.3 ms …   4.8 ms    415 runs

Benchmark 2: dent check Examples/bigtest.nsi
  Time (mean ± σ):     101.9 ms ±   4.6 ms    [User: 95.5 ms, System: 11.4 ms]
  Range (min … max):    97.9 ms … 124.4 ms    29 runs

Summary
  ardent check Examples/bigtest.nsi ran
   58.70 ± 10.67 times faster than dent check Examples/bigtest.nsi

Integrations

• zed-nsis - Zed extension for NSIS with built-in formatter
• ardent.nvim - Neovim formatting plugin
• ardent-check - GitHub Action to run formatting checks
• sublime-lsp-nsis - Sublime Text package for NSIS with built-in formatter
• nova-nsis - Nova extension for NSIS with built-in formatter

License

This work is licensed under The MIT License.