Install ClangFormat on Ubuntu 24.04

ClangFormat is a command line tool that automatically formats C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Objective-C, and other source code according to a set of style rules. It helps maintain consistent coding style across a codebase and reduces manual formatting. This tutorial shows how to install ClangFormat on Ubuntu 24.04.

Install ClangFormat

Use the following command to download the ClangFormat binary from the GitHub repository's releases page:

sudo wget -qO /usr/local/bin/clang-format https://github.com/cpp-linter/clang-tools-static-binaries/releases/latest/download/clang-format-20_linux-amd64

Set execute permission for a file:

sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/clang-format

We can check ClangFormat version as follows:

clang-format --version

Testing ClangFormat

Let's say we have the C code snippet saved in the main.c file:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    for(int i=0;i<10;++i){printf("%d\n",i);}

    return 0;
}

Run ClangFormat on this file using the following command:

clang-format -i main.c

After running the command, the code is automatically reformatted to follow the default style rules:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
  for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i) {
    printf("%d\n", i);
  }

  return 0;
}

As you can see, ClangFormat improves readability by applying consistent indentation and spacing.

Uninstall ClangFormat

To uninstall ClangFormat, simply delete the associated file:

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/clang-format