Install findent with Homebrew, apt, Nix

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• findent
• wfindent

Project history

The official site describes findent as a program to indent and relabel Fortran sources, with conversion between fixed and free form in both directions. The design document says the program became more complex than originally expected, leading to written documentation of its internals.

The design objectives emphasize reliability for serious projects involving large Fortran programs. findent deliberately reads from standard input and writes to standard output, avoids configuration files, and is controlled by command-line options plus an environment variable.

The changelog shows the tool growing from indentation into broader Fortran maintenance support: relabeling, OpenMP awareness, dependency generation through --deps and --makefdeps, editor integration, Debian compliance work, and continued handling of older dialect constructs.

Adoption history

findent's adoption is rooted in the Fortran ecosystem rather than the general developer-tool mainstream. It appears where users need repeatable formatting for legacy and modern Fortran, including fixed-form sources and code using older extensions.

The project ships wrappers and editor integration for vim, emacs, and gedit, which is strong evidence that its intended users include people editing real Fortran projects rather than only running one-off conversions.

Its presence in Homebrew, Debian, Ubuntu, and Nix reflects a cross-platform scientific-programming tool that package managers keep available because rebuilding or maintaining Fortran code often depends on small specialized utilities.

How it is used

Basic use is intentionally Unix-like: run `findent < program.f90 > newprogram.f90`, with automatic detection of fixed or free format where possible.

Users can tune indentation categories from the command line, convert between fixed and free forms, relabel source, refactor END statements, and generate dependency information for build systems.

The design document says findent uses no configuration files; options come from command-line parameters and an environment variable, which keeps package installation simple and avoids per-user config discovery.

Why package nerds care

findent is the kind of niche compiler-adjacent tool package managers are good at preserving: tiny executable surface, real language knowledge, and disproportionate value for legacy code maintainers.

Its support for stdin/stdout, wrappers, editor integrations, and dependency-generation flags makes it useful in scripts, editor hooks, and build systems without needing a larger Fortran IDE.

Timeline

• 1.2: Early archived release listed in official SourceForge files.
• 2.8.0: Changelog notes `! findentfix` and documentation cleanup.
• 2.8.5: OpenMP awareness implemented.
• 3.0.0: Dependency generation added with --deps and --makefdeps.
• 4.1.x: Relabeling and additional editor/wrapper improvements documented.
• 2024: Design and usage document published on the official site.
• 2026: 4.3.7 release files published on SourceForge.

Related projects

• findent is related to Fortran compilers, editor integrations for vim/emacs/gedit, build dependency tools, and other Fortran source formatters.
• It sits near formatter and refactoring utilities rather than language servers or full IDEs.

Sources

• https://www.ratrabbit.nl/ratrabbit/findent/index.html
• https://www.ratrabbit.nl/ratrabbit/findent/design_and_usage/index.html
• https://www.ratrabbit.nl/ratrabbit/findent/changelog/index.html
• https://www.ratrabbit.nl/ratrabbit/findent/man_page/index.html
• https://sourceforge.net/projects/findent/files/
• https://sourceforge.net/p/findent/code/HEAD/tree