`hornet fmt`¶

Reformat a named.conf file in-place using Hornet's canonical style.

Usage¶

hornet fmt [OPTIONS] <FILE>

Arguments:
  <FILE>  Path to named.conf

Options:
  -i, --indent <N>  Indent size in spaces [default: 4]
      --check       Check formatting only; exit 1 if file would change (comments are ignored)
      --modern      Use modern keyword aliases [default: true]
      --no-modern   Keep legacy keywords
      --force       Rewrite the file even though its comments will be removed
  -h, --help        Print help

Examples¶

Reformat in-place¶

hornet fmt /etc/bind/named.conf

Output:

Formatted /etc/bind/named.conf

Check-only mode (CI / pre-commit)¶

hornet fmt --check /etc/bind/named.conf

Output when already formatted:

OK  /etc/bind/named.conf is already formatted

Output when reformatting would change the file (exits 1):

FAIL /etc/bind/named.conf would be reformatted

Files with comments¶

Hornet does not preserve comments, so rewriting a file deletes them. fmt refuses to do that silently: on a file with comments it exits 1 and leaves the file untouched.

error: /etc/bind/named.conf contains comments, which hornet does not preserve; rewriting it would delete them. Re-run with --force to rewrite anyway.

To rewrite it anyway:

hornet fmt --force /etc/bind/named.conf

warning: /etc/bind/named.conf: comments were removed (hornet does not preserve comments)
Formatted /etc/bind/named.conf

--check ignores comments: a file that is formatted apart from its comments passes, with a note on stderr:

info: /etc/bind/named.conf: comments are ignored by --check
OK  /etc/bind/named.conf is already formatted

Comment markers inside quoted strings (file "db#1";) are data, not comments.

Use 2-space indent¶

hornet fmt --indent 2 /etc/bind/named.conf

Preserve legacy keywords¶

hornet fmt --no-modern /etc/bind/named.conf

Exit codes¶

Code	Meaning
`0`	Success (file formatted, or `--check` and file was already correct)
`1`	Parse error; file has comments and `--force` was not given; or `--check` and file would have been changed

CI integration¶

# GitHub Actions: fail if any config file is not formatted
- name: Check BIND9 formatting
  run: hornet fmt --check /etc/bind/named.conf

# .pre-commit-config.yaml equivalent (shell hook)
hornet fmt --check "$1"

Notes¶

Without --check, the file is overwritten with the formatted output.
Comments are not preserved; a file with comments is only rewritten with --force.
Always run hornet check after fmt to ensure the reformatted file is also semantically valid.
fmt only handles named.conf files. Zone files do not have a canonical format in Hornet yet.

parse — Preview formatted output without modifying the file
convert — Migrate legacy keywords
check — Validate semantic correctness after formatting

hornet fmt¶