inclean

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A C/C++ #include path normalizer.

Many legacy C/C++ libraries #include headers by bare filename (#include "bar.h") even though the actual header lives several directories deep (src/internal/bar.h). To consume such a library a caller must add every internal directory to their -I list — which pollutes their include namespace and breaks the library's encapsulation.

inclean does a one-shot, source-level normalization. It scans every source file in the library and rewrites each #include so it resolves cleanly against a small, explicit set of allowed include directories. After running inclean, consumers only -I the allowed directories.

Why inclean?

When using legacy libraries like some-old-lib, consumers often have to leak the library's internal directory structure into their own build configuration.

Without inclean: You have to add internal library paths to your own -I search paths to compile successfully.

gcc main.c -o main -I third_party -I third_party/some-old-lib/internal

Using inclean: inclean automatically cleans up and standardizes the #include paths inside some-old-lib. Consumers only need to include the top-level directory.

gcc main.c -o main -I third_party

Install

inclean is published to crates.io, PyPI, and as prebuilt binaries on GitHub Releases. Pick whichever ecosystem you already have on your machine.

Via PyPI (Python wheels — no Rust toolchain needed)

Three options:

uv tool install inclean      # isolated, fastest
pipx install inclean         # isolated
pip install inclean          # into the current environment

The wheels ship the native binary built by maturin; inclean lands on your PATH the same way ruff or uv do. Requires Python ≥ 3.8.

Via cargo

Two options:

cargo binstall inclean       # prebuilt binary from GitHub Releases (no compilation)
cargo install inclean        # build from crates.io

cargo binstall fetches inclean's binstall metadata from crates.io and downloads the matching prebuilt archive from this repo's GitHub Releases (no compilation). cargo binstall is a third-party cargo subcommand — install it first via cargo-bins/cargo-binstall if you don't already have it.

cargo install downloads the source from crates.io and compiles it locally.

Prebuilt binaries (no package manager)

Download a tarball for your platform from the latest GitHub Release and put inclean (or inclean.exe) on your PATH.

From repo source

Clone this repo and build from source:

git clone https://github.com/inaku-Gyan/inclean.git
cd inclean
cargo install --path .

Quick start

inclean is driven by an inclean.toml placed at the root of the library you want to clean up. A typical workflow:

inclean init                # write a documented starter inclean.toml
$EDITOR inclean.toml        # tell it where your headers live
inclean check               # dry-run: report every proposed change
inclean diff                # see the rewrites as a unified diff
inclean apply               # write the rewrites in place

check / diff / apply optionally take [PATHS...] to restrict which files are processed; with no paths they consider every source file under the project root. -c PATH overrides the upward inclean.toml walk; -j N sets the worker thread count.

Configuration at a glance

Each [[rule]] narrows down the includes it owns, then chooses what to do with them.

• file_paths and file_suffixes select source files.
• include_forms and include_match select include lines.
• include_directories enables header lookup; include_resolved_match filters the resolved header path.
• action rewrites, removes, comments out, keeps, or reports an error; trailing_comment handles same-line comments.

Most projects only need include_match plus one action. Use include_directories for path normalization, and look at macro_rewrite only when you need to edit macro-based includes. For glob rules, macro include behavior, conflict handling, copy semantics, and all fields, see the configuration reference.

Example

A simple replace-action config that rewrites #include "foo.h" to #include "lib/foo.h":

[project]
root = "."
version = "0.3.0"
min_inclean_version = "0.3.0"

[[rule]]
name = "lib-prefix"
file_paths = ["src/**/*"]
include_match = ["foo.h", "bar.h"]
action = { type = "replace", with = "lib/${original}" }

See tests/golden_tests/ for runnable end-to-end examples.

Editor support

inclean.toml ships with a JSON Schema for editor completion and validation. Editors that understand the #:schema directive (VS Code with Tombi or Even Better TOML, Helix, Zed) automatically pick it up:

#:schema https://raw.githubusercontent.com/inaku-Gyan/inclean/v0.4.1/schemas/inclean.toml.schema.json

[project]
root = "."
version = "0.4.1"
min_inclean_version = "0.4.0-alpha.3"

(The above version numbers are examples for this release line.)

inclean init writes both the #:schema line (for the editor) and the [project].version + [project].min_inclean_version fields. version tracks the CLI that generated the file; min_inclean_version tracks the oldest CLI expected to parse that generated config. To upgrade schema validation, edit the version segment in the URL to a newer release tag.

#:schema and the [project] version fields are independent. The #:schema URL is purely for editor tooling; the CLI runs its own two-direction compatibility check (CLI_COMPAT_MIN <= cfg.version AND cfg.min_inclean_version <= CLI_CURRENT). inclean is pre-1.0 and does not ship migration shims for breaking schema changes — see CLAUDE.md.

You can also dump a local copy:

inclean config schema --output inclean.toml.schema.json

Documentation

• Configuration reference — field meanings, matching syntax, actions, copy semantics, constants, and examples.
• schemas/inclean.toml.schema.json — editor schema generated from the Rust config structs.
• tests/golden_tests/ — runnable examples for replacement, resolution, copy semantics, suppression, trailing comments, conflicts, and encoding preservation.
• CONTRIBUTING.md — toolchain, dev workflow, conventions, scope.

License

BSD 3-Clause.