Your Thoughts Wanted — OpenSSL Source Code Reformat
Nicola Tuveri
Public
Seen by 20
Recently a hot topic of discussion in the OpenSSL community has been the upcoming source code reformatting.
It’s been actively discussed in TAC meetings, and even at the OpenSSL Conference, where Bob Beck gave a [dedicated talk on the subject](https://2025.openssl-conference.org/speaker-sessions/detail-195_1292952#sectionLink).
The OpenSSL team plans to reformat the entire codebase using clang-format, following the WebKit coding style.
Since this change touches every contributor in some way I'd like to survey the feedback from the Academics' community.
I am shamelessly stealing most of this post and the questions below from the similar discussion started in the Individuals Community.
1. Initial Reaction
- What’s your first impression of the OpenSSL reformatting plan?
- Does it sound like a good step forward, or do you have any concerns?
2. Impact on Your Workflow
- Do you maintain any personal forks, patches, or experimental branches that could be affected?
- If yes, how much extra effort do you expect to adjust them?
3. Formatting & Accessibility
- Do you think moving to an automated format like clang-format (WebKit style) makes the codebase easier to read and contribute to?
- Or would you prefer keeping the existing OpenSSL style?
4. Tooling & Transition Help
- What kind of support or tools would make this change smoother for you?
5. Any other feedback?
It would be fantastic if you could take a few minutes to answer even a few of the questions here.
Billy Brumley · Mon 27 Oct 2025 9:04AM
I personally think it's a great idea, but I understand other folks will complain, just like they did in 2015 :D But in 5 years, no one will remember this.
It actually greatly simplifies my workflow. My students submit PRs, and it would be great to be able to give them substantive feedback instead of "please remove the whitespace"
Yes clang-format is the way forward. I don't really care what the particular config style is, as long as it's automated.
NA
(i) You will likely get the most pushback from folks maintaining significant patchsets. That might be painful. (ii) Sure I worry about "git blame" etc and people will complain about history, but those are temporal problems.