brkn
My env and context
- Elixir 1.19.1
- Erlang 28.1.1
- Editor: vscodium (Basically same as vscode)
- Vscodium Extension: ElixirLS v0.30.0
- Not sure if it matters: zsh, macos arm
- I’m a beginner in elixir and beam
My problem
I have a language agnostic repo, and I’m trying to get my editor to format my script files.
Example scripts/upcase
#!/usr/bin/env elixir
case System.argv() do
[] -> IO.read(:stdio, :all)
args -> Enum.join(args, " ")
end
|> String.upcase()
|> IO.puts()
When I open this file on my editor, it detects the language and syntax highlights correctly but format file command doesn’t work.
So I thought I could do it via mix format but that didn’t work either, silently exits without formatting.
What I tried
mix format scripts/upcaseis silently exiting, no changes.- Could it be because my lang agnostic repo doesn’t have
.formatter.exsfile?mix format –-dot-formatter ~/.formatter.exs scripts/upcase-
❯ cat ~/.formatter.exs [ inputs: ["scripts/upcase"] ] - still silently exiting, file is not changed.
- After reading the mix format docs carefully, I realized I can pipe string into
mix format --
mix format - < scripts/upcase > /tmp/temp && mv /tmp/temp scripts/upcase -
Yes this works, but it’s very clunky.
-
Why could this be?
So I dived into the source, and I think this block is the culprit
defp find_formatter_for_file(file, formatter_opts) do
# ...
cond do
# ...
ext in ~w(.ex .exs) ->
&elixir_format(&1, [file: file] ++ formatter_opts)
true ->
& &1
end
# ...
end
Can I create a formatter plugin for extensionless files?
I thought this could be a solution, but I am not sure what’s the best way to do this since elixir_format/2 is a private method, see on github.
Should I copy the method’s body, and use Code.format_string!/2 ?
Trending in Questions
I having some trouble figuring out if I have set myself too strict of standards for my production server. Currently I can handle 75% of r...
New
Documentation
While reading the Scoped Routes section, I noticed that the documentation currently refers to a problem without explainin...
New
Hello,
I’m trying to build a basic Phoenix web-app, and I’d like to use Tailwind.
However, when I launch mix phx.server, I get an error...
New
Hi everyone,
I am toying with the idea of building a “match maker” for giving personal help to people that wants to start coding.
I sta...
New
I recently noticed that Elixir’s Logger defaults its primary log level to :debug when no :logger, :level application configuration is pre...
New
So i have been using ash framework for a while and i love it. However currently the issue im having with ash framework is the error handl...
New
I’m working on a small exercise involving update_in/3, and I came up with this solution:
data = %{
name: "Periodic Table",
category:...
New
Other Trending Topics
Edit: 2026 May 15 - This post is archived.
Mob is alive!!
Main docs: mob v0.7.11 — Documentation
A bit of explanation for the slightly c...
New
Hey, I’m Jesse and I’m the main contributor behind Dexter, a full-featured, lightning-fast Elixir LSP optimized for large codebases. It s...
New
I am happy to introduce the very α version of the new programming language compiled to BEAM.
Welcome Cure.
It has literally three kille...
New
Hobbes is a low-level distributed database for the Elixir programming language.
Hobbes provides a simple, safe, and scalable storage lay...
New
Hi everyone!
The first release candidate for the Expert language server project is now available!
We’ve published a press release detai...
New
A little off-topic, but I feel like people here have a good head on their shoulders.
I used to be quite good at making software. Was luc...
New
Categories:
Sub Categories:
Forums
Popular Tags
- #ecto
- #liveview
- #troubleshooting
- #learning-elixir
- #library
- #deployment
- #erlang
- #testing
- #genserver
- #mix
- #absinthe
- #remote-other
- #otp
- #plug
- #how-to-question
- #macros
- #postgres
- #elixirconf
- #channels
- #exunit
- #discussion
- #code-sync
- #podcasts
- #javascript
- #onsite
- #dialyzer
- #docker
- #authentication
- #umbrella
- #full-time-contract
- #podcasts-by-brainlid
- #ai
- #ecto-query
- #elixirconf-us
- #blog-post
- #elixir-ls
- #phoenix_html
- #iex
- #graphql
- #genstage
- #websockets
- #supervisor
- #advent-of-code
- #distillery
- #processes
- #elixirconf-eu
- #api
- #forms
- #metaprogramming
- #hex











Showing Posts 1 to 3- Show Best Posts
- Show All (oldest first)
- Show All (newest first)
Eiji
I would not recommend writing
Elixirscripts without extension. I understand that you don’t want to type.exs, but you can create a shell aliases for such cases. You can even write a simple look that would iterate all of your projects, enter the scripts directory, read files and create alias for each of them. In my opinion that the best you can do.However it’s not the limit of your possibilities. If you are fine with a workaround then you can add a custom plugin for your
formatter.exsconfiguration. Such plugin can register itself to""(empty string) as one of allowed extensions. SincePath.extname/1returns empty string only if a string does not have extension your plugin should always work only for the scripts you wanted.The rest is to call the standard formatter inside your plugin as you already did in your 3rd point in the shell.
For more information please take a look at the following documentation pages:
System.cmd/3@ Elixir documentationPath.extname/1@ Elixir documentationderek-zhou
I’d recommend to keep the .exs for source file, and make a separate installation of the scripts by:
~/bin, with extension drppedchmod a+xitThe same can be done for any scripting languages, not just elixir.
brkn
I know that I can copy, or even better create symlinks, but I would rather not.
It’s not impossible, vscode’s official typescript extension can handle this just fine. Try it yourself, it works for both unsaved editor or extensionless file.