(clang-format exit status 1) with ale_c_clangformat_style_option = 'Microsoft' (or others)

[ubaldot]

I am running on a Windows 10 machine with the following Vim installed:

VIM - Vi IMproved 8.2 (2019 Dec 12, compiled Sep 21 2021 22:13:38)
MS-Windows 32-bit console version
Included patches: 1-3452

I have also installed all the LLVM and added to the Windows PATH and the Powershell can recognize all the commands like clangd, clangtidy, clang-format, and so on.

I selected clang-format as fixer, and it works as is. In-fact, inspection of ALEInfo shows

(finished - exit code 0) 'cmd /s/c "clang-format --assume-filename=C:\Users\yt75534\c_tutorial\Unions\Unions.c < C:\Users\yt75534\AppData\Local\Temp\V48D2FD.tmp\Unions.c"'

Perfect!

But I don't like this formatting, so I decided to go for the Microsoft style.
After having read :help ale-c-clangformat I added the following line to my _vimrc

let g:ale_c_clangformat_style_option = 'Microsoft'

When I run ALEFix nothing happens. Inspection of ALEInfo shows this line:

(finished - exit code 1) 'cmd /s/c "clang-format --assume-filename=C:\Users\yt75534\c_tutorial\Unions\Unions.c -style=''Microsoft'' < C:\Users\yt75534\AppData\Local\Temp\V9997E2.tmp\Unions.c"'

that suggests that something went wrong with the command, and in-fact my code is not formatted.
Nevertheless, if I run the following command

clang-format --assume-filename=C:\Users\yt75534\c_tutorial\Unions\Unions.c -style=''Microsoft'' C:\Users\yt75534\c_tutorial\Unions\Unions.c

through the Powershell, I got my code well formatted according to the Microsoft style.
So, essentially, everything works fine as long as I remove the line

let g:ale_c_clangformat_style_option = 'Microsoft'

In-fact, things get even worst if I add a list in it.
For example, by setting

let g:ale_c_clangformat_style_option = {
    \ 'BasedOnStyle':                      'Microsoft',
    \ 'ColumnLimit':                        '80',
    \ }

and running ALEFix, then Vim return the following error:

Error detected while processing function ale#fix#Fix[37]..<SNR>61_RunFixer[17]..ale#fixers#clangformat#Fix:
line    8:
E731: Using a Dictionary as a String

How shall I set ale_c_clangformat_style_option?

For completeness, my ALEInfo is the following

 Current Filetype: c
Available Linters: ['cc', 'ccls', 'clangd', 'clangtidy', 'cppcheck', 'cquery', 'flawfinder']
   Linter Aliases:
'cc' -> ['gcc', 'clang']
  Enabled Linters: ['cc', 'cppcheck']
  Ignored Linters: []
 Suggested Fixers: 
  'astyle' - Fix C/C++ with astyle.
  'clang-format' - Fix C/C++ and cuda files with clang-format.
  'clangtidy' - Fix C/C++ and ObjectiveC files with clang-tidy.
  'remove_trailing_lines' - Remove all blank lines at the end of a file.
  'trim_whitespace' - Remove all trailing whitespace characters at the end of every line.
  'uncrustify' - Fix C, C++, C#, ObjectiveC, ObjectiveC++, D, Java, Pawn, and VALA files with uncrustify.
 Linter Variables:

let g:ale_c_always_make = 0
let g:ale_c_build_dir = 'C:/PE_Builds/sw-ecu/BSW'
let g:ale_c_build_dir_names = ['build', 'bin']
let g:ale_c_cc_executable = '<auto>'
let g:ale_c_cc_options = '-Wall -I C:\MinGW64\mingw\include '
let g:ale_c_clangformat_executable = 'clang-format'
let g:ale_c_clangformat_options = ''
let g:ale_c_clangformat_style_option = 'Microsoft'
let g:ale_c_clangformat_use_global = 0
let g:ale_c_clangformat_use_local_file = 0
let g:ale_c_cppcheck_executable = 'cppcheck'
let g:ale_c_cppcheck_options = '--enable=style -I C:\MinGW64\mingw\include'
let g:ale_c_parse_compile_commands = 1
let g:ale_c_parse_makefile = 0
 Global Variables:

let g:ale_cache_executable_check_failures = v:null
let g:ale_change_sign_column_color = 0
let g:ale_command_wrapper = ''
let g:ale_completion_delay = 100
let g:ale_completion_enabled = 1
let g:ale_completion_max_suggestions = 50
let g:ale_disable_lsp = 0
let g:ale_echo_cursor = 1
let g:ale_echo_msg_error_str = 'Error'
let g:ale_echo_msg_format = '%code: %%s'
let g:ale_echo_msg_info_str = 'Info'
let g:ale_echo_msg_warning_str = 'Warning'
let g:ale_enabled = 1
let g:ale_fix_on_save = 0
let g:ale_fixers = {'c': ['clang-format', 'remove_trailing_lines', 'trim_whitespace']}
let g:ale_history_enabled = 1
let g:ale_history_log_output = 1
let g:ale_keep_list_window_open = 0
let g:ale_lint_delay = 200
let g:ale_lint_on_enter = 1
let g:ale_lint_on_filetype_changed = 1
let g:ale_lint_on_insert_leave = 1
let g:ale_lint_on_save = 1
let g:ale_lint_on_text_changed = 'normal'
let g:ale_linter_aliases = {}
let g:ale_linters = {'c': ['cppcheck', 'gcc'], 'python': ['flake8']}
let g:ale_linters_explicit = 0
let g:ale_linters_ignore = {}
let g:ale_list_vertical = 0
let g:ale_list_window_size = 10
let g:ale_loclist_msg_format = '%code: %%s'
let g:ale_max_buffer_history_size = 20
let g:ale_max_signs = -1
let g:ale_maximum_file_size = v:null
let g:ale_open_list = 0
let g:ale_pattern_options = v:null
let g:ale_pattern_options_enabled = v:null
let g:ale_root = {}
let g:ale_set_balloons = 0
let g:ale_set_highlights = 1
let g:ale_set_loclist = 1
let g:ale_set_quickfix = 0
let g:ale_set_signs = 1
let g:ale_sign_column_always = 0
let g:ale_sign_error = '>>'
let g:ale_sign_info = '--'
let g:ale_sign_offset = 1000000
let g:ale_sign_style_error = '>>'
let g:ale_sign_style_warning = '--'
let g:ale_sign_warning = '--'
let g:ale_sign_highlight_linenrs = 0
let g:ale_statusline_format = v:null
let g:ale_type_map = {}
let g:ale_use_global_executables = v:null
let g:ale_virtualtext_cursor = 0
let g:ale_warn_about_trailing_blank_lines = 1
let g:ale_warn_about_trailing_whitespace = 1
  Command History:

(executable check - success) clang
(finished - exit code 0) 'cmd /s/c "clang -S -x c -o nul -iquote C:\Users\yt75534\c_tutorial\Unions -Wall -I C:\MinGW64\mingw\include  - < C:\Users\yt75534\AppData\Local\Temp\V6U76E9.tmp\Unions.c"'

<<<OUTPUT STARTS>>>
In file included from <stdin>:1:
C:\MinGW64\mingw\include\stdio.h:399:7: warning: unused function 'vfscanf' [-Wunused-function]
  int vfscanf (FILE *__stream,  const char *__format, __builtin_va_list __local_argv)
      ^
C:\MinGW64\mingw\include\stdio.h:406:7: warning: unused function 'vsscanf' [-Wunused-function]
  int vsscanf (const char * __restrict__ __source, const char * __restrict__ __format, __builtin_va_list __local_argv)
      ^
C:\MinGW64\mingw\include\stdio.h:412:7: warning: unused function 'vscanf' [-Wunused-function]
  int vscanf(const char *__format,  __builtin_va_list __local_argv)
      ^
C:\MinGW64\mingw\include\stdio.h:543:7: warning: unused function 'vsnprintf' [-Wunused-function]
  int vsnprintf (char * __restrict__ __stream, size_t __n, const char * __restrict__ __format, va_list __local_argv)
      ^
C:\MinGW64\mingw\include\stdio.h:553:5: warning: unused function 'snprintf' [-Wunused-function]
int snprintf (char * __restrict__ __stream, size_t __n, const char * __restrict__ __format, ...)
    ^
C:\MinGW64\mingw\include\stdio.h:735:7: warning: unused function 'vfwscanf' [-Wunused-function]
  int vfwscanf (FILE *__stream,  const wchar_t *__format, __builtin_va_list __local_argv)
      ^
C:\MinGW64\mingw\include\stdio.h:742:7: warning: unused function 'vswscanf' [-Wunused-function]
  int vswscanf (const wchar_t * __restrict__ __source, const wchar_t * __restrict__ __format, __builtin_va_list __local_argv)
      ^
C:\MinGW64\mingw\include\stdio.h:748:7: warning: unused function 'vwscanf' [-Wunused-function]
  int vwscanf(const wchar_t *__format,  __builtin_va_list __local_argv)
      ^
C:\MinGW64\mingw\include\stdio.h:801:7: warning: unused function 'snwprintf' [-Wunused-function]
  int snwprintf (wchar_t * __restrict__ s, size_t n, const wchar_t * __restrict__ format, ...)
      ^
In file included from <stdin>:1:
In file included from C:\MinGW64\mingw\include\stdio.h:824:
C:\MinGW64\mingw\include\swprintf.inl:30:5: warning: unused function 'swprintf' [-Wunused-function]
int swprintf (wchar_t *__stream, size_t __count, const wchar_t *__format, ...)
    ^
10 warnings generated.
<<<OUTPUT ENDS>>>

(executable check - success) cppcheck
(finished - exit code 0) 'cmd /s/c "cppcheck -q --language=c --template="{file}:{line}:{column}: {severity}:{inconclusive:inconclusive:} {message} [{id}]\\n{code}" --enable=style  -I C:\MinGW64\mingw\include -IC:\Users\yt75534\c_tutorial\Unions C:\Users\yt75534\AppData\Local\Temp\V7N76FA.tmp\Unions.c"'

<<<OUTPUT STARTS>>>
C:\Users\yt75534\AppData\Local\Temp\V7N76FA.tmp\Unions.c:9:20: style: struct member 'Anonymous0::CRC' is never used. [unusedStructMember]\
            uint32 CRC:8;
                   ^
C:\Users\yt75534\AppData\Local\Temp\V7N76FA.tmp\Unions.c:10:20: style: struct member 'Anonymous0::DATA' is never used. [unusedStructMember]\
            uint32 DATA:16;
                   ^
C:\Users\yt75534\AppData\Local\Temp\V7N76FA.tmp\Unions.c:12:20: style: struct member 'Anonymous0::ADDR' is never used. [unusedStructMember]\
            uint32 ADDR:5;
                   ^
C:\Users\yt75534\AppData\Local\Temp\V7N76FA.tmp\Unions.c:13:20: style: struct member 'Anonymous0::RW' is never used. [unusedStructMember]\
            uint32 RW:1;
                   ^
nofile:0:0: information: Too many #ifdef configurations - cppcheck only checks 12 configurations. Use --force to check all configurations. For more details, use --enable=information. [toomanyconfigs]\

<<<OUTPUT ENDS>>>

(finished - exit code 1) 'cmd /s/c "clang-format --assume-filename=C:\Users\yt75534\c_tutorial\Unions\Unions.c  -style=''Microsoft'' < C:\Users\yt75534\AppData\Local\Temp\V8G82F1.tmp\Unions.c"'
(finished - exit code 1) 'cmd /s/c "clang-format --assume-filename=C:\Users\yt75534\c_tutorial\Unions\Unions.c  -style=''Microsoft'' < C:\Users\yt75534\AppData\Local\Temp\V9997E2.tmp\Unions.c"'

[ubaldot]

I think I found why it does not work.
The operator < that ALE uses is not OK with clang-format.
In-fact, by running the following command

clang-format --assume-filename=C:\Users\yt75534\c_tutorial\Unions\Unions.c -style=''Microsoft'' < C:\Users\yt75534\c_tutorial\Unions\Unions.c

from Powershell, I got the error:

At line:1 char:98
+ ... rs\yt75534\c_tutorial\Unions\Unions.c  -style=''Microsoft'' < C:\User ...
+                                                                 ~
The '<' operator is reserved for future use.
    + CategoryInfo          : ParserError: (:) [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : RedirectionNotSupported

whereas by running

clang-format --assume-filename=C:\Users\yt75534\c_tutorial\Unions\Unions.c -style=''Microsoft''

I get my code correctly formatted.

May that < be the problem?