# `prttl` - Prettier Turtle
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LICENSE)
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https://api.reuse.software/info/codeberg.org/elevont/prttl)
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https://codeberg.org/elevont/prttl)
[](
https://crates.io/crates/prttl)
[](
https://docs.rs/prttl)
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https://deps.rs/repo/codeberg.org/elevont/prttl)
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`prttl` is an auto formatter (aka pretty printer)
for [RDF Turtle](https://www.w3.org/TR/turtle/).
It is optimized for diff minimization,
which is of value when developing Turtle (e.g. an Ontology) in a git repo.
> **NOTE** \
> If you are comparing this to other Turtle pretty printers,
> you probably want to have a look at our [design decisions].
## Installation
It is distributed on [Crates.io](https://crates.io/crates/prttl),
and can be installed with `cargo install prttl`.
Make sure you have [cargo installed](
https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/getting-started/installation.html)
before doing that.
## Usage
To use it:
```sh
prttl MY_TURTLE_FILE.ttl
```
It is also possible to check if formatting of a given file is valid
according to the formatter using:
```sh
prttl --check MY_TURTLE_FILE.ttl
```
If the formatting is not valid,
a patch to properly format the file is written to the standard output.
It is also possible to check a complete directory (and its subdirectories):
```sh
prttl MY_DIR
```
---
All the options:
```bash
$ prttl
Takes RDF data as input (commonly a Turtle file), and generates diff optimized RDF/Turtle, using a lot of new-lines. One peculiarity of this tool is, that it removes (Turtle-syntax) comments. We do this, because we believe that all comments should rather be encoded into triples, and we celebrate this in our own data, specifically our ontologies. More about this: <https://codeberg.org/elevont/cmt-ont>
Usage: prttl [OPTIONS] <FILE_OR_DIR>...
Arguments:
<FILE_OR_DIR>...
Source RDF file(s) or director(y|ies) containing Turtle files to format
Options:
--canonicalize
Whether to canonicalize the input before formatting. This refers to <https://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-canon/>, and effectively just label the blank nodes in a uniform way.
-c, --check
Do not edit the file but only check if it already applies this tools format
-f, --force
Forces overwriting of the output file, if it already exists, which includes the case of the input and output file being equal
-l, --label-all-blank-nodes
Whether to use labels for all blank nodes, or rather maximize nesting of them. NOTE That blank nodes referenced in more then one place can never be nested.
-i, --indentation <NUM>
Number of spaces per level of indentation
[default: 2]
--no-prtr-sorting
Whether to disable sorting of blank nodes using their `prtr:sortingId` value, if any. [`prtr`](https://codeberg.org/elevont/prtr) is an ontology concerned with [RDF Pretty Printing](https://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Pretty.html).
--no-sparql-syntax
Whether to use SPARQL-ish syntax for base and prefix, or the traditional Turtle syntax. - SPARQL-ish: ```turtle BASE <http://example.com/> PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> ``` - Traditional Turtle: ```turtle @base <http://example.com/> . @prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> . ```
--pred-order [<PREDICATE>...]
Sets a custom order of predicates to be used for sorting.
Predicates that match come first; in the provided order.
Predicates that do not match come afterwards; in alphabetical order.
You may specify predicate names as absolute IRIs or as prefixed names.
Only direct matches are considered; meaning: No type inference is conducted.
--pred-order-preset <PREDICATE_ORDER_PRESET>
Sets a predefined order of predicates to be used for sorting.
Predicates that match come first; in the provided order.
Predicates that do not match come afterwards; in alphabetical order.
You may specify predicate names as absolute IRIs or as prefixed names.
Only direct matches are considered; meaning: No type inference is conducted.
[possible values: owl, skos, shacl, shex, rdf]
-n, --single-leafed-new-lines
Whether to move a single/lone predicate-object pair or object alone onto a new line
--subj-type-order [<SUBJECT_TYPE>...]
Sets a custom order of subject types to be used for sorting.
Subjects with a matching type come first; in the provided order.
Subjects without any matching type come afterwards; in alphabetical order.
You may specify subject type names as absolute IRIs or as prefixed names.
Only direct matches are considered; meaning: No type inference is conducted.
--subj-type-order-preset <SUBJECT_TYPE_ORDER_PRESET>
Sets a predefined order of subject types to be used for sorting.
Subjects with a matching type come first; in the provided order.
Subjects without any matching type come afterwards; in alphabetical order.
Only direct matches are considered; meaning: No type inference is conducted.
[possible values: owl, skos, shacl, shex, rdf]
-q, --quiet
Minimize or suppress output to stdout, and only shows log output on stderr.
-v, --verbose
more verbose output (useful for debugging)
-V, --version
Print version information and exit. May be combined with -q,--quiet, to really only output the version string.
-h, --help
Print help (see a summary with '-h')
```
## Format
`prttl` is in development and its output format is not stable yet.
## Sample Output
```turtle
@prefix ex: <http://example.com/> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
<s>
a ex:Foo ;
<p>
"foo"@en ,
(
+01
+1.0
1.0e0
) ;
.
[
ex:p
ex:o ,
ex:o2 ;
ex:p2 ex:o3 ;
ex:p3 true ;
] .
```
## Features
- **Removes all Turtle syntax comments.**
- Checks that the file is valid.
- Maintains consistent indentation and new-lines.
- Normalizes string and IRI escapes as much as possible.
- Enforces the use of `"` instead of `'` in literals.
- Uses literals short notation for booleans, integers, decimals and doubles
when it keeps the lexical representation unchanged.
- Uses `a` for `rdf:type` where possible.
A much more detailed account and reasoning behind what this tool does
can be found in [design decisions].
[design decisions]: DesignDecisions.md