Merge "fix(nix fmt): remove the default "." argument" into main

2 files changed, 41 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/doc/manual/change-authors.yml b/doc/manual/change-authors.yml
index e18abada1..60c0924c7 100644
--- a/doc/manual/change-authors.yml
+++ b/doc/manual/change-authors.yml
@@ -147,3 +147,6 @@ winter:
 
 yshui:
   github: yshui
+
+zimbatm:
+  github: zimbatm
diff --git a/doc/manual/rl-next/nix-fmt-default-argument.md b/doc/manual/rl-next/nix-fmt-default-argument.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..41b8f85bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/manual/rl-next/nix-fmt-default-argument.md
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+---
+synopsis: Removing the `.` default argument passed to the `nix fmt` formatter
+issues: []
+prs: [11438]
+cls: [1902]
+category: Breaking Changes
+credits: zimbatm
+---
+
+The underlying formatter no longer receives the ". " default argument when `nix fmt` is called with no arguments.
+
+This change was necessary as the formatter wasn't able to distinguish between
+a user wanting to format the current folder with `nix fmt .` or the generic
+`nix fmt`.
+
+The default behaviour is now the responsibility of the formatter itself, and
+allows tools such as treefmt to format the whole tree instead of only the
+current directory and below.
+
+This may cause issues with some formatters: nixfmt, nixpkgs-fmt and alejandra currently format stdin when no arguments are passed.
+
+Here is a small wrapper example that will restore the previous behaviour for such a formatter:
+
+```nix
+{
+  outputs = { self, nixpkgs, systems }:
+    let
+      eachSystem = nixpkgs.lib.genAttrs (import systems) (system: nixpkgs.legacyPackages.${system});
+    in
+    {
+      formatter = eachSystem (pkgs:
+        pkgs.writeShellScriptBin "formatter" ''
+          if [[ $# = 0 ]]; set -- .; fi
+          exec "${pkgs.nixfmt-rfc-style}/bin/nixfmt "$@"
+        '');
+    };
+}
+```