after some experimentation, i settled on this for my ~/.indent.pro file: -ncs -cli8 -cbi0 -bli0 -bl -i8 -npsl -npcs -bbo -T BOOL -T pstring -T fstring -T tdb_len -T tdb_off -T LDAPDB -T PLDAPDB it's a personal preference and a compromise for some of the bugs in indent.