🧹 Trailing Spaces Pro

Trailing spaces are invisible — until now.
Light them up with gorgeous neon highlights, clean them in one keystroke,
and never let invisible whitespace sneak into your commits again.

✨ Features at a Glance

🎨 Color Presets Gallery

Switch presets instantly via "trailingSpaces.colorPreset" — the entire editor updates live.

Commands

All commands are accessible from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and the right-click context menu (🧹 Trailing Spaces submenu).

📦 Installation

From the VS Code Marketplace:

1. Open VS Code
2. Go to Extensions (Ctrl+Shift+X)
3. Search for Trailing Spaces Pro
4. Click Install

Quick open:

Press Ctrl+P and run:

ext install Misrilal-Sah.trailing-spaces-pro

From the CLI:

code --install-extension Misrilal-Sah.trailing-spaces-pro

Once installed, open any file — trailing spaces are highlighted immediately. No configuration needed.

Once installed, open any file — trailing spaces are highlighted immediately. No configuration needed.

🧪 Development Testing

Run everything from terminal (no F5 key required):

npm install
npm run test

This runs compile + VS Code extension integration tests in one command.

If your F5 key does not work on your PC, use one of these:

1. Open Run and Debug sidebar and click Run Extension.
2. Use Command Palette: Debug: Select and Start Debugging → Run Extension.
3. Run integration tests from terminal with npm run test.

🚀 Usage

Just open a file

Trailing Spaces Pro activates automatically on startup. Open any code file and any trailing spaces will glow in neon pink (the default).

Cleaning trailing spaces

Method 1 — Keyboard shortcut:

Ctrl+Shift+Alt+D   (Windows / Linux)
Cmd+Shift+Alt+D    (macOS)

Method 2 — Status bar click: Click the ⚠ N trailing spaces item in the bottom-right status bar.

Method 3 — Auto-trim on save:

"trailingSpaces.trimOnSave": true

Every time you save, trailing spaces are automatically removed. Never think about it again.

Navigating between trailing spaces

Jump forward and back through every affected line:

Ctrl+Shift+Alt+N   →  Jump to Next
Ctrl+Shift+Alt+P   →  Jump to Previous

Both commands wrap around when they reach the end/beginning of the file.

Customizing the highlight color

Choose a preset:

"trailingSpaces.colorPreset": "neon-blue"

Use a fully custom color:

"trailingSpaces.colorPreset": "custom",
"trailingSpaces.highlightColor": "rgba(0, 255, 200, 0.25)",
"trailingSpaces.borderColor": "rgba(0, 255, 200, 0.9)"

Excluding Markdown

Markdown uses two trailing spaces to insert a <br> line break, so Markdown files are excluded by default. To re-enable highlighting in Markdown:

"trailingSpaces.excludeLanguages": ["plaintext"]

⚙️ Settings Reference

Here is a complete settings.json example with every option:

{
  // ── Appearance ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  // Pick a preset: neon-pink | neon-red | neon-orange | neon-yellow
  //                neon-green | neon-blue | neon-purple | subtle-gray | custom
  "trailingSpaces.colorPreset": "neon-pink",

  // Only used when colorPreset is "custom"
  "trailingSpaces.highlightColor": "rgba(255, 0, 127, 0.3)",
  "trailingSpaces.borderColor": "rgba(255, 0, 127, 0.8)",

  // Border shape options
  "trailingSpaces.borderWidth": "1px",
  "trailingSpaces.borderStyle": "solid",      // solid | dashed | dotted | double | none
  "trailingSpaces.borderRadius": "2px",

  // ── Behavior ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  "trailingSpaces.enabled": true,
  "trailingSpaces.trimOnSave": false,

  // Set to true to highlight the cursor line too (may flicker while typing)
  "trailingSpaces.highlightCurrentLine": false,

  // Set to true to highlight lines that contain ONLY spaces/tabs
  "trailingSpaces.includeEmptyLines": false,

  // Show/hide the status bar counter
  "trailingSpaces.showStatusBarCount": true,

  // ── Exclusions ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  // Language IDs to skip (Markdown excluded by default — it uses trailing spaces for <br>)
  "trailingSpaces.excludeLanguages": ["markdown", "plaintext"],

  // URI schemes to skip (output panel, debug console)
  "trailingSpaces.excludeSchemes": ["output", "debug"],

  // Skip highlighting on files larger than this many lines (performance)
  "trailingSpaces.maxFileLines": 10000
}

Setting Details

🏎️ Performance

Trailing Spaces Pro is engineered to stay out of your way:

• Debouncing (300 ms): Text-change events are coalesced. The highlighter only runs 300 ms after you stop typing — no per-keystroke overhead.
• Max file size: Set maxFileLines to skip very large generated or minified files.
• Efficient regex: A single /[ \t]+$/ pass per line, no DOM operations.
• Memory-safe: All VS Code Disposable objects are tracked in context.subscriptions and cleaned up on deactivation.
• No save loop: The auto-trim-on-save uses a WorkspaceEdit with an isTrimming guard flag — saving the file after trimming never triggers a second trim.

❓ FAQ

Why are Markdown files excluded by default? Markdown uses two trailing spaces as a hard line-break (<br>). Highlighting and trimming them would corrupt valid Markdown formatting. Remove "markdown" from excludeLanguages if you want to highlight them anyway.

Can I use a completely custom color? Yes. Set "trailingSpaces.colorPreset": "custom" and then set any RGBA value in highlightColor and borderColor. Changes apply live without reloading VS Code.

Does it slow down VS Code on large files? No. Text-change events are debounced at 300 ms and the maxFileLines setting (default 10,000) skips highlighting for very large files entirely. You can also lower maxFileLines for stricter performance control.

Can it automatically trim on save? Yes — set "trailingSpaces.trimOnSave": true. Use the ⚡ Toggle Auto-Trim on Save command from the palette to flip the setting without opening Settings UI.

Why doesn't it highlight the line I'm currently typing on? By default highlightCurrentLine is false. This prevents the highlight from flickering as you type and delete characters. Set it to true if you prefer highlighting the cursor line as well.

Does it work with trailing tabs, not just spaces? Yes. The extension uses the regex [ \t]+$ which matches both trailing spaces and trailing tab characters.

📊 Comparison

🤝 Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/my-feature
3. Commit: git commit -m 'Add my feature'
4. Push: git push origin feature/my-feature
5. Open a Pull Request

Please ensure TypeScript compiles cleanly (npm run compile) before submitting.

🐛 Issues

Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue. Please include your VS Code version, OS, and a minimal reproduction file.

📜 Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for the full version history.

📄 License

MIT — see LICENSE.