CTAGS(1) Darren Hiebert CTAGS(1)
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Version 5.8
NAME
ctags - Generate tag files for source code
SYNOPSIS
ctags [options] [file(s)]
etags [options] [file(s)]
DESCRIPTION
The ctags and etags programs (hereinafter collectively referred to as
ctags, except where distinguished) generate an index (or "tag") file
for a variety of language objects found in file(s). This tag file
allows these items to be quickly and easily located by a text editor
or other utility. A "tag" signifies a language object for which an
index entry is available (or, alternatively, the index entry created
for that object).
Alternatively, ctags can generate a cross reference file which lists,
in human readable form, information about the various source objects
found in a set of language files.
Tag index files are supported by numerous editors, which allow the
user to locate the object associated with a name appearing in a source
file and jump to the file and line which defines the name. Those known
about at the time of this release are:
Vi(1) and its derivatives (e.g. Elvis, Vim, Vile, Lemmy), CRiSP,
Emacs, FTE (Folding Text Editor), JED, jEdit, Mined, NEdit
(Nirvana Edit), TSE (The SemWare Editor), UltraEdit, WorkSpace,
X2, Zeus
Ctags is capable of generating different kinds of tags for each of
many different languages. For a complete list of supported languages,
the names by which they are recognized, and the kinds of tags which
are generated for each, see the --list-languages and --list-kinds
options.
SOURCE FILES
Unless the --language-force option is specified, the language of each
source file is automatically selected based upon a mapping of file
names to languages. The mappings in effect for each language may be
display using the --list-maps option and may be changed using the
--langmap option. On platforms which support it, if the name of a
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file is not mapped to a language and the file is executable, the first
line of the file is checked to see if the file is a "#!" script for a
recognized language.
By default, all other files names are ignored. This permits running
ctags on all files in either a single directory (e.g. "ctags *"), or
on all files in an entire source directory tree (e.g. "ctags -R"),
since only those files whose names are mapped to languages will be
scanned.
[The reason that .h extensions are mapped to C++ files rather than C
files is because it is common to use .h extensions in C++, and no harm
results in treating them as C++ files.]
OPTIONS
Despite the wealth of available options, defaults are set so that
ctags is most commonly executed without any options (e.g. "ctags *",
or "ctags -R"), which will create a tag file in the current directory
for all recognized source files. The options described below are
provided merely to allow custom tailoring to meet special needs.
Note that spaces separating the single-letter options from their
parameters are optional.
Note also that the boolean parameters to the long form options (those
beginning with "--" and that take a "[=yes|no]" parameter) may be
omitted, in which case "=yes" is implied. (e.g. --sort is equivalent
to --sort=yes). Note further that "=1" and "=on" are considered
synonyms for "=yes", and that "=0" and "=off" are considered synonyms
for "=no".
Some options are either ignored or useful only when used while running
in etags mode (see -e option). Such options will be noted.
Most options may appear anywhere on the command line, affecting only
those files which follow the option. A few options, however, must
appear before the first file name and will be noted as such.
Options taking language names will accept those names in either upper
or lower case. See the --list-languages option for a complete list of
the built-in language names.
-a Equivalent to --append.
-B Use backward searching patterns (e.g. ?pattern?). [Ignored in
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etags mode]
-e Enable etags mode, which will create a tag file for use with the
Emacs editor. Alternatively, if ctags is invoked by a name
containing the string "etags" (either by renaming, or creating a
link to, the executable), etags mode will be enabled. This option
must appear before the first file name.
-f tagfile
Use the name specified by tagfile for the tag file (default is
"tags", or "TAGS" when running in etags mode). If tagfile is
specified as "-", then the tag file is written to standard output
instead. Ctags will stubbornly refuse to take orders if tagfile
exists and its first line contains something other than a valid
tags line. This will save your neck if you mistakenly type "ctags
-f *.c", which would otherwise overwrite your first C file with
the tags generated by the rest! It will also refuse to accept a
multi-character file name which begins with a '-' (dash)
character, since this most likely means that you left out the tag
file name and this option tried to grab the next option as the
file name. If you really want to name your output tag file
"-ugly", specify it as "./-ugly". This option must appear before
the first file name. If this option is specified more than once,
only the last will apply.
-F Use forward searching patterns (e.g. /pattern/) (default).
[Ignored in etags mode]
-h list
Specifies a list of file extensions, separated by periods, which
are to be interpreted as include (or header) files. To indicate
files having no extension, use a period not followed by a non-
period character (e.g. ".", "..x", ".x."). This option only
affects how the scoping of a particular kinds of tags is
interpreted (i.e. whether or not they are considered as globally
visible or visible only within the file in which they are
defined); it does not map the extension to any particular
language. Any tag which is located in a non-include file and
cannot be seen (e.g. linked to) from another file is considered
to have file-limited (e.g. static) scope. No kind of tag
appearing in an include file will be considered to have file-
limited scope. If the first character in the list is a plus sign,
then the extensions in the list will be appended to the current
list; otherwise, the list will replace the current list. See,
also, the --file-scope option. The default list is
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".h.H.hh.hpp.hxx.h++.inc.def". To restore the default list,
specify -h default. Note that if an extension supplied to this
option is not already mapped to a particular language (see SOURCE
FILES, above), you will also need to use either the --langmap or
--language-force option.
-I identifier-list
Specifies a list of identifiers which are to be specially handled
while parsing C and C++ source files. This option is specifically
provided to handle special cases arising through the use of
preprocessor macros. When the identifiers listed are simple
identifiers, these identifiers will be ignored during parsing of
the source files. If an identifier is suffixed with a '+'
character, ctags will also ignore any parenthesis-enclosed
argument list which may immediately follow the identifier in the
source files. If two identifiers are separated with the '='
character, the first identifiers is replaced by the second
identifiers for parsing purposes. The list of identifiers may be
supplied directly on the command line or read in from a separate
file. If the first character of identifier-list is '@', '.' or a
pathname separator ('/' or '\'), or the first two characters
specify a drive letter (e.g. "C:"), the parameter identifier-list
will be interpreted as a filename from which to read a list of
identifiers, one per input line. Otherwise, identifier-list is a
list of identifiers (or identifier pairs) to be specially
handled, each delimited by a either a comma or by white space (in
which case the list should be quoted to keep the entire list as
one command line argument). Multiple -I options may be supplied.
To clear the list of ignore identifiers, supply a single dash
("-") for identifier-list.
This feature is useful when preprocessor macros are used in such
a way that they cause syntactic confusion due to their presence.
Indeed, this is the best way of working around a number of
problems caused by the presence of syntax-busting macros in
source files (see CAVEATS, below). Some examples will illustrate
this point.
int foo ARGDECL4(void *, ptr, long int, nbytes)
In the above example, the macro "ARGDECL4" would be mistakenly
interpreted to be the name of the function instead of the correct
name of "foo". Specifying -I ARGDECL4 results in the correct
behavior.
/* creates an RCS version string in module */
MODULE_VERSION("$Revision: 690 $")
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In the above example the macro invocation looks too much like a
function definition because it is not followed by a semicolon
(indeed, it could even be followed by a global variable
definition that would look much like a K&R style function
parameter declaration). In fact, this seeming function definition
could possibly even cause the rest of the file to be skipped over
while trying to complete the definition. Specifying -I
MODULE_VERSION+ would avoid such a problem.
CLASS Example {
// your content here
};
The example above uses "CLASS" as a preprocessor macro which
expands to something different for each platform. For instance
CLASS may be defined as "class __declspec(dllexport)" on Win32
platforms and simply "class" on UNIX. Normally, the absence of
the C++ keyword "class" would cause the source file to be
incorrectly parsed. Correct behavior can be restored by
specifying -I CLASS=class.
-L file
Read from file a list of file names for which tags should be
generated. If file is specified as "-", then file names are read
from standard input. File names read using this option are
processed following file names appearing on the command line.
Options are also accepted in this input. If this option is
specified more than once, only the last will apply. Note: file is
read in line-oriented mode, where a new line is the only
delimiter and non-trailing white space is considered significant,
in order that file names containing spaces may be supplied
(however, trailing white space is stripped from lines); this can
affect how options are parsed if included in the input.
-n Equivalent to --excmd=number.
-N Equivalent to --excmd=pattern.
-o tagfile
Equivalent to -f tagfile.
-R Equivalent to --recurse.
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-u Equivalent to --sort=no (i.e. "unsorted").
-V Equivalent to --verbose.
-w This option is silently ignored for backward-compatibility with
the ctags of SVR4 Unix.
-x Print a tabular, human-readable cross reference (xref) file to
standard output instead of generating a tag file. The information
contained in the output includes: the tag name; the kind of tag;
the line number, file name, and source line (with extra white
space condensed) of the file which defines the tag. No tag file
is written and all options affecting tag file output will be
ignored. Example applications for this feature are generating a
listing of all functions located in a source file (e.g. ctags -x
--c-kinds=f file), or generating a list of all externally visible
global variables located in a source file (e.g. ctags -x
--c-kinds=v --file-scope=no file). This option must appear before
the first file name.
--append[=yes|no]
Indicates whether tags generated from the specified files should
be appended to those already present in the tag file or should
replace them. This option is off by default. This option must
appear before the first file name.
--etags-include=file
Include a reference to file in the tag file. This option may be
specified as many times as desired. This supports Emacs'
capability to use a tag file which "includes" other tag files.
[Available only in etags mode]
--exclude=[pattern]
Add pattern to a list of excluded files and directories. This
option may be specified as many times as desired. For each file
name considered by ctags, each pattern specified using this
option will be compared against both the complete path (e.g.
some/path/base.ext) and the base name (e.g. base.ext) of the
file, thus allowing patterns which match a given file name
irrespective of its path, or match only a specific path. If
appropriate support is available from the runtime library of your
C compiler, then pattern may contain the usual shell wildcards
(not regular expressions) common on Unix (be sure to quote the
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option parameter to protect the wildcards from being expanded by
the shell before being passed to ctags; also be aware that
wildcards can match the slash character, '/'). You can determine
if shell wildcards are available on your platform by examining
the output of the --version option, which will include
"+wildcards" in the compiled feature list; otherwise, pattern is
matched against file names using a simple textual comparison.
If pattern begins with the character '@', then the rest of the
string is interpreted as a file name from which to read exclusion
patterns, one per line. If pattern is empty, the list of excluded
patterns is cleared. Note that at program startup, the default
exclude list contains "EIFGEN", "SCCS", "RCS", and "CVS", which
are names of directories for which it is generally not desirable
to descend while processing the --recurse option.
--excmd=type
Determines the type of EX command used to locate tags in the
source file. [Ignored in etags mode]
The valid values for type (either the entire word or the first
letter is accepted) are:
number Use only line numbers in the tag file for locating tags.
This has four advantages:
1. Significantly reduces the size of the resulting tag
file.
2. Eliminates failures to find tags because the line
defining the tag has changed, causing the pattern
match to fail (note that some editors, such as vim,
are able to recover in many such instances).
3. Eliminates finding identical matching, but
incorrect, source lines (see BUGS, below).
4. Retains separate entries in the tag file for lines
which are identical in content. In pattern mode,
duplicate entries are dropped because the search
patterns they generate are identical, making the
duplicate entries useless.
However, this option has one significant drawback:
changes to the source files can cause the line numbers
recorded in the tag file to no longer correspond to the
lines in the source file, causing jumps to some tags to
miss the target definition by one or more lines.
Basically, this option is best used when the source code
to which it is applied is not subject to change.
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Selecting this option type causes the following options
to be ignored: -BF.
pattern Use only search patterns for all tags, rather than the
line numbers usually used for macro definitions. This
has the advantage of not referencing obsolete line
numbers when lines have been added or removed since the
tag file was generated.
mixed In this mode, patterns are generally used with a few
exceptions. For C, line numbers are used for macro
definition tags. This was the default format generated
by the original ctags and is, therefore, retained as the
default for this option. For Fortran, line numbers are
used for common blocks because their corresponding
source lines are generally identical, making pattern
searches useless for finding all matches.
--extra=[+|-]flags
Specifies whether to include extra tag entries for certain kinds
of information. The parameter flags is a set of one-letter flags,
each representing one kind of extra tag entry to include in the
tag file. If flags is preceded by by either the '+' or '-'
character, the effect of each flag is added to, or removed from,
those currently enabled; otherwise the flags replace any current
settings. The meaning of each flag is as follows:
f Include an entry for the base file name of every source
file (e.g. "example.c"), which addresses the first line
of the file.
q Include an extra class-qualified tag entry for each tag
which is a member of a class (for languages for which this
information is extracted; currently C++, Eiffel, and
Java). The actual form of the qualified tag depends upon
the language from which the tag was derived (using a form
that is most natural for how qualified calls are specified
in the language). For C++, it is in the form
"class::member"; for Eiffel and Java, it is in the form
"class.member". This may allow easier location of a
specific tags when multiple occurrences of a tag name
occur in the tag file. Note, however, that this could
potentially more than double the size of the tag file.
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--fields=[+|-]flags
Specifies the available extension fields which are to be included
in the entries of the tag file (see TAG FILE FORMAT, below, for
more information). The parameter flags is a set of one-letter
flags, each representing one type of extension field to include,
with the following meanings (disabled by default unless
indicated):
a Access (or export) of class members
f File-restricted scoping [enabled]
i Inheritance information
k Kind of tag as a single letter [enabled]
K Kind of tag as full name
l Language of source file containing tag
m Implementation information
n Line number of tag definition
s Scope of tag definition [enabled]
S Signature of routine (e.g. prototype or parameter list)
z Include the "kind:" key in kind field
t Type and name of a variable or typedef as "typeref:" field
[enabled]
Each letter or group of letters may be preceded by either '+' to
add it to the default set, or '-' to exclude it. In the absence
of any preceding '+' or '-' sign, only those kinds explicitly
listed in flags will be included in the output (i.e. overriding
the default set). This option is ignored if the option --format=1
has been specified. The default value of this option is fkst.
--file-scope[=yes|no]
Indicates whether tags scoped only for a single file (i.e. tags
which cannot be seen outside of the file in which they are
defined, such as "static" tags) should be included in the output.
See, also, the -h option. This option is enabled by default.
--filter[=yes|no]
Causes ctags to behave as a filter, reading source file names
from standard input and printing their tags to standard output on
a file-by-file basis. If --sorted is enabled, tags are sorted
only within the source file in which they are defined. File names
are read from standard input in line-oriented input mode (see
note for -L option) and only after file names listed on the
command line or from any file supplied using the -L option. When
this option is enabled, the options -f, -o, and --totals are
ignored. This option is quite esoteric and is disabled by
default. This option must appear before the first file name.
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--filter-terminator=string
Specifies a string to print to standard output following the tags
for each file name parsed when the --filter option is enabled.
This may permit an application reading the output of ctags to
determine when the output for each file is finished. Note that if
the file name read is a directory and --recurse is enabled, this
string will be printed only one once at the end of all tags found
for by descending the directory. This string will always be
separated from the last tag line for the file by its terminating
newline. This option is quite esoteric and is empty by default.
This option must appear before the first file name.
--format=level
Change the format of the output tag file. Currently the only
valid values for level are 1 or 2. Level 1 specifies the original
tag file format and level 2 specifies a new extended format
containing extension fields (but in a manner which retains
backward-compatibility with original vi(1) implementations). The
default level is 2. This option must appear before the first file
name. [Ignored in etags mode]
--help
Prints to standard output a detailed usage description, and then
exits.
--if0[=yes|no]
Indicates a preference as to whether code within an "#if 0"
branch of a preprocessor conditional should be examined for non-
macro tags (macro tags are always included). Because the intent
of this construct is to disable code, the default value of this
option is no. Note that this indicates a preference only and does
not guarantee skipping code within an "#if 0" branch, since the
fall-back algorithm used to generate tags when preprocessor
conditionals are too complex follows all branches of a
conditional. This option is disabled by default.
--<LANG>-kinds=[+|-]kinds
Specifies a list of language-specific kinds of tags (or kinds) to
include in the output file for a particular language, where
<LANG> is case-insensitive and is one of the built-in language
names (see the --list-languages option for a complete list). The
parameter kinds is a group of one-letter flags designating kinds
of tags (particular to the language) to either include or exclude
from the output. The specific sets of flags recognized for each
language, their meanings and defaults may be list using the
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--list-kinds option. Each letter or group of letters may be
preceded by either '+' to add it to, or '-' to remove it from,
the default set. In the absence of any preceding '+' or '-' sign,
only those kinds explicitly listed in kinds will be included in
the output (i.e. overriding the default for the specified
language).
As an example for the C language, in order to add prototypes and
external variable declarations to the default set of tag kinds,
but exclude macros, use --c-kinds=+px-d; to include only tags for
functions, use --c-kinds=f.
--langdef=name
Defines a new user-defined language, name, to be parsed with
regular expressions. Once defined, name may be used in other
options taking language names. The typical use of this option is
to first define the language, then map file names to it using
--langmap, then specify regular expressions using --regex-<LANG>
to define how its tags are found.
--langmap=map[,map[...]]
Controls how file names are mapped to languages (see the
--list-maps option). Each comma-separated map consists of the
language name (either a built-in or user-defined language), a
colon, and a list of file extensions and/or file name patterns. A
file extension is specified by preceding the extension with a
period (e.g. ".c"). A file name pattern is specified by enclosing
the pattern in parentheses (e.g. "([Mm]akefile)"). If appropriate
support is available from the runtime library of your C compiler,
then the file name pattern may contain the usual shell wildcards
common on Unix (be sure to quote the option parameter to protect
the wildcards from being expanded by the shell before being
passed to ctags). You can determine if shell wildcards are
available on your platform by examining the output of the
--version option, which will include "+wildcards" in the compiled
feature list; otherwise, the file name patterns are matched
against file names using a simple textual comparison. When
mapping a file extension, it will first be unmapped from any
other languages.
If the first character in a map is a plus sign, then the
extensions and file name patterns in that map will be appended to
the current map for that language; otherwise, the map will
replace the current map. For example, to specify that only files
with extensions of .c and .x are to be treated as C language
files, use "--langmap=c:.c.x"; to also add files with extensions
of .j as Java language files, specify
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"--langmap=c:.c.x,java:+.j". To map makefiles (e.g. files named
either "Makefile", "makefile", or having the extension ".mak") to
a language called "make", specify
"--langmap=make:([Mm]akefile).mak". To map files having no
extension, specify a period not followed by a non-period
character (e.g. ".", "..x", ".x."). To clear the mapping for a
particular language (thus inhibiting automatic generation of tags
for that language), specify an empty extension list (e.g.
"--langmap=fortran:"). To restore the default language mappings
for all a particular language, supply the keyword "default" for
the mapping. To specify restore the default language mappings
for all languages, specify "--langmap=default". Note that file
extensions are tested before file name patterns when inferring
the language of a file.
--language-force=language
By default, ctags automatically selects the language of a source
file, ignoring those files whose language cannot be determined
(see SOURCE FILES, above). This option forces the specified
language (case-insensitive; either built-in or user-defined) to
be used for every supplied file instead of automatically
selecting the language based upon its extension. In addition, the
special value auto indicates that the language should be
automatically selected (which effectively disables this option).
--languages=[+|-]list
Specifies the languages for which tag generation is enabled, with
list containing a comma-separated list of language names (case-
insensitive; either built-in or user-defined). If the first
language of list is not preceded by either a '+' or '-', the
current list will be cleared before adding or removing the
languages in list. Until a '-' is encountered, each language in
the list will be added to the current list. As either the '+' or
'-' is encountered in the list, the languages following it are
added or removed from the current list, respectively. Thus, it
becomes simple to replace the current list with a new one, or to
add or remove languages from the current list. The actual list of
files for which tags will be generated depends upon the language
extension mapping in effect (see the --langmap option). Note that
all languages, including user-defined languages are enabled
unless explicitly disabled using this option. Language names
included in list may be any built-in language or one previously
defined with --langdef. The default is "all", which is also
accepted as a valid argument. See the --list-languages option for
a complete list of the built-in language names.
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--license
Prints a summary of the software license to standard output, and
then exits.
--line-directives[=yes|no]
Specifies whether "#line" directives should be recognized. These
are present in the output of preprocessors and contain the line
number, and possibly the file name, of the original source
file(s) from which the preprocessor output file was generated.
When enabled, this option will cause ctags to generate tag
entries marked with the file names and line numbers of their
locations original source file(s), instead of their actual
locations in the preprocessor output. The actual file names
placed into the tag file will have the same leading path
components as the preprocessor output file, since it is assumed
that the original source files are located relative to the
preprocessor output file (unless, of course, the #line directive
specifies an absolute path). This option is off by default. Note:
This option is generally only useful when used together with the
--excmd=number (-n) option. Also, you may have to use either the
--langmap or --language-force option if the extension of the
preprocessor output file is not known to ctags.
--links[=yes|no]
Indicates whether symbolic links (if supported) should be
followed. When disabled, symbolic links are ignored. This option
is on by default.
--list-kinds[=language|all]
Lists the tag kinds recognized for either the specified language
or all languages, and then exits. Each kind of tag recorded in
the tag file is represented by a one-letter flag, which is also
used to filter the tags placed into the output through use of the
--<LANG>-kinds option. Note that some languages and/or tag kinds
may be implemented using regular expressions and may not be
available if regex support is not compiled into ctags (see the
--regex-<LANG> option). Each kind listed is enabled unless
followed by "[off]".
--list-maps[=language|all]
Lists the file extensions and file name patterns which associate
a file name with a language for either the specified language or
all languages, and then exits. See the --langmap option, and
SOURCE FILES, above.
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--list-languages
Lists the names of the languages understood by ctags, and then
exits. These language names are case insensitive and may be used
in the --language-force, --languages, --<LANG>-kinds, and
--regex-<LANG> options.
--options=file
Read additional options from file. The file should contain one
option per line. As a special case, if --options=NONE is
specified as the first option on the command line, it will
disable the automatic reading of any configuration options from
either a file or the environment (see FILES).
--recurse[=yes|no]
Recurse into directories encountered in the list of supplied
files. If the list of supplied files is empty and no file list is
specified with the -L option, then the current directory (i.e.
".") is assumed. Symbolic links are followed. If you don't like
these behaviors, either explicitly specify the files or pipe the
output of find(1) into ctags -L- instead. Note: This option is
not supported on all platforms at present. It is available if
the output of the --help option includes this option. See, also,
the --exclude to limit recursion.
--regex-<LANG>=/regexp/replacement/[kind-spec/][flags]
The /regexp/replacement/ pair define a regular expression
replacement pattern, similar in style to sed substitution
commands, with which to generate tags from source files mapped to
the named language, <LANG>, (case-insensitive; either a built-in
or user-defined language). The regular expression, regexp,
defines an extended regular expression (roughly that used by
egrep(1)), which is used to locate a single source line
containing a tag and may specify tab characters using \t. When a
matching line is found, a tag will be generated for the name
defined by replacement, which generally will contain the special
back-references \1 through \9 to refer to matching sub-expression
groups within regexp. The '/' separator characters shown in the
parameter to the option can actually be replaced by any
character. Note that whichever separator character is used will
have to be escaped with a backslash ('\') character wherever it
is used in the parameter as something other than a separator. The
regular expression defined by this option is added to the current
list of regular expressions for the specified language unless the
parameter is omitted, in which case the current list is cleared.
Unless modified by flags, regexp is interpreted as a Posix
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extended regular expression. The replacement should expand for
all matching lines to a non-empty string of characters, or a
warning message will be reported. An optional kind specifier for
tags matching regexp may follow replacement, which will determine
what kind of tag is reported in the "kind" extension field (see
TAG FILE FORMAT, below). The full form of kind-spec is in the
form of a single letter, a comma, a name (without spaces), a
comma, a description, followed by a separator, which specify the
short and long forms of the kind value and its textual
description (displayed using --list-kinds). Either the kind name
and/or the description may be omitted. If kind-spec is omitted,
it defaults to "r,regex". Finally, flags are one or more single-
letter characters having the following effect upon the
interpretation of regexp:
b The pattern is interpreted as a Posix basic regular
expression.
e The pattern is interpreted as a Posix extended regular
expression (default).
i The regular expression is to be applied in a case-
insensitive manner.
Note that this option is available only if ctags was compiled
with support for regular expressions, which depends upon your
platform. You can determine if support for regular expressions is
compiled in by examining the output of the --version option,
which will include "+regex" in the compiled feature list.
For more information on the regular expressions used by ctags,
see either the regex(5,7) man page, or the GNU info documentation
for regex (e.g. "info regex").
--sort[=yes|no|foldcase]
Indicates whether the tag file should be sorted on the tag name
(default is yes). Note that the original vi(1) required sorted
tags. The foldcase value specifies case insensitive (or case-
folded) sorting. Fast binary searches of tag files sorted with
case-folding will require special support from tools using tag
files, such as that found in the ctags readtags library, or Vim
version 6.2 or higher (using "set ignorecase"). This option must
appear before the first file name. [Ignored in etags mode]
--tag-relative[=yes|no]
Indicates that the file paths recorded in the tag file should be
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relative to the directory containing the tag file, rather than
relative to the current directory, unless the files supplied on
the command line are specified with absolute paths. This option
must appear before the first file name. The default is yes when
running in etags mode (see the -e option), no otherwise.
--totals[=yes|no]
Prints statistics about the source files read and the tag file
written during the current invocation of ctags. This option is
off by default. This option must appear before the first file
name.
--verbose[=yes|no]
Enable verbose mode. This prints out information on option
processing and a brief message describing what action is being
taken for each file considered by ctags. Normally, ctags does not
read command line arguments until after options are read from the
configuration files (see FILES, below) and the CTAGS environment
variable. However, if this option is the first argument on the
command line, it will take effect before any options are read
from these sources. The default is no.
--version
Prints a version identifier for ctags to standard output, and
then exits. This is guaranteed to always contain the string
"Exuberant Ctags".
OPERATIONAL DETAILS
As ctags considers each file name in turn, it tries to determine the
language of the file by applying the following three tests in order:
if the file extension has been mapped to a language, if the file name
matches a shell pattern mapped to a language, and finally if the file
is executable and its first line specifies an interpreter using the
Unix-style "#!" specification (if supported on the platform). If a
language was identified, the file is opened and then the appropriate
language parser is called to operate on the currently open file. The
parser parses through the file and adds an entry to the tag file for
each language object it is written to handle. See TAG FILE FORMAT,
below, for details on these entries.
This implementation of ctags imposes no formatting requirements on C
code as do legacy implementations. Older implementations of ctags
tended to rely upon certain formatting assumptions in order to help it
resolve coding dilemmas caused by preprocessor conditionals.
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In general, ctags tries to be smart about conditional preprocessor
directives. If a preprocessor conditional is encountered within a
statement which defines a tag, ctags follows only the first branch of
that conditional (except in the special case of "#if 0", in which case
it follows only the last branch). The reason for this is that failing
to pursue only one branch can result in ambiguous syntax, as in the
following example:
#ifdef TWO_ALTERNATIVES
struct {
#else
union {
#endif
short a;
long b;
}
Both branches cannot be followed, or braces become unbalanced and
ctags would be unable to make sense of the syntax.
If the application of this heuristic fails to properly parse a file,
generally due to complicated and inconsistent pairing within the
conditionals, ctags will retry the file using a different heuristic
which does not selectively follow conditional preprocessor branches,
but instead falls back to relying upon a closing brace ("}") in column
1 as indicating the end of a block once any brace imbalance results
from following a #if conditional branch.
Ctags will also try to specially handle arguments lists enclosed in
double sets of parentheses in order to accept the following
conditional construct:
extern void foo __ARGS((int one, char two));
Any name immediately preceding the "((" will be automatically ignored
and the previous name will be used.
C++ operator definitions are specially handled. In order for
consistency with all types of operators (overloaded and conversion),
the operator name in the tag file will always be preceded by the
string "operator " (i.e. even if the actual operator definition was
written as "operator<<").
After creating or appending to the tag file, it is sorted by the tag
name, removing identical tag lines.
TAG FILE FORMAT
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When not running in etags mode, each entry in the tag file consists of
a separate line, each looking like this in the most general case:
tag_name<TAB>file_name<TAB>ex_cmd;"<TAB>extension_fields
The fields and separators of these lines are specified as follows:
1. tag name
2. single tab character
3. name of the file in which the object associated with the tag
is located
4. single tab character
5. EX command used to locate the tag within the file; generally a
search pattern (either /pattern/ or ?pattern?) or line number
(see --excmd). Tag file format 2 (see --format) extends this
EX command under certain circumstances to include a set of
extension fields (described below) embedded in an EX comment
immediately appended to the EX command, which leaves it
backward-compatible with original vi(1) implementations.
A few special tags are written into the tag file for internal
purposes. These tags are composed in such a way that they always sort
to the top of the file. Therefore, the first two characters of these
tags are used a magic number to detect a tag file for purposes of
determining whether a valid tag file is being overwritten rather than
a source file.
Note that the name of each source file will be recorded in the tag
file exactly as it appears on the command line. Therefore, if the path
you specified on the command line was relative to the current
directory, then it will be recorded in that same manner in the tag
file. See, however, the --tag-relative option for how this behavior
can be modified.
Extension fields are tab-separated key-value pairs appended to the end
of the EX command as a comment, as described above. These key value
pairs appear in the general form "key:value". Their presence in the
lines of the tag file are controlled by the --fields option. The
possible keys and the meaning of their values are as follows:
access Indicates the visibility of this class member, where value
is specific to the language.
file Indicates that the tag has file-limited visibility. This
key has no corresponding value.
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kind Indicates the type, or kind, of tag. Its value is either
one of the corresponding one-letter flags described under
the various --<LANG>-kinds options above, or a full name.
It is permitted (and is, in fact, the default) for the key
portion of this field to be omitted. The optional
behaviors are controlled with the --fields option.
implementation
When present, this indicates a limited implementation
(abstract vs. concrete) of a routine or class, where value
is specific to the language ("virtual" or "pure virtual"
for C++; "abstract" for Java).
inherits When present, value. is a comma-separated list of classes
from which this class is derived (i.e. inherits from).
signature When present, value is a language-dependent representation
of the signature of a routine. A routine signature in its
complete form specifies the return type of a routine and
its formal argument list. This extension field is
presently supported only for C-based languages and does
not include the return type.
In addition, information on the scope of the tag definition may be
available, with the key portion equal to some language-dependent
construct name and its value the name declared for that construct in
the program. This scope entry indicates the scope in which the tag was
found. For example, a tag generated for a C structure member would
have a scope looking like "struct:myStruct".
HOW TO USE WITH VI
Vi will, by default, expect a tag file by the name "tags" in the
current directory. Once the tag file is built, the following commands
exercise the tag indexing feature:
vi -t tag Start vi and position the cursor at the file and line
where "tag" is defined.
:ta tag Find a tag.
Ctrl-] Find the tag under the cursor.
Ctrl-T Return to previous location before jump to tag (not widely
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implemented).
HOW TO USE WITH GNU EMACS
Emacs will, by default, expect a tag file by the name "TAGS" in the
current directory. Once the tag file is built, the following commands
exercise the tag indexing feature:
M-x visit-tags-table <RET> FILE <RET>
Select the tag file, "FILE", to use.
M-. [TAG] <RET>
Find the first definition of TAG. The default tag is the
identifier under the cursor.
M-* Pop back to where you previously invoked "M-.".
C-u M-. Find the next definition for the last tag.
For more commands, see the Tags topic in the Emacs info document.
HOW TO USE WITH NEDIT
NEdit version 5.1 and later can handle the new extended tag file
format (see --format). To make NEdit use the tag file, select
"File->Load Tags File". To jump to the definition for a tag, highlight
the word, the press Ctrl-D. NEdit 5.1 can can read multiple tag files
from different directories. Setting the X resource nedit.tagFile to
the name of a tag file instructs NEdit to automatically load that tag
file at startup time.
CAVEATS
Because ctags is neither a preprocessor nor a compiler, use of
preprocessor macros can fool ctags into either missing tags or
improperly generating inappropriate tags. Although ctags has been
designed to handle certain common cases, this is the single biggest
cause of reported problems. In particular, the use of preprocessor
constructs which alter the textual syntax of C can fool ctags. You can
work around many such problems by using the -I option.
Note that since ctags generates patterns for locating tags (see the
--excmd option), it is entirely possible that the wrong line may be
found by your editor if there exists another source line which is
identical to the line containing the tag. The following example
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demonstrates this condition:
int variable;
/* ... */
void foo(variable)
int variable;
{
/* ... */
}
Depending upon which editor you use and where in the code you happen
to be, it is possible that the search pattern may locate the local
parameter declaration in foo() before it finds the actual global
variable definition, since the lines (and therefore their search
patterns are identical). This can be avoided by use of the --excmd=n
option.
BUGS
Ctags has more options than ls(1).
When parsing a C++ member function definition (e.g.
"className::function"), ctags cannot determine whether the scope
specifier is a class name or a namespace specifier and always lists it
as a class name in the scope portion of the extension fields. Also, if
a C++ function is defined outside of the class declaration (the usual
case), the access specification (i.e. public, protected, or private)
and implementation information (e.g. virtual, pure virtual) contained
in the function declaration are not known when the tag is generated
for the function definition. It will, however be available for
prototypes (e.g --c++-kinds=+p).
No qualified tags are generated for language objects inherited into a
class.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
CTAGS If this environment variable exists, it will be expected to
contain a set of default options which are read when ctags
starts, after the configuration files listed in FILES, below,
are read, but before any command line options are read.
Options appearing on the command line will override options
specified in this variable. Only options will be read from
this variable. Note that all white space in this variable is
considered a separator, making it impossible to pass an option
parameter containing an embedded space. If this is a problem,
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use a configuration file instead.
ETAGS Similar to the CTAGS variable above, this variable, if found,
will be read when etags starts. If this variable is not found,
etags will try to use CTAGS instead.
TMPDIR On Unix-like hosts where mkstemp() is available, the value of
this variable specifies the directory in which to place
temporary files. This can be useful if the size of a temporary
file becomes too large to fit on the partition holding the
default temporary directory defined at compilation time.
ctags creates temporary files only if either (1) an emacs-
style tag file is being generated, (2) the tag file is being
sent to standard output, or (3) the program was compiled to
use an internal sort algorithm to sort the tag files instead
of the the sort utility of the operating system. If the sort
utility of the operating system is being used, it will
generally observe this variable also. Note that if ctags is
setuid, the value of TMPDIR will be ignored.
FILES
/ctags.cnf (on MSDOS, MSWindows only)
/etc/ctags.conf
/usr/local/etc/ctags.conf
$HOME/.ctags
$HOME/ctags.cnf (on MSDOS, MSWindows only)
.ctags
ctags.cnf (on MSDOS, MSWindows only)
If any of these configuration files exist, each will be expected
to contain a set of default options which are read in the order
listed when ctags starts, but before the CTAGS environment
variable is read or any command line options are read. This makes
it possible to set up site-wide, personal or project-level
defaults. It is possible to compile ctags to read an additional
configuration file before any of those shown above, which will be
indicated if the output produced by the --version option lists
the "custom-conf" feature. Options appearing in the CTAGS
environment variable or on the command line will override options
specified in these files. Only options will be read from these
files. Note that the option files are read in line-oriented mode
in which spaces are significant (since shell quoting is not
possible). Each line of the file is read as one command line
parameter (as if it were quoted with single quotes). Therefore,
use new lines to indicate separate command-line arguments.
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tags The default tag file created by ctags.
TAGS The default tag file created by etags.
SEE ALSO
The official Exuberant Ctags web site at:
http://ctags.sourceforge.net
Also ex(1), vi(1), elvis, or, better yet, vim, the official editor of
ctags. For more information on vim, see the VIM Pages web site at:
http://www.vim.org/
AUTHOR
Darren Hiebert <dhiebert at users.sourceforge.net>
http://DarrenHiebert.com/
MOTIVATION
"Think ye at all times of rendering some service to every member of
the human race."
"All effort and exertion put forth by man from the fullness of his
heart is worship, if it is prompted by the highest motives and the
will to do service to humanity."
-- From the Baha'i Writings
CREDITS
This version of ctags was originally derived from and inspired by the
ctags program by Steve Kirkendall <kirkenda@cs.pdx.edu> that comes
with the Elvis vi clone (though virtually none of the original code
remains).
Credit is also due Bram Moolenaar <Bram@vim.org>, the author of vim,
who has devoted so much of his time and energy both to developing the
editor as a service to others, and to helping the orphans of Uganda.
The section entitled "HOW TO USE WITH GNU EMACS" was shamelessly
stolen from the info page for GNU etags.
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