xenial (1) ctags.emacs24.1.gz

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NAME

       etags, ctags - generate tag file for Emacs, vi

SYNOPSIS

       etags [-aCDGIRVh] [-i file] [-l language]
       [-o tagfile] [-r regexp] [--parse-stdin=file]
       [--append] [--no-defines] [--globals] [--no-globals] [--include=file] [--ignore-indentation]
       [--language=language] [--members] [--no-members] [--output=tagfile] [--regex=regexp] [--no-regex]
       [--help] [--version] file ...

       ctags [-aCdgIRVh] [-BtTuvwx] [-l language]
       [-o tagfile] [-r regexp] [--parse-stdin=file]
       [--append] [--backward-search] [--cxref] [--no-defines] [--globals] [--no-globals] [--ignore-indentation]
       [--language=language] [--members] [--no-members] [--output=tagfile] [--regex=regexp] [--update] [--help]
       [--version] file ...

DESCRIPTION

       The  etags  program  is  used  to  create a tag table file, in a format understood by emacs(1); the ctags
       program is used to create a similar table in a format understood by vi(1).  Both  forms  of  the  program
       understand  the  syntax  of  C,  Objective C, C++, Java, Fortran, Ada, Cobol, Erlang, Forth, HTML, LaTeX,
       Emacs Lisp/Common Lisp, Lua, Makefile, Pascal, Perl, PHP, PostScript, Python,  Prolog,  Scheme  and  most
       assembler-like  syntaxes.  Both forms read the files specified on the command line, and write a tag table
       (defaults: TAGS for etags, tags for ctags) in  the  current  working  directory.   Files  specified  with
       relative file names will be recorded in the tag table with file names relative to the directory where the
       tag table resides.  If the tag table is in /dev or is the standard output, however, the  file  names  are
       made  relative  to the working directory.  Files specified with absolute file names will be recorded with
       absolute file names.  Files generated from a source file--like a C file  generated  from  a  source  Cweb
       file--will  be  recorded  with  the  name of the source file.  Compressed files are supported using gzip,
       bzip2, and xz.  The programs recognize the language used in an input file based  on  its  file  name  and
       contents.   The  --language  switch  can  be used to force parsing of the file names following the switch
       according to the given language, overriding guesses based on filename extensions.

OPTIONS

       Some options make sense only for the vi style tag files produced by ctags; etags does not recognize them.
       The programs accept unambiguous abbreviations for long option names.

       -a, --append
              Append to existing tag file.  (For vi-format tag files, see also --update.)

       -B, --backward-search
              Tag files written in the format expected by vi contain regular expression search instructions; the
              -B option writes them using the delimiter `?', to search backwards through files.  The default  is
              to use the delimiter `/', to search forwards through files.  Only ctags accepts this option.

       --declarations
              In  C  and  derived  languages,  create tags for function declarations, and create tags for extern
              variables unless --no-globals is used.  In Lisp, create tags for (defvar foo) declarations.

       -D, --no-defines
              Do not create tag entries for C preprocessor constant definitions and enum  constants.   This  may
              make the tags file much smaller if many header files are tagged.

       --globals
              Create  tag  entries  for  global  variables  in  Perl and Makefile.  This is the default in C and
              derived languages.

       --no-globals
              Do not tag global variables in C and derived languages.  Typically this reduces the file  size  by
              one fourth.

       -i file, --include=file
              Include  a note in the tag file indicating that, when searching for a tag, one should also consult
              the tags file file after checking the current file.  Only etags accepts this option.

       -I, --ignore-indentation
              Don't rely on indentation as much as we normally do.  Currently, this means not to assume  that  a
              closing  brace  in  the first column is the final brace of a function or structure definition in C
              and C++.

       -l language, --language=language
              Parse the following files according to the given language.  More than  one  such  options  may  be
              intermixed  with filenames.  Use --help to get a list of the available languages and their default
              filename extensions.  The `auto' language can be used to restore automatic detection  of  language
              based  on  the file name.  The `none' language may be used to disable language parsing altogether;
              only regexp matching is done in this case (see the --regex option).

       --members
              Create tag entries for variables that are members of structure-like constructs in  PHP.   This  is
              the default for C and derived languages.

       --no-members
              Do not tag member variables.

       --packages-only
              Only tag packages in Ada files.

       --parse-stdin=file
              May  be  used  (only  once)  in  place  of  a file name on the command line.  etags will read from
              standard input and mark the produced tags as belonging to the file FILE.

       -o tagfile, --output=tagfile
              Explicit name of file for tag table; for etags only, a file  name  of  -  means  standard  output;
              overrides default TAGS or tags.  (But ignored with -v or -x.)

       -r regexp, --regex=regexp

              Make  tags  based  on regexp matching for the files following this option, in addition to the tags
              made with the standard parsing based on language. May be freely intermixed with filenames and  the
              -R option.  The regexps are cumulative, i.e., each such option will add to the previous ones.  The
              regexps are of one of the forms:
                   [{language}]/tagregexp/[nameregexp/]modifiers
                   @regexfile

              where tagregexp is used to match the tag.  It should not match useless characters.  If  the  match
              is such that more characters than needed are unavoidably matched by tagregexp, it may be useful to
              add a nameregexp, to narrow down the tag scope.  ctags ignores regexps without a nameregexp.   The
              syntax  of  regexps  is  the  same  as  in  emacs.   The  following character escape sequences are
              supported: \a, \b, \d, \e, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v, which respectively stand for the  ASCII  characters
              BEL, BS, DEL, ESC, FF, NL, CR, TAB, VT.
              The  modifiers  are  a  sequence  of 0 or more characters among i, which means to ignore case when
              matching; m, which means that the tagregexp will be matched against the  whole  file  contents  at
              once,  rather  than line by line, and the matching sequence can match multiple lines; and s, which
              implies m and means that the dot character in tagregexp matches the newline char as well.
              The separator, which is / in the examples, can be any character different from space, tab,  braces
              and  @.   If the separator character is needed inside the regular expression, it must be quoted by
              preceding it with \.
              The optional {language} prefix means that the tag should be created only  for  files  of  language
              language, and ignored otherwise.  This is particularly useful when storing many predefined regexps
              in a file.
              In its second form, regexfile is the name of a file that contains a number  of  arguments  to  the
              --regex=  option,  one  per line.  Lines beginning with a space or tab are assumed to be comments,
              and ignored.

              Here are some examples.  All the regexps are quoted to protect them from shell interpretation.

              Tag the DEFVAR macros in the emacs source files:
              --regex='/[ \t]*DEFVAR_[A-Z_ \t(]+"\([^"]+\)"/'

              Tag VHDL files (this example is a single long line, broken here for formatting reasons):
              --language=none --regex='/[ \t]*\(ARCHITECTURE\|\   CONFIGURATION\) +[^ ]* +OF/' --regex='/[ \t]*\
              \(ATTRIBUTE\|ENTITY\|FUNCTION\|PACKAGE\( BODY\)?\
              \|PROCEDURE\|PROCESS\|TYPE\)[ \t]+\([^ \t(]+\)/\3/'

              Tag TCL files (this last example shows the usage of a tagregexp):
              --lang=none --regex='/proc[ \t]+\([^ \t]+\)/\1/'

              A regexp can be preceded by {lang}, thus restricting it to match lines of files of  the  specified
              language.   Use  etags  --help  to  obtain  a  list  of the recognized languages.  This feature is
              particularly useful inside regex files.  A regex file contains one regex per line.   Empty  lines,
              and those lines beginning with space or tab are ignored.  Lines beginning with @ are references to
              regex files whose name follows the @ sign.  Other lines are considered  regular  expressions  like
              those following --regex.
              For example, the command
              etags --regex=@regex.file *.c
              reads the regexes contained in the file regex.file.

       -R, --no-regex
              Don't do any more regexp matching on the following files.  May be freely intermixed with filenames
              and the --regex option.

       -u, --update
              Update tag entries for files specified on command line, leaving tag entries  for  other  files  in
              place.   Currently,  this  is implemented by deleting the existing entries for the given files and
              then rewriting the new entries at the end of the tags file.  It is often faster to simply  rebuild
              the entire tag file than to use this.  Only ctags accepts this option.

       -v, --vgrind
              Instead  of  generating a tag file, write index (in vgrind format) to standard output.  Only ctags
              accepts this option.

       -x, --cxref
              Instead of generating a tag file, write a cross reference (in cxref format)  to  standard  output.
              Only ctags accepts this option.

       -h, -H, --help
              Print  usage  information.   Followed  by  one or more --language=LANG prints detailed information
              about how tags are created for LANG.

       -V, --version
              Print the current version of the program (same as the version of the emacs etags is shipped with).

SEE ALSO

       `emacs' entry in info; GNU Emacs Manual, Richard Stallman.
       cxref(1), emacs(1), vgrind(1), vi(1).

COPYING

       Copyright (C) 1992, 1999, 2001-2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

       Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of  this  document  provided  the  copyright
       notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

       Permission  is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this document under the conditions for
       verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under  the  terms  of  a
       permission notice identical to this one.

       Permission  is  granted to copy and distribute translations of this document into another language, under
       the above conditions for modified versions, except that  this  permission  notice  may  be  stated  in  a
       translation approved by the Free Software Foundation.