NAME
ctags
—
create a tags file
SYNOPSIS
ctags |
[-aBdFuvwx ] [-f
tagsfile] file ... |
DESCRIPTION
ctags
makes a tags file from the specified
C, Pascal, Fortran, YACC, lex, and Lisp sources. A tags file gives the
locations of specified objects in a group of files. Each line of the tags
file contains the object name, the file in which it is defined, and a search
pattern for the object definition, separated by whitespace.
Using the tags file, a text editor such as ex(1) or vi(1) can quickly locate these object definitions. Indexed objects include subroutines, typedefs, defines, structs, enums, and unions.
The options are as follows:
-a
- Append to tags file.
-B
- Use backward searching patterns (
?...?
). -d
- Create tags for
#defines
that don't take arguments;#defines
that take arguments are tagged automatically. -F
- Use forward searching patterns (
/.../
) (the default). -f
tagsfile- Places the tag descriptions in a file called tagsfile. The default behaviour is to place them in a file called tags.
-u
- Update the specified files in the tags file, that is, all references to them are deleted, and the new values are appended to the file. (Beware: this option is implemented in a way which is rather slow; it is usually faster to simply rebuild the tags file.)
-v
- An index of the form expected by vgrind is produced on the standard
output. This listing contains the object name, file name, and page number
(assuming 64 line pages). Since the output will be sorted into
lexicographic order, it may be desired to run the output through
sort(1). Sample use:
$ ctags -v files | sort -f > index $ vgrind -x index
-w
- Suppress warning diagnostics.
-x
ctags
produces a list of object names, the line number and file name on which each is defined, as well as the text of that line and prints this on the standard output. This is a simple index which can be printed out as an off-line readable function index.
Files whose names end in “.c” or “.h”
are assumed to be C source files and are searched for C style routine and
macro definitions. Files whose names end in “.y” are assumed
to be YACC source files. Files whose names end in “.l” are
assumed to be Lisp files if their first non-blank character is
‘;
’,
‘(
’, or
‘[
’, otherwise, they are treated as
lex files. Other files are first examined to see if they contain any Pascal
or Fortran routine definitions, and, if not, are searched for C style
definitions.
The tag main
is treated specially in C
programs. The tag formed is created by prepending ‘M’ to the
name of the file, with the trailing “.c” and any leading
pathname components removed. This makes use of ctags
practical in directories with more than one program.
Yacc and lex files each have a special tag. Yyparse is the start of the second section of the yacc file, and yylex is the start of the second section of the lex file.
FILES
- tags
- default output tags file
EXIT STATUS
The ctags
utility exits 0 on
success, and >0 if an error occurs.
Duplicate objects are not considered errors.
SEE ALSO
STANDARDS
The ctags
utility is compliant with the
IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”)
specification, though its presence is optional.
The flags [-BdFuvw
] are extensions to that
specification.
HISTORY
The ctags
command appeared in
2BSD.
BUGS
Recognition of functions
,
subroutines
, and procedures
for FORTRAN and Pascal is done in a very simple-minded way. No attempt is
made to deal with block structure; if you have two Pascal procedures in
different blocks with the same name you lose. ctags
doesn't understand about Pascal types.
The method of deciding whether to look for C, Pascal or FORTRAN functions is a hack.
ctags
relies on the input being well
formed, and any syntactical errors will completely confuse it. It also finds
some legal syntax confusing; for example, since it doesn't understand
#ifdef
's (incidentally, that's a feature, not a
bug), any code with unbalanced braces inside
#ifdef
's will cause it to become somewhat
disoriented. In a similar fashion, multiple line changes within a definition
will cause it to enter the last line of the object, rather than the first,
as the searching pattern. The last line of multiple line
typedef
's will similarly be noted.