1 .\" Copyright (C) 1992, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,
2 .\" 2005, 2006, 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 .\" See section COPYING for conditions for redistribution
4 .TH etags 1 "23nov2001" "GNU Tools" "GNU Tools"
12 etags, ctags \- generate tag file for Emacs, vi
16 \fBetags\fP [\|\-aCDGIRVh\|] [\|\-i \fIfile\fP\|] [\|\-l \fIlanguage\fP\|]
18 [\|\-o \fItagfile\fP\|] [\|\-r \fIregexp\fP\|]
19 [\|\-\-parse\-stdin=\fIfile\fP\|]
21 [\|\-\-append\|] [\|\-\-no\-defines\|]
22 [\|\-\-no\-globals\|] [\|\-\-include=\fIfile\fP\|]
23 [\|\-\-ignore\-indentation\|] [\|\-\-language=\fIlanguage\fP\|]
24 [\|\-\-no\-members\|] [\|\-\-output=\fItagfile\fP\|]
25 [\|\-\-regex=\fIregexp\fP\|] [\|\-\-no\-regex\|]
26 [\|\-\-help\|] [\|\-\-version\|]
29 \fBctags\fP [\|\-aCdgIRVh\|] [\|\-BtTuvwx\|] [\|\-l \fIlanguage\fP\|]
31 [\|\-o \fItagfile\fP\|] [\|\-r \fIregexp\fP\|]
32 [\|\-\-parse\-stdin=\fIfile\fP\|]
34 [\|\-\-append\|] [\|\-\-backward\-search\|]
35 [\|\-\-cxref\|] [\|\-\-defines\|] [\|\-\-forward\-search\|]
36 [\|\-\-globals\|] [\|\-\-ignore\-indentation\|]
37 [\|\-\-language=\fIlanguage\fP\|] [\|\-\-members\|]
38 [\|\-\-output=\fItagfile\fP\|] [\|\-\-regex=\fIregexp\fP\|]
39 [\|\-\-typedefs\|] [\|\-\-typedefs\-and\-c++\|]
41 [\|\-\-help\|] [\|\-\-version\|]
46 The \|\fBetags\fP\| program is used to create a tag table file, in a format
49 \&; the \|\fBctags\fP\| program is used to create a similar table in a
52 \&. Both forms of the program understand
53 the syntax of C, Objective C, C++, Java, Fortran, Ada, Cobol, Erlang, HTML,
54 LaTeX, Emacs Lisp/Common Lisp, Lua, makefile, Pascal, Perl, PHP, Postscript,
55 Python, Prolog, Scheme and
56 most assembler\-like syntaxes.
57 Both forms read the files specified on the command line, and write a tag
58 table (defaults: \fBTAGS\fP for \fBetags\fP, \fBtags\fP for
59 \fBctags\fP) in the current working directory.
60 Files specified with relative file names will be recorded in the tag
61 table with file names relative to the directory where the tag table
62 resides. If the tag table is in /dev, however, the file names are made
63 relative to the working directory. Files specified with absolute file
64 names will be recorded
65 with absolute file names. Files generated from a source file\-\-like
66 a C file generated from a source Cweb file\-\-will be recorded with
67 the name of the source file.
68 The programs recognize the language used in an input file based on its
69 file name and contents. The \fB\-\-language\fP switch can be used to force
70 parsing of the file names following the switch according to the given
71 language, overriding guesses based on filename extensions.
73 Some options make sense only for the \fBvi\fP style tag files produced
75 \fBetags\fP does not recognize them.
76 The programs accept unambiguous abbreviations for long option names.
79 Append to existing tag file. (For \fBvi\fP-format tag files, see also
82 .B \-B, \-\-backward\-search
83 Tag files written in the format expected by \fBvi\fP contain regular
84 expression search instructions; the \fB\-B\fP option writes them using
85 the delimiter `\|\fB?\fP\|', to search \fIbackwards\fP through files.
86 The default is to use the delimiter `\|\fB/\fP\|', to search \fIforwards\fP
88 Only \fBctags\fP accepts this option.
91 In C and derived languages, create tags for function declarations,
92 and create tags for extern variables unless \-\-no\-globals is used.
95 Create tag entries for C preprocessor constant definitions
96 and enum constants, too. Since this is the default behavior of
97 \fBetags\fP, only \fBctags\fP accepts this option.
99 .B \-D, \-\-no\-defines
100 Do not create tag entries for C preprocessor constant definitions
102 This may make the tags file much smaller if many header files are tagged.
103 Since this is the default behavior of \fBctags\fP, only \fBetags\fP
107 Create tag entries for global variables in C, C++, Objective C, Java,
109 Since this is the default behavior of \fBetags\fP, only \fBctags\fP
113 Do not tag global variables. Typically this reduces the file size by
114 one fourth. Since this is the default behavior of \fBctags\fP, only
115 \fBetags\fP accepts this option.
117 \fB\-i\fP \fIfile\fP, \fB\-\-include=\fIfile\fP
118 Include a note in the tag file indicating that, when searching for a
119 tag, one should also consult the tags file \fIfile\fP after checking the
120 current file. Only \fBetags\fP accepts this option.
122 .B \-I, \-\-ignore\-indentation
123 Don't rely on indentation as much as we normally do. Currently, this
124 means not to assume that a closing brace in the first column is the
125 final brace of a function or structure definition in C and C++.
127 \fB\-l\fP \fIlanguage\fP, \fB\-\-language=\fIlanguage\fP
128 Parse the following files according to the given language. More than
129 one such options may be intermixed with filenames. Use \fB\-\-help\fP
130 to get a list of the available languages and their default filename
131 extensions. The `auto' language can be used to restore automatic
132 detection of language based on the file name. The `none'
133 language may be used to disable language parsing altogether; only
134 regexp matching is done in this case (see the \fB\-\-regex\fP option).
137 Create tag entries for variables that are members of structure-like
138 constructs in C++, Objective C, Java. This is the default for etags.
141 Do not tag member variables. This is the default for ctags.
143 .B \-\-packages\-only
144 Only tag packages in Ada files.
146 \fB\-\-parse\-stdin=\fIfile\fP
147 May be used (only once) in place of a file name on the command line.
148 \fBetags\fP will read from standard input and mark the produced tags
149 as belonging to the file \fBFILE\fP.
151 \fB\-o\fP \fItagfile\fP, \fB\-\-output=\fItagfile\fP
152 Explicit name of file for tag table; overrides default \fBTAGS\fP or
153 \fBtags\fP. (But ignored with \fB\-v\fP or \fB\-x\fP.)
155 \fB\-r\fP \fIregexp\fP, \fB\-\-regex=\fIregexp\fP
157 Make tags based on regexp matching for the files following this option,
158 in addition to the tags made with the standard parsing based on
159 language. May be freely intermixed with filenames and the \fB\-R\fP
160 option. The regexps are cumulative, i.e. each such option will add to
161 the previous ones. The regexps are of one of the forms:
163 [\fB{\fP\fIlanguage\fP\fB}\fP]\fB/\fP\fItagregexp/\fP[\fInameregexp\fP\fB/\fP]\fImodifiers\fP
165 \fB@\fP\fIregexfile\fP
168 where \fItagregexp\fP is used to match the tag. It should not match
169 useless characters. If the match is such that more characters than
170 needed are unavoidably matched by \fItagregexp\fP, it may be useful to
171 add a \fInameregexp\fP, to narrow down the tag scope. \fBctags\fP
172 ignores regexps without a \fInameregexp\fP. The syntax of regexps is
173 the same as in emacs. The following character escape sequences are
174 supported: \\a, \\b, \\d, \\e, \\f, \\n, \\r, \\t, \\v, which
175 respectively stand for the ASCII characters BEL, BS, DEL, ESC, FF, NL,
178 The \fImodifiers\fP are a sequence of 0 or more characters among
179 \fIi\fP, which means to ignore case when matching; \fIm\fP, which means
180 that the \fItagregexp\fP will be matched against the whole file contents
181 at once, rather than line by line, and the matching sequence can match
182 multiple lines; and \fIs\fP, which implies \fIm\fP and means that the
183 dot character in \fItagregexp\fP matches the newline char as well.
185 The separator, which is \fB/\fP in the examples, can be any character
186 different from space, tab, braces and \fB@\fP. If the separator
187 character is needed inside the regular expression, it must be quoted
188 by preceding it with \fB\\\fP.
190 The optional \fB{\fP\fIlanguage\fP\fB}\fP prefix means that the tag
192 created only for files of language \fIlanguage\fP, and ignored
193 otherwise. This is particularly useful when storing many predefined
196 In its second form, \fIregexfile\fP is the name of a file that contains
197 a number of arguments to the \fI\-\-regex\=\fP option,
198 one per line. Lines beginning with a space or tab are assumed
199 to be comments, and ignored.
202 Here are some examples. All the regexps are quoted to protect them
203 from shell interpretation.
206 Tag the DEFVAR macros in the emacs source files:
208 \fI\-\-regex\='/[ \\t]*DEFVAR_[A-Z_ \\t(]+"\\([^"]+\\)"/'\fP
209 .\"" This comment is to avoid confusion to Emacs syntax highlighting
212 Tag VHDL files (this example is a single long line, broken here for
215 \fI\-\-language\=none\ \-\-regex='/[\ \\t]*\\(ARCHITECTURE\\|\\
216 CONFIGURATION\\)\ +[^\ ]*\ +OF/'\ \-\-regex\='/[\ \\t]*\\
217 \\(ATTRIBUTE\\|ENTITY\\|FUNCTION\\|PACKAGE\\(\ BODY\\)?\\
218 \\|PROCEDURE\\|PROCESS\\|TYPE\\)[\ \\t]+\\([^\ \\t(]+\\)/\\3/'\fP
221 Tag TCL files (this last example shows the usage of a \fItagregexp\fP):
223 \fI\-\-lang\=none \-\-regex\='/proc[\ \\t]+\\([^\ \\t]+\\)/\\1/'\fP
226 A regexp can be preceded by {\fIlang\fP}, thus restricting it to match
227 lines of files of the specified language. Use \fBetags \-\-help\fP to obtain
228 a list of the recognised languages. This feature is particularly useful inside
229 \fBregex files\fP. A regex file contains one regex per line. Empty lines,
230 and those lines beginning with space or tab are ignored. Lines beginning
231 with @ are references to regex files whose name follows the @ sign. Other
232 lines are considered regular expressions like those following \fB\-\-regex\fP.
234 For example, the command
236 \fIetags \-\-regex=@regex.file *.c\fP
238 reads the regexes contained in the file regex.file.
240 .B \-R, \-\-no\-regex
241 Don't do any more regexp matching on the following files. May be
242 freely intermixed with filenames and the \fB\-\-regex\fP option.
245 Record typedefs in C code as tags. Since this is the default behavior
246 of \fBetags\fP, only \fBctags\fP accepts this option.
248 .B \-T, \-\-typedefs\-and\-c++
249 Generate tag entries for typedefs, struct, enum, and union tags, and
250 C++ member functions. Since this is the default behavior
251 of \fBetags\fP, only \fBctags\fP accepts this option.
254 Update tag entries for \fIfiles\fP specified on command line, leaving
255 tag entries for other files in place. Currently, this is implemented
256 by deleting the existing entries for the given files and then
257 rewriting the new entries at the end of the tags file. It is often
258 faster to simply rebuild the entire tag file than to use this.
259 Only \fBctags\fP accepts this option.
262 Instead of generating a tag file, write index (in \fBvgrind\fP format)
263 to standard output. Only \fBctags\fP accepts this option.
266 Instead of generating a tag file, write a cross reference (in
267 \fBcxref\fP format) to standard output. Only \fBctags\fP accepts this option.
269 .B \-h, \-H, \-\-help
270 Print usage information. Followed by one or more \-\-language=LANG
271 prints detailed information about how tags are created for LANG.
274 Print the current version of the program (same as the version of the
275 emacs \fBetags\fP is shipped with).
278 `\|\fBemacs\fP\|' entry in \fBinfo\fP; \fIGNU Emacs Manual\fP, Richard
290 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
292 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
293 document provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
294 preserved on all copies.
296 Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
297 this document under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that
298 the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of
299 a permission notice identical to this one.
301 Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
302 document into another language, under the above conditions for
303 modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated
304 in a translation approved by the Free Software Foundation.
projects / sxemacs / blob