1 .\" See section COPYING for copyright and redistribution information.
2 .TH etags 1 "23nov2001" "GNU Tools" "GNU Tools"
10 etags, ctags \- generate tag file for Emacs, vi
14 \fBetags\fP [\|\-aCDGIRVh\|] [\|\-i \fIfile\fP\|] [\|\-l \fIlanguage\fP\|]
16 [\|\-o \fItagfile\fP\|] [\|\-r \fIregexp\fP\|]
17 [\|\-\-parse\-stdin=\fIfile\fP\|]
19 [\|\-\-append\|] [\|\-\-no\-defines\|] [\|\-\-globals\|]
20 [\|\-\-no\-globals\|] [\|\-\-include=\fIfile\fP\|]
21 [\|\-\-ignore\-indentation\|] [\|\-\-language=\fIlanguage\fP\|]
22 [\|\-\-members\|] [\|\-\-no\-members\|] [\|\-\-output=\fItagfile\fP\|]
23 [\|\-\-regex=\fIregexp\fP\|] [\|\-\-no\-regex\|]
24 [\|\-\-help\|] [\|\-\-version\|]
27 \fBctags\fP [\|\-aCdgIRVh\|] [\|\-BtTuvwx\|] [\|\-l \fIlanguage\fP\|]
29 [\|\-o \fItagfile\fP\|] [\|\-r \fIregexp\fP\|]
30 [\|\-\-parse\-stdin=\fIfile\fP\|]
32 [\|\-\-append\|] [\|\-\-backward\-search\|]
33 [\|\-\-cxref\|] [\|\-\-no\-defines\|]
34 [\|\-\-globals\|] [\|\-\-no\-globals\|] [\|\-\-ignore\-indentation\|]
35 [\|\-\-language=\fIlanguage\fP\|] [\|\-\-members\|] [\|\-\-no\-members\|]
36 [\|\-\-output=\fItagfile\fP\|] [\|\-\-regex=\fIregexp\fP\|]
38 [\|\-\-help\|] [\|\-\-version\|]
43 The \|\fBetags\fP\| program is used to create a tag table file, in a format
46 \&; the \|\fBctags\fP\| program is used to create a similar table in a
49 \&. Both forms of the program understand
50 the syntax of C, Objective C, C++, Java, Fortran, Ada, Cobol, Erlang,
51 Forth, HTML, LaTeX, Emacs Lisp/Common Lisp, Lua, Makefile, Pascal, Perl,
52 PHP, PostScript, Python, Prolog, Scheme and
53 most assembler\-like syntaxes.
54 Both forms read the files specified on the command line, and write a tag
55 table (defaults: \fBTAGS\fP for \fBetags\fP, \fBtags\fP for
56 \fBctags\fP) in the current working directory.
57 Files specified with relative file names will be recorded in the tag
58 table with file names relative to the directory where the tag table
59 resides. If the tag table is in /dev or is the standard output,
60 however, the file names are made relative to the working directory.
61 Files specified with absolute file names will be recorded
62 with absolute file names. Files generated from a source file\-\-like
63 a C file generated from a source Cweb file\-\-will be recorded with
64 the name of the source file.
65 Compressed files are supported using gzip, bzip2, and xz.
66 The programs recognize the language used in an input file based on its
67 file name and contents. The \fB\-\-language\fP switch can be used to force
68 parsing of the file names following the switch according to the given
69 language, overriding guesses based on filename extensions.
71 Some options make sense only for the \fBvi\fP style tag files produced
73 \fBetags\fP does not recognize them.
74 The programs accept unambiguous abbreviations for long option names.
77 Append to existing tag file. (For \fBvi\fP-format tag files, see also
80 .B \-B, \-\-backward\-search
81 Tag files written in the format expected by \fBvi\fP contain regular
82 expression search instructions; the \fB\-B\fP option writes them using
83 the delimiter `\|\fB?\fP\|', to search \fIbackwards\fP through files.
84 The default is to use the delimiter `\|\fB/\fP\|', to search \fIforwards\fP
86 Only \fBctags\fP accepts this option.
89 In C and derived languages, create tags for function declarations,
90 and create tags for extern variables unless \-\-no\-globals is used.
91 In Lisp, create tags for (defvar foo) declarations.
93 .B \-D, \-\-no\-defines
94 Do not create tag entries for C preprocessor constant definitions
96 This may make the tags file much smaller if many header files are tagged.
99 Create tag entries for global variables in Perl and Makefile. This is
100 the default in C and derived languages.
103 Do not tag global variables in C and derived languages. Typically this
104 reduces the file size by one fourth.
106 \fB\-i\fP \fIfile\fP, \fB\-\-include=\fIfile\fP
107 Include a note in the tag file indicating that, when searching for a
108 tag, one should also consult the tags file \fIfile\fP after checking the
109 current file. Only \fBetags\fP accepts this option.
111 .B \-I, \-\-ignore\-indentation
112 Don't rely on indentation as much as we normally do. Currently, this
113 means not to assume that a closing brace in the first column is the
114 final brace of a function or structure definition in C and C++.
116 \fB\-l\fP \fIlanguage\fP, \fB\-\-language=\fIlanguage\fP
117 Parse the following files according to the given language. More than
118 one such options may be intermixed with filenames. Use \fB\-\-help\fP
119 to get a list of the available languages and their default filename
120 extensions. The `auto' language can be used to restore automatic
121 detection of language based on the file name. The `none'
122 language may be used to disable language parsing altogether; only
123 regexp matching is done in this case (see the \fB\-\-regex\fP option).
126 Create tag entries for variables that are members of structure-like
127 constructs in PHP. This is the default for C and derived languages.
130 Do not tag member variables.
132 .B \-\-packages\-only
133 Only tag packages in Ada files.
135 \fB\-\-parse\-stdin=\fIfile\fP
136 May be used (only once) in place of a file name on the command line.
137 \fBetags\fP will read from standard input and mark the produced tags
138 as belonging to the file \fBFILE\fP.
140 \fB\-o\fP \fItagfile\fP, \fB\-\-output=\fItagfile\fP
141 Explicit name of file for tag table; for \fBetags\fP only, a file name
142 of \- means standard output; overrides default \fBTAGS\fP or \fBtags\fP.
143 (But ignored with \fB\-v\fP or \fB\-x\fP.)
145 \fB\-r\fP \fIregexp\fP, \fB\-\-regex=\fIregexp\fP
147 Make tags based on regexp matching for the files following this option,
148 in addition to the tags made with the standard parsing based on
149 language. May be freely intermixed with filenames and the \fB\-R\fP
150 option. The regexps are cumulative, i.e., each such option will add to
151 the previous ones. The regexps are of one of the forms:
153 [\fB{\fP\fIlanguage\fP\fB}\fP]\fB/\fP\fItagregexp/\fP[\fInameregexp\fP\fB/\fP]\fImodifiers\fP
155 \fB@\fP\fIregexfile\fP
158 where \fItagregexp\fP is used to match the tag. It should not match
159 useless characters. If the match is such that more characters than
160 needed are unavoidably matched by \fItagregexp\fP, it may be useful to
161 add a \fInameregexp\fP, to narrow down the tag scope. \fBctags\fP
162 ignores regexps without a \fInameregexp\fP. The syntax of regexps is
163 the same as in emacs. The following character escape sequences are
164 supported: \\a, \\b, \\d, \\e, \\f, \\n, \\r, \\t, \\v, which
165 respectively stand for the ASCII characters BEL, BS, DEL, ESC, FF, NL,
168 The \fImodifiers\fP are a sequence of 0 or more characters among
169 \fIi\fP, which means to ignore case when matching; \fIm\fP, which means
170 that the \fItagregexp\fP will be matched against the whole file contents
171 at once, rather than line by line, and the matching sequence can match
172 multiple lines; and \fIs\fP, which implies \fIm\fP and means that the
173 dot character in \fItagregexp\fP matches the newline char as well.
175 The separator, which is \fB/\fP in the examples, can be any character
176 different from space, tab, braces and \fB@\fP. If the separator
177 character is needed inside the regular expression, it must be quoted
178 by preceding it with \fB\\\fP.
180 The optional \fB{\fP\fIlanguage\fP\fB}\fP prefix means that the tag
182 created only for files of language \fIlanguage\fP, and ignored
183 otherwise. This is particularly useful when storing many predefined
186 In its second form, \fIregexfile\fP is the name of a file that contains
187 a number of arguments to the \fI\-\-regex\=\fP option,
188 one per line. Lines beginning with a space or tab are assumed
189 to be comments, and ignored.
192 Here are some examples. All the regexps are quoted to protect them
193 from shell interpretation.
196 Tag the DEFVAR macros in the emacs source files:
198 \fI\-\-regex\='/[ \\t]*DEFVAR_[A-Z_ \\t(]+"\\([^"]+\\)"/'\fP
199 .\"" This comment is to avoid confusion to Emacs syntax highlighting
202 Tag VHDL files (this example is a single long line, broken here for
205 \fI\-\-language\=none\ \-\-regex='/[\ \\t]*\\(ARCHITECTURE\\|\\
206 CONFIGURATION\\)\ +[^\ ]*\ +OF/'\ \-\-regex\='/[\ \\t]*\\
207 \\(ATTRIBUTE\\|ENTITY\\|FUNCTION\\|PACKAGE\\(\ BODY\\)?\\
208 \\|PROCEDURE\\|PROCESS\\|TYPE\\)[\ \\t]+\\([^\ \\t(]+\\)/\\3/'\fP
211 Tag TCL files (this last example shows the usage of a \fItagregexp\fP):
213 \fI\-\-lang\=none \-\-regex\='/proc[\ \\t]+\\([^\ \\t]+\\)/\\1/'\fP
216 A regexp can be preceded by {\fIlang\fP}, thus restricting it to match
217 lines of files of the specified language. Use \fBetags \-\-help\fP to obtain
218 a list of the recognized languages. This feature is particularly useful inside
219 \fBregex files\fP. A regex file contains one regex per line. Empty lines,
220 and those lines beginning with space or tab are ignored. Lines beginning
221 with @ are references to regex files whose name follows the @ sign. Other
222 lines are considered regular expressions like those following \fB\-\-regex\fP.
224 For example, the command
226 \fIetags \-\-regex=@regex.file *.c\fP
228 reads the regexes contained in the file regex.file.
230 .B \-R, \-\-no\-regex
231 Don't do any more regexp matching on the following files. May be
232 freely intermixed with filenames and the \fB\-\-regex\fP option.
235 Update tag entries for \fIfiles\fP specified on command line, leaving
236 tag entries for other files in place. Currently, this is implemented
237 by deleting the existing entries for the given files and then
238 rewriting the new entries at the end of the tags file. It is often
239 faster to simply rebuild the entire tag file than to use this.
240 Only \fBctags\fP accepts this option.
243 Instead of generating a tag file, write index (in \fBvgrind\fP format)
244 to standard output. Only \fBctags\fP accepts this option.
247 Instead of generating a tag file, write a cross reference (in
248 \fBcxref\fP format) to standard output. Only \fBctags\fP accepts this option.
250 .B \-h, \-H, \-\-help
251 Print usage information. Followed by one or more \-\-language=LANG
252 prints detailed information about how tags are created for LANG.
255 Print the current version of the program (same as the version of the
256 emacs \fBetags\fP is shipped with).
259 `\|\fBemacs\fP\|' entry in \fBinfo\fP; \fIGNU Emacs Manual\fP, Richard
271 1992, 1999, 2001-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
273 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
274 document provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
275 preserved on all copies.
277 Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
278 this document under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that
279 the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of
280 a permission notice identical to this one.
282 Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
283 document into another language, under the above conditions for
284 modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated
285 in a translation approved by the Free Software Foundation.