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etags(1)                                          GNU Tools                                         etags(1)



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] [--no-globals] [--include=file] [--ignore-indentation]
       [--language=language] [--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] [--defines] [--forward-search] [--globals]
       [--ignore-indentation] [--language=language] [--members] [--output=tagfile] [--regex=regexp]
       [--typedefs] [--typedefs-and-c++] [--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, HTML, LaTeX, Emacs
       Lisp/Common Lisp, Lua, makefile, Pascal, Perl, PHP, Postscript, Python, Prolog, Scheme and  most  as-sembler-like assembler-like
       sembler-like  syntaxes.  Both forms read the files specified on the command line, and write a tag ta-ble table
       ble (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, 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.  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  pars-ing parsing
       ing  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 de-fault default
              fault  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.

       -d, --defines
              Create  tag  entries  for  C preprocessor constant definitions and enum constants, too.  Since
              this is the default behavior of etags, only ctags accepts this option.

       -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.  Since this is the de-fault default
              fault behavior of ctags, only etags accepts this option.

       --globals
              Create tag entries for global variables in C, C++, Objective C, Java, and Perl.  Since this is
              the default behavior of etags, only ctags accepts this option.

       --no-globals
              Do  not tag global variables.  Typically this reduces the file size by one fourth.  Since this
              is the default behavior of ctags, only etags accepts this option.

       -i file, --include=file
              Include a note in the tag file indicating that, when searching for a tag, one should also con-sult consult
              sult 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  de-fault default
              fault  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 C++, Objec-tive Objective
              tive C, Java.  This is the default for etags.

       --no-members
              Do not tag member variables.  This is the default for ctags.

       --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; 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 com-ments, comments,
              ments, 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]*\(ARCHITECTURE\|\                                   CONFIGURA-TION\) CONFIGURATION\)
              TION\) +[^ ]* +OF/' --regex='/[ \t]*\ \(ATTRIBUTE\|ENTITY\|FUNCTION\|PACKAGE\( BODY\)?\ \|PRO-CEDURE\|PROCESS\|TYPE\)[ \|PROCEDURE\|PROCESS\|TYPE\)[
              CEDURE\|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 speci-fied specified
              fied language.  Use etags --help to obtain a list of the recognised 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 file-names filenames
              names and the --regex option.

       -t, --typedefs
              Record  typedefs  in  C code as tags.  Since this is the default behavior of etags, only ctags
              accepts this option.

       -T, --typedefs-and-c++
              Generate tag entries for typedefs, struct, enum, and union tags,  and  C++  member  functions.
              Since this is the default behavior of etags, only ctags accepts this 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 out-put. output.
              put.  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) 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007  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, un-der under
       der the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a
       translation approved by the Free Software Foundation.




GNU Tools                                         23nov2001                                         etags(1)

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