doc/man/etags.1

   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"
   5 .de BP
   6 .sp
   7 .ti -.2i
   8 \(**
   9 ..
  10
  11 .SH NAME
  12 etags, ctags \- generate tag file for Emacs, vi
  13 .SH SYNOPSIS
  14 .hy 0
  15 .na
  16 \fBetags\fP [\|\-aCDGIRVh\|] [\|\-i \fIfile\fP\|] [\|\-l \fIlanguage\fP\|]
  17 .if n .br
  18 [\|\-o \fItagfile\fP\|] [\|\-r \fIregexp\fP\|]
  19 [\|\-\-parse\-stdin=\fIfile\fP\|]
  20 .br
  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\|]
  27 \fIfile\fP .\|.\|.
  28
  29 \fBctags\fP [\|\-aCdgIRVh\|] [\|\-BtTuvwx\|] [\|\-l \fIlanguage\fP\|]
  30 .if n .br
  31 [\|\-o \fItagfile\fP\|] [\|\-r \fIregexp\fP\|]
  32 [\|\-\-parse\-stdin=\fIfile\fP\|]
  33 .br
  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++\|]
  40 [\|\-\-update\|]
  41 [\|\-\-help\|] [\|\-\-version\|]
  42 \fIfile\fP .\|.\|.
  43 .ad b
  44 .hy 1
  45 .SH DESCRIPTION
  46 The \|\fBetags\fP\| program is used to create a tag table file, in a format
  47 understood by
  48 .BR emacs ( 1 )\c
  49 \&; the \|\fBctags\fP\| program is used to create a similar table in a
  50 format understood by
  51 .BR vi ( 1 )\c
  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 or is the standard output,
  63 however, the file names are made relative to the working directory.
  64 Files specified with absolute file 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.
  72 .SH OPTIONS
  73 Some options make sense only for the \fBvi\fP style tag files produced
  74 by ctags;
  75 \fBetags\fP does not recognize them.
  76 The programs accept unambiguous abbreviations for long option names.
  77 .TP
  78 .B \-a, \-\-append
  79 Append to existing tag file.  (For \fBvi\fP-format tag files, see also
  80 \fB\-\-update\fP.)
  81 .TP
  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
  87 through files.
  88 Only \fBctags\fP accepts this option.
  89 .TP
  90 .B \-\-declarations
  91 In C and derived languages, create tags for function declarations,
  92 and create tags for extern variables unless \-\-no\-globals is used.
  93 .TP
  94 .B \-d, \-\-defines
  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.
  98 .TP
  99 .B \-D, \-\-no\-defines
 100 Do not create tag entries for C preprocessor constant definitions
 101 and enum constants.
 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
 104 accepts this option.
 105 .TP
 106 .B \-\-globals
 107 Create tag entries for global variables in C, C++, Objective C, Java,
 108 and Perl.
 109 Since this is the default behavior of \fBetags\fP, only \fBctags\fP
 110 accepts this option.
 111 .TP
 112 .B \-\-no\-globals
 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.
 116 .TP
 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.
 121 .TP
 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++.
 126 .TP
 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).
 135 .TP
 136 .B \-\-members
 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.
 139 .TP
 140 .B \-\-no\-members
 141 Do not tag member variables.  This is the default for ctags.
 142 .TP
 143 .B \-\-packages\-only
 144 Only tag packages in Ada files.
 145 .TP
 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.
 150 .TP
 151 \fB\-o\fP \fItagfile\fP, \fB\-\-output=\fItagfile\fP
 152 Explicit name of file for tag table; for \fBetags\fP only, a file name
 153 of \- means standard output; overrides default \fBTAGS\fP or \fBtags\fP.
 154 (But ignored with \fB\-v\fP or \fB\-x\fP.)
 155 .TP
 156 \fB\-r\fP \fIregexp\fP, \fB\-\-regex=\fIregexp\fP
 157
 158 Make tags based on regexp matching for the files following this option,
 159 in addition to the tags made with the standard parsing based on
 160 language. May be freely intermixed with filenames and the \fB\-R\fP
 161 option.  The regexps are cumulative, i.e. each such option will add to
 162 the previous ones.  The regexps are of one of the forms:
 163 .br
 164         [\fB{\fP\fIlanguage\fP\fB}\fP]\fB/\fP\fItagregexp/\fP[\fInameregexp\fP\fB/\fP]\fImodifiers\fP
 165 .br
 166         \fB@\fP\fIregexfile\fP
 167 .br
 168
 169 where \fItagregexp\fP is used to match the tag.  It should not match
 170 useless characters.  If the match is such that more characters than
 171 needed are unavoidably matched by \fItagregexp\fP, it may be useful to
 172 add a \fInameregexp\fP, to narrow down the tag scope.  \fBctags\fP
 173 ignores regexps without a \fInameregexp\fP.  The syntax of regexps is
 174 the same as in emacs.  The following character escape sequences are
 175 supported: \\a, \\b, \\d, \\e, \\f, \\n, \\r, \\t, \\v, which
 176 respectively stand for the ASCII characters BEL, BS, DEL, ESC, FF, NL,
 177 CR, TAB, VT.
 178 .br
 179 The \fImodifiers\fP are a sequence of 0 or more characters among
 180 \fIi\fP, which means to ignore case when matching; \fIm\fP, which means
 181 that the \fItagregexp\fP will be matched against the whole file contents
 182 at once, rather than line by line, and the matching sequence can match
 183 multiple lines; and \fIs\fP, which implies \fIm\fP and means that the
 184 dot character in \fItagregexp\fP matches the newline char as well.
 185 .br
 186 The separator, which is \fB/\fP in the examples, can be any character
 187 different from space, tab, braces and \fB@\fP.  If the separator
 188 character is needed inside the regular expression, it must be quoted
 189 by preceding it with \fB\\\fP.
 190 .br
 191 The optional \fB{\fP\fIlanguage\fP\fB}\fP prefix means that the tag
 192 should be
 193 created only for files of language \fIlanguage\fP, and ignored
 194 otherwise.  This is particularly useful when storing many predefined
 195 regexps in a file.
 196 .br
 197 In its second form, \fIregexfile\fP is the name of a file that contains
 198 a number of arguments to the \fI\-\-regex\=\fP option,
 199 one per line.  Lines beginning with a space or tab are assumed
 200 to be comments, and ignored.
 201
 202 .br
 203 Here are some examples.  All the regexps are quoted to protect them
 204 from shell interpretation.
 205 .br
 206
 207 Tag the DEFVAR macros in the emacs source files:
 208 .br
 209 \fI\-\-regex\='/[ \\t]*DEFVAR_[A-Z_ \\t(]+"\\([^"]+\\)"/'\fP
 210 .\"" This comment is to avoid confusion to Emacs syntax highlighting
 211 .br
 212
 213 Tag VHDL files (this example is a single long line, broken here for
 214 formatting reasons):
 215 .br
 216 \fI\-\-language\=none\ \-\-regex='/[\ \\t]*\\(ARCHITECTURE\\|\\
 217 CONFIGURATION\\)\ +[^\ ]*\ +OF/'\ \-\-regex\='/[\ \\t]*\\
 218 \\(ATTRIBUTE\\|ENTITY\\|FUNCTION\\|PACKAGE\\(\ BODY\\)?\\
 219 \\|PROCEDURE\\|PROCESS\\|TYPE\\)[\ \\t]+\\([^\ \\t(]+\\)/\\3/'\fP
 220 .br
 221
 222 Tag TCL files (this last example shows the usage of a \fItagregexp\fP):
 223 .br
 224 \fI\-\-lang\=none \-\-regex\='/proc[\ \\t]+\\([^\ \\t]+\\)/\\1/'\fP
 225
 226 .br
 227 A regexp can be preceded by {\fIlang\fP}, thus restricting it to match
 228 lines of files of the specified language.  Use \fBetags \-\-help\fP to obtain
 229 a list of the recognised languages.  This feature is particularly useful inside
 230 \fBregex files\fP.  A regex file contains one regex per line.  Empty lines,
 231 and those lines beginning with space or tab are ignored.  Lines beginning
 232 with @ are references to regex files whose name follows the @ sign.  Other
 233 lines are considered regular expressions like those following \fB\-\-regex\fP.
 234 .br
 235 For example, the command
 236 .br
 237 \fIetags \-\-regex=@regex.file *.c\fP
 238 .br
 239 reads the regexes contained in the file regex.file.
 240 .TP
 241 .B \-R, \-\-no\-regex
 242 Don't do any more regexp matching on the following files.  May be
 243 freely intermixed with filenames and the \fB\-\-regex\fP option.
 244 .TP
 245 .B \-t, \-\-typedefs
 246 Record typedefs in C code as tags.  Since this is the default behavior
 247 of \fBetags\fP, only \fBctags\fP accepts this option.
 248 .TP
 249 .B \-T, \-\-typedefs\-and\-c++
 250 Generate tag entries for typedefs, struct, enum, and union tags, and
 251 C++ member functions.  Since this is the default behavior
 252 of \fBetags\fP, only \fBctags\fP accepts this option.
 253 .TP
 254 .B \-u, \-\-update
 255 Update tag entries for \fIfiles\fP specified on command line, leaving
 256 tag entries for other files in place.  Currently, this is implemented
 257 by deleting the existing entries for the given files and then
 258 rewriting the new entries at the end of the tags file.  It is often
 259 faster to simply rebuild the entire tag file than to use this.
 260 Only \fBctags\fP accepts this option.
 261 .TP
 262 .B \-v, \-\-vgrind
 263 Instead of generating a tag file, write index (in \fBvgrind\fP format)
 264 to standard output.  Only \fBctags\fP accepts this option.
 265 .TP
 266 .B \-x, \-\-cxref
 267 Instead of generating a tag file, write a cross reference (in
 268 \fBcxref\fP format) to standard output.  Only \fBctags\fP accepts this option.
 269 .TP
 270 .B \-h, \-H, \-\-help
 271 Print usage information.  Followed by one or more \-\-language=LANG
 272 prints detailed information about how tags are created for LANG.
 273 .TP
 274 .B \-V, \-\-version
 275 Print the current version of the program (same as the version of the
 276 emacs \fBetags\fP is shipped with).
 277
 278 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 279 `\|\fBemacs\fP\|' entry in \fBinfo\fP; \fIGNU Emacs Manual\fP, Richard
 280 Stallman.
 281 .br
 282 .BR cxref ( 1 ),
 283 .BR emacs ( 1 ),
 284 .BR vgrind ( 1 ),
 285 .BR vi ( 1 ).
 286
 287 .SH COPYING
 288 Copyright
 289 .if t \(co
 290 .if n (c)
 291 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007  Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 292 .PP
 293 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
 294 document provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
 295 preserved on all copies.
 296 .PP
 297 Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
 298 this document under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that
 299 the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of
 300 a permission notice identical to this one.
 301 .PP
 302 Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
 303 document into another language, under the above conditions for
 304 modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated
 305 in a translation approved by the Free Software Foundation.
 306
 307 .\" arch-tag: 9534977f-af78-42f0-991d-1df6b6c05573