| CTAGS-UNIVERSAL(1) | Universal-ctags | CTAGS-UNIVERSAL(1) |
ctags-universal - Generate tag files for source code
ctags-universal [options] [source_file(s)] etags [options] [source_file(s)]
The ctags-universal and etags programs (hereinafter collectively referred to as ctags-universal, except where distinguished) generate an index (or "tag") file for a variety of language objects found in source file(s). This tag file allows these items to be quickly and easily located by a text editor or other utilities (client tools). A tag signifies a language object for which an index entry is available (or, alternatively, the index entry created for that object).
Alternatively, ctags-universal can generate a cross reference file which lists, in human readable form, information about the various language objects found in a set of source files.
Tag index files are supported by numerous editors, which allow the user to locate the object associated with a name appearing in a source file and jump to the file and line which defines the name. See the manual of your favorite editor about utilizing ctags-universal command and the tag index files in the editor.
ctags-universal is capable of generating different kinds of tags for each of many different languages. For a complete list of supported languages, the names by which they are recognized, and the kinds of tags which are generated for each, see the --list-languages and --list-kinds-full options.
This man page describes Universal-ctags, an implementation of ctags derived from Exuberant-ctags. The major incompatible changes between Universal-ctags and Exuberant-ctags are enumerated in ctags-incompatibilities(7).
One of the advantages of Exuberant-ctags is that it allows a user to define a new parser from the command line. Extending this capability is one of the major features of Universal-ctags. ctags-optlib(7) describes how the capability is extended.
Newly introduced experimental features are not explained here. If you are interested in such features and ctags-universal internals, visit http://docs.ctags.io/en/latest/.
Unless the --language-force option is specified, the language of each source file is automatically selected based upon a mapping of file names to languages. The mappings in effect for each language may be displayed using the --list-maps option and may be changed using the --langmap or --map-<LANG> options.
If the name of a file is not mapped to a language, ctags-universal tries to heuristically guess the language for the file by inspecting its content. See "Determining file language".
All files that have no file name mapping and no guessed parser are ignored. This permits running ctags-universal on all files in either a single directory (e.g. "ctags-universal *"), or on all files in an entire source directory tree (e.g. "ctags-universal -R"), since only those files whose names are mapped to languages will be scanned.
The same extensions are mapped to multiple parsers. For example, ".h" are mapped to C++, C and ObjectiveC. These mappings can cause issues. ctags-universal tries to select the proper parser for the source file by applying heuristics to its content, however it is not perfect. In case of issues one can use --language-force=language, --langmap=map[,map[...]], or the --map-<LANG>=-pattern|extension options. (Some of the heuristics are applied whether --guess-language-eagerly is given or not.)
If ctags-universal cannot select a parser from the mapping of file names, various heuristic tests are conducted to determine the language:
If ctags-universal finds no such parser, ctags-universal looks for the name in alias lists. For example, consider if the first line is "#!/bin/sh". Though ctags-universal has a "shell" parser, it doesn't have a "sh" parser. However, "sh" is listed as an alias for "shell", therefore ctags-universal selects the "shell" parser for the file.
An exception is "env". If "env" is specified, ctags-universal reads more lines to find real interpreter specification.
To display the list of aliases, use --list-aliases option. To add/remove an item to/from the list, use the --alias-<LANG>=[+|-]aliasPattern option.
ctags-universal treats MODE as a name of interpreter and applies the same rule of "interpreter" testing if the first line has one of the following patterns:
-*- mode: MODE -*-
or
-*- MODE -*-
ctags-universal treats MODE as a name of an interpreter and applies the same rule of "interpreter" heuristic testing, if the lines at the tail of the file have the following pattern:
Local Variables: ... mode: MODE ... End:
3000 characters are sought from the end of file to find the pattern.
filetype=TYPE
or
ft=TYPE
Looking into the file contents is a more expensive operation than file name matching. So ctags-universal runs the testings in limited conditions. "interpreter" testing is enabled only when a file is an executable or the --guess-language-eagerly (-G in short) option is given. The other heuristic tests are enabled only when -G option is given.
The --print-language option can be used just to print the results of parser selections for given files instead of generating a tags file.
Examples:
$ ctags-universal --print-language config.h.in input.m input.unknown config.h.in: C++ input.m: MatLab input.unknown: NONE
NONE means that ctags-universal does not select any parser for the file.
A tag is an index for a language object. The concept of a tag and related items in Exuberant-ctags are refined and extended in Universal-ctags.
A tag is categorized into definition tags or reference tags. In general, Exuberant-ctags only tags definitions of language objects: places where newly named language objects are introduced. Universal-ctags, on the other hand, can also tag references of language objects: places where named language objects are used. However, support for generating reference tags is new and limited to specific areas of specific languages in the current version.
A tag can record various information, called fields. The essential fields are: name of language objects, input, pattern, and line. input: is the name of source file where name: is defined or referenced. pattern: can be used to search the name in input:. line is the line number where name: is defined or referenced in input:.
ctags-universal offers extension fields. See also the descriptions of --list-fields option and --fields option.
kind: is a field which represents the kind of language object specified by a tag. Kinds used and defined are very different between parsers. For example, C language defines "macro", "function", "variable", "typedef", etc. See also the descriptions of --list-kinds-full option and --kinds-<LANG> option.
Generally, ctags-universal tags only language objects appearing in source files, as is. In other words, a value for a name: field should be found on the source file associated with the name:. An "extra" type tag (extra) is for tagging a language object with a processed name, or for tagging something not associated with a language object. A typical extra tag is "qualified", which tags a language object with a class-qualified or scope-qualified name.
The following example demonstrates the "qualified" extra tag.
package Bar;
import Baz;
class Foo {
// ...
}
For the above source file, ctags-universal tags "Bar" and "Foo" by default. If the "qualified" extra is enabled from the command line (--extras=+q), then "Bar.Foo" is also tagged even though the string "Bar.Foo" is not in the source code.
See also the descriptions of --list-extras option and --extras option in "OPTION ITEMS".
Role is a newly introduced concept in Universal-ctags. Role is a concept associated with reference tags, and is not implemented widely yet.
As described previously in "Kinds", the "kind" field represents the type of language object specified with a tag, such as a function vs. a variable. Specific kinds are defined for reference tags, such as the C++ kind "header" for header file, or Java kind "package" for package statements. For such reference kinds, a "roles" field can be added to distinguish the role of the reference kind. In other words, the "kind" field identifies the "what" of the language object, whereas the "roles" field identifies the "how" of a referenced language object. Roles are only used with specific kinds.
For example, for the source file used for demonstrating in the "Extras" subsection, "Baz" is tagged as a reference tag with kind "package" and with role "imported". Another example is for a C++ "header" kind tag, generated by "#include" statements: the roles:system or roles:local fields will be added depending on whether the include file name begins with "<" or not.
See also the descriptions of --list-roles option.
Exuberant-ctags has the concept of "fields" and "extras". They are common between parsers of different languages. Universal-ctags extends this concept by providing language-specific fields and extras.
Despite the wealth of available options, defaults are set so that ctags-universal is most commonly executed without any options (e.g. "ctags-universal *", or "ctags-universal -R"), which will create a tag file in the current directory for all recognized source files. The options described below are provided merely to allow custom tailoring to meet special needs.
Note that spaces separating the single-letter options from their parameters are optional.
Note also that the boolean parameters to the long form options (those beginning with "--" and that take a "[=yes|no]" parameter) may be omitted, in which case "=yes" is implied. (e.g. --sort is equivalent to --sort=yes). Note further that "=1", "=on", and "=true" are considered synonyms for "=yes", and that "=0", "=off", and "=false" are considered synonyms for "=no".
Some options are either ignored or useful only when used while running in etags mode (see -e option). Such options will be noted.
Most options may appear anywhere on the command line, affecting only those files which follow the option. A few options, however, must appear before the first file name and will be noted as such.
Options taking language names will accept those names in either upper or lower case. See the --list-languages option for a complete list of the built-in language names.
Some options take letters as parameters (e.g. --kinds-<LANG> option). Specifying just letters help a user create a complicated command line quickly. However, a command line including sequences of single letters becomes difficult to understand.
Universal-ctags accepts names in addition to such letters. The names and letters can be mixed in an option parameter by surrounding each name by braces. Thus, for an example, the following three notations for --kinds-C option have the same meaning:
--kinds-C=+pLl
--kinds-C=+{prototype}{label}{local}
--kinds-C=+{prototype}L{local}
Note that braces may be meta characters in your shell. Put single quotes in such case.
--list-... options shows letters and associated names.
Universal-ctags introduces many --list-... options that provide the internal data of Universal-ctags. Both users and client tools may use the data. --with-list-header and --machinable options adjust the output of the most of --list-... options.
The default setting (--with-list-header=yes and --machinable=no) is for using interactively from a terminal. The header that explains the meaning of columns is simply added to the output, and each column is aligned in all lines. The header line starts with a hash ('#') character.
For scripting in a client tool, --with-list-header=no and --machinable=yes may be useful. The header is not added to the output, and each column is separated by tab characters.
Note the order of columns will change in the future release. However, labels in the header will not change. So by scanning the header, a client tool can find the index for the target column.
ctags-universal has more options than listed here. Options starting with an underscore character, such as --_echo=msg, are not listed here. They are experimental or for debugging purpose.
This feature is useful when preprocessor macros are used in such a way that they cause syntactic confusion due to their presence. Indeed, this is the best way of working around a number of problems caused by the presence of syntax-busting macros in source files (see "CAVEATS"). Some examples will illustrate this point.
int foo ARGDECL4(void *, ptr, long int, nbytes)
In the above example, the macro "ARGDECL4" would be mistakenly interpreted to be the name of the function instead of the correct name of "foo". Specifying "-I ARGDECL4" results in the correct behavior.
/* creates an RCS version string in module */
MODULE_VERSION("$Revision$")
In the above example the macro invocation looks too much like a function definition because it is not followed by a semicolon (indeed, it could even be followed by a global variable definition that would look much like a K&R style function parameter declaration). In fact, this seeming function definition could possibly even cause the rest of the file to be skipped over while trying to complete the definition. Specifying "-I MODULE_VERSION+" would avoid such a problem.
CLASS Example {
// your content here
};
The example above uses "CLASS" as a preprocessor macro which expands to something different for each platform. For instance CLASS may be defined as "class __declspec(dllexport)" on Win32 platforms and simply "class" on UNIX. Normally, the absence of the C++ keyword "class" would cause the source file to be incorrectly parsed. Correct behavior can be restored by specifying "-I CLASS=class".
The parameter aliasPattern is not a list. Use this option multiple times in a command line to add or remove multiple alias patterns.
To restore the default language aliases, specify "default" as the parameter aliasPattern. Using "all" for <LANG> has meaning in following two cases:
If pattern begins with the character '@', then the rest of the string is interpreted as a file name from which to read exclusion patterns, one per line. If pattern is empty, the list of excluded patterns is cleared.
Note that at program startup, the default exclude list contains names of common hidden and system files, patterns for binary files, and directories for which it is generally not desirable to descend while processing the --recurse option. To see the list of built-in exclude patterns, use --list-excludes.
The valid values for type (either the entire word or the first letter is accepted) are:
However, this option has one significant drawback: changes to the source files can cause the line numbers recorded in the tag file to no longer correspond to the lines in the source file, causing jumps to some tags to miss the target definition by one or more lines. Basically, this option is best used when the source code to which it is applied is not subject to change. Selecting this option type causes the following options to be ignored: -BF.
This option is kept for backward-compatibility with Exuberant-ctags.
The parameter flags is a set of one-letter flags, each representing one kind of extra tag entry to include in the tag file. If flags is preceded by either the '+' or '-' character, the effect of each flag is added to, or removed from, those currently enabled; otherwise the flags replace any current settings. All entries are included if '*' is given.
This --extras= option is for controlling extras common in all languages (or language-independent extras). Universal-ctags also supports language-specific extras. (See "Language-specific fields and extras" about the concept). Use --extras-<LANG>= option for controlling them.
The meaning of major extras is as follows (one-letter flag/name):
This may allow easier location of a specific tags when multiple occurrences of a tag name occur in the tag file. Note, however, that this could potentially more than double the size of the tag file.
The actual form of the qualified tag depends upon the language from which the tag was derived (using a form that is most natural for how qualified calls are specified in the language). For C++ and Perl, it is in the form "class::member"; for Eiffel and Java, it is in the form "class.member".
Note: Using backslash characters as separators forming qualified name in PHP. However, in tags output of Universal-ctags, a backslash character in a name is escaped with a backslash character.
Inquire the output of --list-extras option for the other minor extras.
A name associated with an extra can be used as alternative to a one-letter flag. Some minor extras have no one-letters flag. In that case, names must be specified anyway. See "Letters and names" for more details.
Specifies "all" as <LANG> to apply the parameter flags to all languages; all extras are enabled with specifying '*' as the parameter flags. If specifying nothing as the parameter flags ("--extras-all="), all extras are disabled. These two combinations are useful for testing.
Check the output of the --list-extras=<LANG> option for the extras of specific language <LANG>.
Specify "all" as <LANG> to apply the parameter flags to all fields; all fields are enabled with specifying '*' as the parameter flags. If specifying nothing as the parameter flags ("--fields-all="), all extras are disabled. These two combinations are useful for testing.
The parameter flags is a set of one-letter flags, each representing one type of extension field to include. Each letter or group of letters may be preceded by either '+' to add it to the default set, or '-' to exclude it. In the absence of any preceding '+' or '-' sign, only those fields explicitly listed in flags will be included in the output (i.e. overriding the default set). All fields are included if '*' is given. This option is ignored if the option --format=1 (legacy tag file format) has been specified.
This --fields= option is for controlling fields common in all languages (or language-independent fields). Universal-ctags also supports language-specific fields. (See "Language-specific fields and extras" about the concept). Use --fields-<LANG>= option for controlling them.
The meaning of major fields is as follows (one-letter flag/name):
Check the output of the --list-fields option for the other minor fields.
A name associated with a field can be used as alternative to a one-letter flag. Some minor fields have no one-letters flag. In that case, names must be specified anyway. See "Letters and names" for more details.
Universal-ctags provides an alternative way to control this option, with the "F/fileScope" extra, and recommends users to use the extra. However, this extra can cause issues. See ctags-incompatibilities(7).
Specify '*' as the parameter to include all kinds implemented in <LANG> in the output. Furthermore if "all" is given as <LANG>, specification of the parameter kinds affects all languages defined in ctags-universal. Giving "all" makes sense only when '*' is given as the parameter kinds.
As an example for the C language, in order to add prototypes and external variable declarations to the default set of tag kinds, but exclude macros, use "--c-kinds=+px-d"; to include only tags for functions, use "--c-kinds=f".
A name associated with a kind can be used as alternative to a one-letter flag. See "Letters and names" for more details.
If appropriate support is available from the runtime library of your C compiler, then the file name pattern may contain the usual shell wildcards common on Unix (be sure to quote the option parameter to protect the wildcards from being expanded by the shell before being passed to ctags-universal). You can determine if shell wildcards are available on your platform by examining the output of the --list-features option, which will include "wildcards" in the compiled feature list; otherwise, the file name patterns are matched against file names using a simple textual comparison.
When mapping a file extension with --langmap option, it will first be unmapped from any other languages. (--map-<LANG> option provides more fine-grained control.)
If the first character in a map is a plus sign ('+'), then the extensions and file name patterns in that map will be appended to the current map for that language; otherwise, the map will replace the current map. For example, to specify that only files with extensions of .c and .x are to be treated as C language files, use "--langmap=c:.c.x"; to also add files with extensions of .j as Java language files, specify "--langmap=c:.c.x,java:+.j". To map makefiles (e.g. files named either "Makefile", "makefile", or having the extension ".mak") to a language called "make", specify "--langmap=make:([Mm]akefile).mak". To map files having no extension, specify a period not followed by a non-period character (e.g. ".", "..x", ".x.").
To clear the mapping for a particular language (thus inhibiting automatic generation of tags for that language), specify an empty extension list (e.g. "--langmap=fortran:"). To restore the default language mappings for a particular language, supply the keyword "default" for the mapping. To specify restore the default language mappings for all languages, specify "--langmap=default".
Note that file name patterns are tested before file extensions when inferring the language of a file. This order of Universal-ctags is different from Exuberant-ctags. See ctags-incompatibilities(7) for the background of this incompatible change.
The actual list of files for which tags will be generated depends upon the language extension mapping in effect (see the --langmap option). Note that the most of all languages, including user-defined languages, are enabled unless explicitly disabled using this option. Language names included in list may be any built-in language or one previously defined with --langdef. The default is "all", which is also accepted as a valid argument. See the --list-languages option for a list of the all (built-in and user-defined) language names.
Note --languages= option works cumulative way; the option can be specified with different arguments multiple times in a command line.
An extra can be enabled or disabled with --extras= for common extras in all languages, or --extras-<LANG>= for the specified language. These option takes one-letter flag or name as a parameter for specifying an extra.
The meaning of columns are as follows:
A field can be enabled or disabled with --fields= for common extras in all languages, or --fields-<LANG>= for the specified language. These option takes one-letter flag or name as a parameter for specifying a field.
The meaning of columns are as follows:
Following characters are used for representing types.
The representation of this field and the output format used in "--output-format=json" are still experimental.
This option prints only LETTER, DESCRIPTION, and ENABLED fields of --list-kinds-full output. However, the presentation of ENABLED column is different from that of --list-kinds-full option; "[off]" follows after description if the kind is disabled, and nothing follows if enabled. The most of all kinds are enabled by default.
The critical weakness of this option is that this option does not print the name of kind. Universal-ctags introduces --list-kinds-full because it considers that names are important.
This option does not work with --machinable nor --with-list-header.
Each kind of tag recorded in the tag file is represented by a one-letter flag, or name. They are also used to filter the tags placed into the output through use of the --kinds-<LANG> option.
The meaning of columns are as follows:
However, Exuberant-ctags does not separate the kinds of C and C++. Enabling/disabling kindX in C language enables/disables a kind in C++ language having the same name with kindX. To emulate this behavior in Universal-ctags, a concept named "master parser" is introduced. Enabling/disabling some kinds are synchronized under the control of a master language.
$ ctags --kinds-C=+'{local}' --list-kinds-full \
| grep -E '^(#|C\+\+ .* local)'
#LANGUAGE LETTER NAME ENABLED REFONLY NROLES MASTER DESCRIPTION
C++ l local yes no 0 C local variables
$ ctags --kinds-C=-'{local}' --list-kinds-full \
| grep -E '^(#|C\+\+ .* local)'
#LANGUAGE LETTER NAME ENABLED REFONLY NROLES MASTER DESCRIPTION
C++ l local no no 0 C local variables
You see "ENABLED" field of "local" kind of C++ language is changed Though "local" kind of C language is enabled/disabled. If you swap the languages, you see the same result.
Each language listed is disabled if followed by "[disabled]". To use the parser for such a language, specify the language as an argument of --languages=+ option.
This option does not work with --machinable nor --with-list-header.
To list the file extensions or file name patterns individually, use --list-map-extensions or --list-map-patterns option. See the --langmap option, and "SOURCE FILES", above.
This option does not work with --machinable nor --with-list-header.
The meaning of columns are as follows:
In ctags-universal, more than one language can map to a file name pattern or file extension (N:1 map). Alternatively, --langmap option handle only 1:1 map, only one language mapping to one file name pattern or file extension. A typical N:1 map is seen in C++ and ObjectiveC language; both languages have a map to ".h" as a file extension.
A file extension is specified by preceding the extension with a period (e.g. ".c"). A file name pattern is specified by enclosing the pattern in parentheses (e.g. "([Mm]akefile)"). A prefixed plus ('+') sign is for adding, and minus ('-') is for removing. No prefix means replacing the map of <LANG>.
Unlike --langmap, extension (or pattern) is not a list. --map-<LANG> takes one extension (or pattern). However, the option can be specified with different arguments multiple times in a command line.
ctags-universal searches pathname in optlib path list first. If ctags-universal cannot find a file or directory in the list, ctags-universal reads a file or directory at the specified pathname.
If a file is specified, it should contain one option per line. If a directory is specified, files suffixed with ".ctags" under it are read in alphabetical order.
As a special case, if "--options=NONE" is specified as the first option on the command line, preloading is disabled; the option will disable the automatic reading of any configuration options from either a file or the environment (see "FILES").
As ctags-universal considers each file name in turn, it tries to determine the language of the file by applying the following three tests in order: if the file extension has been mapped to a language, if the filename matches a shell pattern mapped to a language, and finally if the file is executable and its first line specifies an interpreter using the Unix-style "#!" specification (if supported on the platform). Additionallly, if the --guess-language-eagerly option is given, heuristic testing is also performed to determine if a language parser applies. (See "Determining file language")
If a language was identified, the file is opened and then the appropriate language parser is called to operate on the currently open file. The parser parses through the file and adds an entry to the tag file for each language object it is written to handle. See "TAG FILE FORMAT", below, for details on these entries.
This implementation of ctags-universal imposes no formatting requirements on C code as do legacy implementations. Older implementations of ctags tended to rely upon certain formatting assumptions in order to help it resolve coding dilemmas caused by preprocessor conditionals.
In general, ctags-universal tries to be smart about conditional preprocessor directives. If a preprocessor conditional is encountered within a statement which defines a tag, ctags-universal follows only the first branch of that conditional (except in the special case of "#if 0", in which case it follows only the last branch). The reason for this is that failing to pursue only one branch can result in ambiguous syntax, as in the following example:
#ifdef TWO_ALTERNATIVES
struct {
#else
union {
#endif
short a;
long b;
}
Both branches cannot be followed, or braces become unbalanced and ctags-universal would be unable to make sense of the syntax.
If the application of this heuristic fails to properly parse a file, generally due to complicated and inconsistent pairing within the conditionals, ctags-universal will retry the file using a different heuristic which does not selectively follow conditional preprocessor branches, but instead falls back to relying upon a closing brace ("}") in column 1 as indicating the end of a block once any brace imbalance results from following a #if conditional branch.
ctags-universal will also try to specially handle arguments lists enclosed in double sets of parentheses in order to accept the following conditional construct:
Any name immediately preceding the "((" will be automatically ignored and the previous name will be used.
C++ operator definitions are specially handled. In order for consistency with all types of operators (overloaded and conversion), the operator name in the tag file will always be preceded by the string "operator " (i.e. even if the actual operator definition was written as "operator<<").
After creating or appending to the tag file, it is sorted by the tag name, removing identical tag lines.
When not running in etags mode, each entry in the tag file consists of a separate line, each looking like this in the most general case:
tag_name<TAB>file_name<TAB>ex_cmd;"<TAB>extension_fields
The fields and separators of these lines are specified as follows:
A few special tags are written into the tag file for internal purposes. These tags are composed in such a way that they always sort to the top of the file. Therefore, the first two characters of these tags are used a magic number to detect a tag file for purposes of determining whether a valid tag file is being overwritten rather than a source file.
Note that the name of each source file will be recorded in the tag file exactly as it appears on the command line. Therefore, if the path you specified on the command line was relative to the current directory, then it will be recorded in that same manner in the tag file. See, however, the --tag-relative option for how this behavior can be modified.
Extension fields are tab-separated key-value pairs appended to the end of the EX command as a comment, as described above. These key value pairs appear in the general form "key:value". Their presence in the lines of the tag file are controlled by the --fields option. The possible keys and the meaning of their values are as follows:
In addition, information on the scope of the tag definition may be available, with the key portion equal to some language-dependent construct name and its value the name declared for that construct in the program. This scope entry indicates the scope in which the tag was found. For example, a tag generated for a C structure member would have a scope looking like "struct:myStruct".
Vi will, by default, expect a tag file by the name "tags" in the current directory. Once the tag file is built, the following commands exercise the tag indexing feature:
Emacs will, by default, expect a tag file by the name "TAGS" in the current directory. Once the tag file is built, the following commands exercise the tag indexing feature:
For more commands, see the Tags topic in the Emacs info document.
NEdit version 5.1 and later can handle the new extended tag file format (see --format). To make NEdit use the tag file, select "File->Load Tags File". To jump to the definition for a tag, highlight the word, then press Ctrl-D. NEdit 5.1 can read multiple tag files from different directories. Setting the X resource nedit.tagFile to the name of a tag file instructs NEdit to automatically load that tag file at startup time.
Because ctags-universal is neither a preprocessor nor a compiler, use of preprocessor macros can fool ctags-universal into either missing tags or improperly generating inappropriate tags. Although ctags-universal has been designed to handle certain common cases, this is the single biggest cause of reported problems. In particular, the use of preprocessor constructs which alter the textual syntax of C can fool ctags-universal. You can work around many such problems by using the -I option.
Note that since ctags-universal generates patterns for locating tags (see the --excmd option), it is entirely possible that the wrong line may be found by your editor if there exists another source line which is identical to the line containing the tag. The following example demonstrates this condition:
int variable;
/* ... */
void foo(variable)
int variable;
{
/* ... */
}
Depending upon which editor you use and where in the code you happen to be, it is possible that the search pattern may locate the local parameter declaration in foo() before it finds the actual global variable definition, since the lines (and therefore their search patterns are identical). This can be avoided by use of the --excmd=n option.
ctags-universal has more options than ls(1).
When parsing a C++ member function definition (e.g. "className::function"), ctags-universal cannot determine whether the scope specifier is a class name or a namespace specifier and always lists it as a class name in the scope portion of the extension fields. Also, if a C++ function is defined outside of the class declaration (the usual case), the access specification (i.e. public, protected, or private) and implementation information (e.g. virtual, pure virtual) contained in the function declaration are not known when the tag is generated for the function definition. It will, however be available for prototypes (e.g. "--c++-kinds=+p").
No qualified tags are generated for language objects inherited into a class.
$HOME/.ctags.d/*.ctags
$HOMEDRIVE$HOMEPATH/ctags.d/*.ctags (on MSWindows only)
.ctags.d/*.ctags
ctags.d/*.ctags
*.ctags files in a directory are loaded in alphabetical order.
See ctags-optlib(7) for defining (or extending) a parser in a configuration file.
The official Universal-ctags web site at:
https://ctags.io/
Also ex(1), vi(1), elvis, or, better yet, vim, the official editor of ctags. For more information on vim, see the VIM Pages web site at:
http://www.vim.org/
Universal-ctags project https://ctags.io
Darren Hiebert <dhiebert@users.sourceforge.net> http://DarrenHiebert.com/
"Think ye at all times of rendering some service to every member of the human race."
"All effort and exertion put forth by man from the fullness of his heart is worship, if it is prompted by the highest motives and the will to do service to humanity."
-- From the Baha'i Writings
This version of ctags-universal (Universal-ctags) derived from the repository, known as fishman-ctags, started by Reza Jelveh.
Some parsers are taken from tagmanager of Geany (https://www.geany.org/) project.
The fishman-ctags was derived from Exuberant-ctags.
Exuberant-ctags was originally derived from and inspired by the ctags program by Steve Kirkendall <kirkenda@cs.pdx.edu> that comes with the Elvis vi clone (though virtually none of the original code remains).
Credit is also due Bram Moolenaar <Bram@vim.org>, the author of vim, who has devoted so much of his time and energy both to developing the editor as a service to others, and to helping the orphans of Uganda.
The section entitled "HOW TO USE WITH GNU EMACS" was shamelessly stolen from the info page for GNU etags.
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