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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] [--globals] [--no-globals] [--include=file]
       [--ignore-indentation] [--language=language] [--members] [--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] [--no-defines] [--globals]
       [--no-globals] [--ignore-indentation] [--language=language] [--members]
       [--no-members] [--output=tagfile] [--regex=regexp] [--update] [--help]
       [--version] file ...

DESCRIPTION
       The  etags  program is used to create a tag table file, in a format un‐
       derstood by emacs(1); the ctags program is used to create a similar ta‐
       ble  in a format understood by vi(1).  Both forms of the program under‐
       stand the syntax of C, Objective C, C++, Java, Fortran, Ada, Cobol, Er‐
       lang,  Forth,  HTML, LaTeX, Emacs Lisp/Common Lisp, Lua, Makefile, Pas‐
       cal, Perl, PHP, Postscript, Python,  Prolog,  Scheme  and  most	assem‐
       bler-like syntaxes.  Both forms read the files specified on the command
       line, and write a tag table (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 or
       is the standard output, 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.  Compressed files are supported using
       gzip  and  bzip2.  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 parsing 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 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 declara‐
	      tions, and create tags for extern variables unless  --no-globals
	      is used.

       -D, --no-defines
	      Do  not  create  tag entries for C preprocessor constant defini‐
	      tions and enum constants.	 This may  make	 the  tags  file  much
	      smaller if many header files are tagged.

       --globals
	      Create  tag  entries  for global variables in Perl and Makefile.
	      This is the default in C and derived languages.

       --no-globals
	      Do not tag global variables in C and derived  languages.	 Typi‐
	      cally this reduces the file size by one fourth.

       -i file, --include=file
	      Include  a  note in the tag file indicating that, when searching
	      for a tag, one should also consult  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  col‐
	      umn  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  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 al‐
	      together; 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 PHP.  This is the default for C  and  derived
	      languages.

       --no-members
	      Do not tag member variables.

       --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; for etags only, a file name
	      of - means standard output;  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  op‐
	      tion  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 use‐
	      ful  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 respec‐
	      tively 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 char‐
	      acter is needed inside the regular expression, it must be quoted
	      by preceding it with \.
	      The optional {language} prefix means that the tag should be cre‐
	      ated 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 con‐
	      tains a number of arguments to  the  --regex=  option,  one  per
	      line.   Lines  beginning	with  a space or tab are assumed to be
	      comments, 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]*\(ARCHITECTURE\|\	    CONFIGURA‐
	      TION\) +[^ ]* +OF/' --regex='/[ \t]*\ \(ATTRIBUTE\|ENTITY\|FUNC‐
	      TION\|PACKAGE\( BODY\)?\				      \|PROCE‐
	      DURE\|PROCESS\|TYPE\)[ \t]+\([^ \t(]+\)/\3/'

	      Tag  TCL	files  (this last example shows the usage of a tagreg‐
	      exp):
	      --lang=none --regex='/proc[ \t]+\([^ \t]+\)/\1/'

	      A regexp can be preceded by {lang}, thus restricting it to match
	      lines  of	 files of the specified language.  Use etags --help to
	      obtain a list of the recognized languages.  This feature is par‐
	      ticularly	 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 filenames and the --regex option.

       -u, --update
	      Update tag entries for files specified on command line,  leaving
	      tag entries for other files in place.  Currently, this is imple‐
	      mented 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 output.  Only ctags accepts this op‐
	      tion.

       -h, -H, --help
	      Print  usage  information.   Followed  by	 one  or  more	--lan‐
	      guage=LANG prints detailed information about how tags are creat‐
	      ed 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)  1992,  1999,  2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007,
       2008, 2009 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  per‐
       mission notice identical to this one.

       Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this docu‐
       ment into another language, under the  above  conditions	 for  modified
       versions,  except that this permission notice may be stated in a trans‐
       lation approved by the Free Software Foundation.

GNU Tools			   23nov2001			      etags(1)
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