NAME
    etags, ctags - generate tag file for Emacs, vi

SYNOPSIS
    etags [-aCDGImRVh] [-i file] [-l language]
    [-o tagfile] [-r regexp]
    [--append] [--no-defines] [--no-globals] [--include=file]
    [--ignore-indentation] [--language=language] [--members]
    [--output=tagfile] [--regex=regexp] [--no-regex]
    [--ignore-case-regex=regexp] [--help] [--version] file ...

    ctags [-aCdgImRVh] [-BtTuvwx] [-l language]
    [-o tagfile] [-r regexp]
    [--append] [--backward-search] [--cxref] [--defines] [--forward-search]
    [--globals] [--ignore-indentation] [--language=language] [--members]
    [--output=tagfile] [--regex=regexp] [--ignore-case-regex=regexp]
    [--typedefs] [--typedefs-and-c++] [--update] [--no-warn] [--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, LaTeX, Emacs Lisp/Common Lisp,  makefiles,  Pascal,  Perl,
    Postscript, Python, Prolog, Scheme and most assembler-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. Files specified with absolute file  names
    will be recorded with absolute file names. 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 guess-
    es 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, --defines
    Create tag entries for C preprocessor constant definitions and
    enum constants, too. This is the default behavior for etags.

    -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. This is the default
    behavior for ctags.

    -g, --globals
    Create tag entries for global variables in C, C++, Objective C,
    Java, and Perl. This is the default behavior for etags.

    -G, --no-globals
    Do not tag global variables. Typically this reduces the file
    size by one fourth. This is the default behavior for ctags.

    -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. This options is only accepted by
    etags.

    -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).

    -m, --members
    Create tag entries for variables that are members of structure-
    like constructs in C++, Objective C, Java.

    -M, --no-members
    Do not tag member variables. This is the default behavior.

    --packages-only
    Only tag packages in Ada files.

    -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

    --ignore-case-regex=regexp
    Make tags based  on regexp matching for each line of the files
    following this option, in addition to the  tags made with the
    standard parsing based on language. When using --regex, case is
    significant, while it is not with  --ignore-case-regex. May be
    freely intermixed with filenames and the -R option. The regexps
    are cumulative, i.e. each option will add to the previous  ones.
    The regexps are of the form:
    /tagregexp[/nameregexp]/

    where tagregexp is used to match the lines that must be tagged.
    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, augmented with inter-
    vals of the form \{m,n\}, as in ed or grep.
    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\( BODY\)?\      \|PROCEDURE\|PRO-
    CESS\|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 recognised 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.

    -t, --typedefs
    Record typedefs in C code as tags. Since this is the default
    behaviour 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 behaviour
    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 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.

    -w, --no-warn
    Suppress warning messages about duplicate  entries.  The  etags
    program does not check for duplicate entries, so this option is
    not allowed with it.

    -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.

    -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 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

    Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
    under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
    any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
    Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

    This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
    Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document  sepa-
    rately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the li-
    cense to the document, as described in section 6  of the license.  A
    copy of  the license is included in thegfdl(1) man page, and in the
    section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License" in the Emacs manual.