User Commands ctags(1)
NAME
ctags - create a tags file for use with ex and vi
SYNOPSIS
/usr/bin/ctags [-aBFtuvwx] [-f tagsfile] file...
/usr/xpg4/bin/ctags [-aBFuvwx] [-f tagsfile] file...
DESCRIPTION
The ctags utility makes a tags file for ex(1) from the
specified C, C++, Pascal, FORTRAN, yacc(1), and lex(1) sources. A tags file gives the locations of specified objects (in this case functions and typedefs) in a group of files. Each line of the tags file contains the object name,the file in which it is defined, and an address specifica-
tion for the object definition. Functions are searched with a pattern, typedefs with a line number. Specifiers are given in separate fields on the line, separated by SPACE or TAB characters. Using the tags file, ex can quickly find these objects' definitions.Normally, ctags places the tag descriptions in a file
called tags; this may be overridden with the -f option.
Files with names ending in .c or .h are assumed to beeither C or C++ source files and are searched for C/C++ routine and macro definitions. Files with names ending in .cc, .C, or .cxx, are assumed to be C++ source files. Files with names ending in .y are assumed to be yacc source files. Files with names ending in .l are assumed to be lex files. Others are first examined to see if they contain any
Pascal or FORTRAN routine definitions; if not, they are pro-
cessed again looking for C definitions. The tag main is treated specially in C or C++ programs. Thetag formed is created by prepending M to file, with a trail-
ing .c , .cc .C, or .cxx removed, if any, and leading pathname components also removed. This makes use of ctags
practical in directories with more than one program. OPTIONS The precedence of the options that pertain to printing is-x, -v, then the remaining options. The following options
are supported:-a Appends output to an existing tags file.
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User Commands ctags(1)
-B Uses backward searching patterns (?...?).
-f tagsfile Places the tag descriptions in a file called
tagsfile instead of tags.-F Uses forward searching patterns (/.../)
(default).-t Creates tags for typedefs.
/usr/xpg4/bin/ctags creates tags for typedefs
by default.-u Updates the specified files in tags, that is,
all references to them are deleted, and the new values are appended to the file. Beware: this option is implemented in a way that is rather slow; it is usually faster to simply rebuild the tags file.-v Produces on the standard output an index
listing the function name, file name, and page number (assuming 64 line pages). Since the output will be sorted into lexicographic order, it may be desired to run the outputthrough sort -f.
-w Suppresses warning diagnostics.
-x Produces a list of object names, the line
number and file name on which each is defined, as well as the text of that line and prints this on the standard output. This is a simple index which can be printed out as anoff-line readable function index.
OPERANDS The following file operands are supported: file.c Files with basenames ending with the .c suffixare treated as C-language source code.
file.h Files with basenames ending with the .h suffixare treated as C-language source code.
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User Commands ctags(1)
file.f Files with basenames ending with the .f suffixare treated as FORTRAN-language source code.
USAGE
The -v option is mainly used with vgrind which will be part
of the optional BSD Compatibility Package.EXAMPLES
Example 1 Producing entries in alphabetical orderUsing ctags with the -v option produces entries in an order
which may not always be appropriate for vgrind. To produceresults in alphabetical order, you may want to run the out-
put through sort -f.
example% ctags -v filename.c filename.h | sort -f > index
example% vgrind -x index
Example 2 Building a tags file To build a tags file for C sources in a directory hierarchy rooted at sourcedir, first create an empty tags file, and then run find(1)example% cd sourcedir ; rm -f tags ; touch tags
example% find . \( -name SCCS -prune -name \\
'*.c' -o -name '*.h' \) -exec ctags -u {} \;
Notice that spaces must be entered exactly as shown. ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environmentvariables that affect the execution of ctags: LANG, LC_ALL,
LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.
EXIT STATUS The following exit values are returned: 0 Successful completion.SunOS 5.11 Last change: 18 Mar 1997 3
User Commands ctags(1)
>0 An error occurred. FILES tags output tags fileATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:/usr/bin/ctags
____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | developer/linker ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
/usr/xpg4/bin/ctags
____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | system/xopen/xcu4 ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Interface Stability | Committed ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Standard | See standards(5). ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
SEE ALSO
ex(1), lex(1), vgrind(1), vi(1), yacc(1), attributes(5), environ(5), standards(5) NOTES Recognition of functions, subroutines, and procedures for FORTRAN and Pascal is done in a very simpleminded way. No attempt is made to deal with block structure; if you have two Pascal procedures in different blocks with the same name, you lose. The method of deciding whether to look for C or Pascal and FORTRAN functions is a hack.The ctags utility does not know about #ifdefs.
The ctags utility should know about Pascal types. Relies on
the input being well formed to detect typedefs. Use of -tx
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User Commands ctags(1)
shows only the last line of typedefs.SunOS 5.11 Last change: 18 Mar 1997 5