CTAGS(1)						      General Commands Manual							  CTAGS(1)

NAME

       ctags - Generates "tags" and (optionally) "refs" files

SYNOPSIS

       ctags [-stvra] filesnames...

DESCRIPTION

       ctags  generates  the  "tags" and "refs" files from a group of C source files.  The "tags" file is used by Elvis' ":tag" command, control-]
       command, and -t option.	The "refs" file is sometimes used by the ref(1) program.

       Each C source file is scanned for #define statements and global function definitions.  The name of the macro or function becomes  the  name
       of a tag.  For each tag, a line is added to the "tags" file which contains:
		     - the name of the tag
		     - a tab character
		     - the name of the file containing the tag
		     - a tab character
		     - a way to find the particular line within the file.

       The filenames list will typically be the names of all C source files in the current directory, like this:
	      $ ctags -stv *.[ch]

OPTIONS

       -t     Include  typedefs.   A  tag  will  be  generated for each user-defined type.  Also tags will be generated for struct and enum names.
	      Types are considered to be global if they are defined in a header file, and static if they are defined in a C source file.

       -v     Include variable declarations.  A tag will be generated for each variable, except for those that are declared inside the body  of  a
	      function.

       -s     Include static tags.  Ctags will normally put global tags in the "tags" file, and silently ignore the static tags.  This flag causes
	      both global and static tags to be added.	The name of a static tag is generated by prefixing the name of the declared item with  the
	      name  of	the  file  where  it is defined, with a colon in between.  For example, "static foo(){}" in "bar.c" results in a tag named
	      "bar.c:foo".

       -r     This causes ctags to generate both "tags" and "refs".  Without -r, it would only generate "tags".

       -a     Append to "tags", and maybe "refs".  Normally, ctags overwrites these files each time it is invoked.  This flag is useful  when  you
	      have  to	many  files  in  the current directory for you to list them on a single command-line; it allows you to split the arguments
	      among several invocations.

FILES

       tags   A cross-reference that lists each tag name, the name of the source file that contains it, and a way to locate a particular  line	in
	      the source file.

       refs   The  "refs" file contains the definitions for each tag in the "tags" file, and very little else.	This file can be useful, for exam-
	      ple, when licensing restrictions prevent you from making the source code to the standard C library readable by  everybody,  but  you
	      still everybody to know what arguments the library functions need.

BUGS

       ctags  is  sensitive  to  indenting and line breaks.  Consequently, it might not discover all of the tags in a file that is formatted in an
       unusual way.

SEE ALSO

       elvis(1), refs(1)

AUTHOR

       Steve Kirkendall
       kirkenda@cs.pdx.edu

																	  CTAGS(1)