1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
|
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" /><meta name="generator" content="Docutils 0.17.1: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/" />
<title>Universal Ctags Hacking Guide — Universal Ctags 0.3.0 documentation</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_static/pygments.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_static/classic.css" />
<script data-url_root="./" id="documentation_options" src="_static/documentation_options.js"></script>
<script src="_static/jquery.js"></script>
<script src="_static/underscore.js"></script>
<script src="_static/doctools.js"></script>
<link rel="index" title="Index" href="genindex.html" />
<link rel="search" title="Search" href="search.html" />
<link rel="next" title="Building ctags" href="building.html" />
</head><body>
<div class="related" role="navigation" aria-label="related navigation">
<h3>Navigation</h3>
<ul>
<li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px">
<a href="genindex.html" title="General Index"
accesskey="I">index</a></li>
<li class="right" >
<a href="building.html" title="Building ctags"
accesskey="N">next</a> |</li>
<li class="nav-item nav-item-0"><a href="#">Universal Ctags 0.3.0 documentation</a> »</li>
<li class="nav-item nav-item-this"><a href="">Universal Ctags Hacking Guide</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="document">
<div class="documentwrapper">
<div class="bodywrapper">
<div class="body" role="main">
<section id="universal-ctags-hacking-guide">
<h1>Universal Ctags Hacking Guide<a class="headerlink" href="#universal-ctags-hacking-guide" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<dl class="field-list simple">
<dt class="field-odd">Version</dt>
<dd class="field-odd"><p>Draft</p>
</dd>
<dt class="field-even">Authors</dt>
<dd class="field-even"><p>Universal Ctags developers</p>
</dd>
<dt class="field-odd">Web Page</dt>
<dd class="field-odd"><p><a class="reference external" href="https://ctags.io/">https://ctags.io/</a></p>
</dd>
</dl>
<p><a class="reference external" href="https://ctags.io/">Universal Ctags</a> (abbreviated as u-ctags) is a <em>maintained</em> implementation of
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ctags</span></code>.
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ctags</span></code> generates an index (or tag) file of language objects found in source
files for programming languages.
This index makes it easy for text editors and other tools to locate the indexed
items.</p>
<p><a class="reference external" href="http://ctags.sourceforge.net/">Exuberant Ctags</a> (e-ctags) maintained by Darren Hiebert, the ancestor of
<a class="reference external" href="https://ctags.io/">Universal Ctags</a>, improved traditional ctags with multi-language support, the
ability for the user to define new languages searched by regular expressions
(called optlib in Universal Ctags), and the ability to generate emacs-style TAGS
files.
But the activity of the project unfortunately stalled.</p>
<p><a class="reference external" href="https://ctags.io/">Universal Ctags</a> has the objective of continuing the development of <a class="reference external" href="http://ctags.sourceforge.net/">Exuberant
Ctags</a>.
Reza Jelveh <<a class="reference external" href="mailto:reza.jelveh%40gmail.com">reza<span>.</span>jelveh<span>@</span>gmail<span>.</span>com</a>> initially created a personal fork of
<a class="reference external" href="http://ctags.sourceforge.net/">Exuberant Ctags</a> on GitHub.
As interest and participation grew, it was decided to move development to a
dedicated project as <a class="reference external" href="https://ctags.io/">Universal Ctags</a>.
The goal of this project is to maintain a common/unified working space where
people interested in making ctags better can work together.</p>
<p>Some of major features of <a class="reference external" href="https://ctags.io/">Universal Ctags</a> are;</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><dl class="simple">
<dt>more numbers of improved language support</dt><dd><ul>
<li><p>new extended C/C++ language parser, etc.</p></li>
</ul>
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
<li><p>fully extended optlib (a feature to define a new language parser from a
command line)</p></li>
<li><p>interactive mode (experimental)</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The primary documents of <a class="reference external" href="https://ctags.io/">Universal Ctags</a> are man pages. Users should first
consult the <a class="reference internal" href="man/ctags.1.html#ctags-1"><span class="std std-ref">ctags(1)</span></a>, and <a class="reference internal" href="man-pages.html#man-pages"><span class="std std-ref">other man pages</span></a> if
necessary.</p>
<p>This guide, which also includes the man pages, is primarily for developers and
provides additional information to the man pages, including experimental
features.</p>
<p>This is a draft document. Proofreading and pull-requests are welcome!</p>
<div class="toctree-wrapper compound">
<ul>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="building.html">Building ctags</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="autotools.html">Building with configure (*nix including GNU/Linux)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="windows.html">Building/hacking/using on MS-Windows</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="osx.html">Building on Mac OS</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="man-pages.html">Man pages</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="man/ctags.1.html">ctags(1)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="man/tags.5.html">tags(5)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="man/ctags-optlib.7.html">ctags-optlib(7)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="man/ctags-client-tools.7.html">ctags-client-tools(7)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="man/ctags-faq.7.html">ctags-faq(7)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="man/ctags-lang-iPythonCell.7.html">ctags-lang-iPythonCell(7)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="man/ctags-lang-julia.7.html">ctags-lang-julia(7)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="man/ctags-lang-python.7.html">ctags-lang-python(7)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="man/ctags-lang-verilog.7.html">ctags-lang-verilog(7)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="man/ctags-lang-inko.7.html">ctags-lang-inko(7)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="man/ctags-lang-r.7.html">ctags-lang-r(7)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="man/ctags-lang-sql.7.html">ctags-lang-sql(7)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="man/ctags-incompatibilities.7.html">ctags-incompatibilities(7)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="man/readtags.1.html">readtags(1)</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="parsers.html">Parsers</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="parser-asm.html">Asm parser</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="parser-cmake.html">CMake parser</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="parser-cxx.html">The new C/C++ parser</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="parser-html.html">The new HTML parser</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="parser-puppetManifest.html">puppetManifest parser</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="parser-python.html">The new Python parser</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="parser-tcl.html">The new Tcl parser</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="parser-vim.html">The Vim parser</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="parser-xslt.html">XSLT parser</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="option-file.html">Option files</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="option-file.html#order-of-loading-option-files">Order of loading option files</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="option-file.html#options-pathname-option"><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">--options=PATHNAME</span></code> option</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="option-file.html#tips-for-writing-an-option-file">Tips for writing an option file</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="option-file.html#difference-from-exuberant-ctags">Difference from Exuberant Ctags</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="output-format.html">Output formats</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="output-tags.html">Changes to the tags file format</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="output-xref.html">Xref output</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="output-json.html">JSON output</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="running-multi-parsers.html">Running multiple parsers on an input file</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="running-multi-parsers.html#guest-parser-applying-a-parser-to-specified-areas-of-input-file">Guest parser: Applying a parser to specified areas of input file</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="running-multi-parsers.html#subparser-tagging-definitions-of-higher-upper-level-language">Subparser: Tagging definitions of higher (upper) level language</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="interactive-mode.html">Interactive mode</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="interactive-mode.html#generate-tags">generate-tags</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="interactive-mode.html#sandbox-submode">sandbox submode</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="news.html">Other changes</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="news.html#new-and-extended-options">New and extended options</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="news.html#incompatible-changes-in-command-line">Incompatible changes in command line</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="news.html#changes-imported-from-exuberant-ctags">Changes imported from Exuberant Ctags</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="news.html#parser-related-changes">Parser related changes</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="news.html#readtags">Readtags</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="optlib.html">Extending ctags with Regex parser (<em>optlib</em>)</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="optlib.html#regular-expression-regex-engine">Regular expression (regex) engine</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="optlib.html#regex-option-argument-flags">Regex option argument flags</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="optlib.html#overriding-the-letter-for-file-kind">Overriding the letter for file kind</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="optlib.html#generating-fully-qualified-tags-automatically-from-scope-information">Generating fully qualified tags automatically from scope information</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="optlib.html#multi-line-pattern-match">Multi-line pattern match</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="optlib.html#advanced-pattern-matching-with-multiple-regex-tables">Advanced pattern matching with multiple regex tables</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="optlib.html#scheduling-a-guest-parser-with-guest-regex-flag">Scheduling a guest parser with <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">_guest</span></code> regex flag</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="optlib.html#defining-a-subparser">Defining a subparser</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="optlib.html#translating-an-option-file-into-c-source-code-optlib2c">Translating an option file into C source code (optlib2c)</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="optscript.html">Optscript, a programming language for extending optlib parsers</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="optscript.html#preparation-for-learning">Preparation for learning</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="optscript.html#syntax-extension">Syntax extension</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="optscript.html#the-optscript-command">The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">optscript</span></code> command</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="optscript.html#optscript-in-ctags">Optscript in ctags</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="optscript.html#recipes">Recipes</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="optscript.html#difference-between-optscript-and-postscript">Difference between Optscript and PostScript</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="extending.html">Extending ctags with a parser written in C</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="parser-in-c.html">Writing a parser in C</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="internal.html">Input text stream</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="internal.html#output-tag-stream">Output tag stream</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="internal.html#tokeninfo-api">tokenInfo API</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="internal.html#multiple-parsers">Multiple parsers</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="internal.html#packcc-compiler-compiler">PackCC compiler-compiler</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="internal.html#automatic-parser-guessing-tbw">Automatic parser guessing (TBW)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="internal.html#managing-regular-expression-parsers-tbw">Managing regular expression parsers (TBW)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="internal.html#ghost-kind-in-regex-parser-tbw">Ghost kind in regex parser (TBW)</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="tips.html">Testing ctags</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tips.html#tmain-a-facility-for-testing-main-part"><em>Tmain</em>: a facility for testing main part</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tips.html#tinst-installation-test"><em>Tinst</em>: installation test</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tips.html#fussy-syntax-checking">Fussy syntax checking</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tips.html#finding-performance-bottleneck">Finding performance bottleneck</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tips.html#checking-coverage">Checking coverage</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tips.html#running-cppcheck">Running cppcheck</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="testing.html">Testing a parser</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="testing.html#units-test-facility"><em>Units</em> test facility</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="testing.html#reviewing-the-result-of-units-test">Reviewing the result of Units test</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="testing.html#semi-fuzz-fuzz-testing">Semi-fuzz(<em>Fuzz</em>) testing</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="testing.html#noise-testing"><em>Noise</em> testing</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="testing.html#chop-and-slap-testing"><em>Chop</em> and <em>slap</em> testing</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="testing.html#input-validation-for-units">Input validation for <em>Units</em></a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="testing.html#testing-examples-in-language-specific-man-pages">Testing examples in language specific man pages</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="reporting.html">Request for extending a parser (or Reporting a bug of parser)</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="reporting.html#before-reporting">Before reporting</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="reporting.html#the-content-of-report">The content of report</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="reporting.html#an-example-of-good-report">An example of good report</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="contributions.html">Contributions</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="contributions.html#basic-rules">Basic rules</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="contributions.html#before-you-start">Before You Start</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="contributions.html#developing-a-parser">Developing a parser</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="contributions.html#testing">Testing</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="contributions.html#writing-documents">Writing Documents</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="contributions.html#committing-and-submitting-a-pull-request">Committing and submitting a pull request</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="contributions.html#rules-for-reviewing-a-pull-request">Rules for reviewing a pull request</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="other-projects.html">Relationship between other projects</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="other-projects.html#other-tagging-engines">Other tagging engines</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="other-projects.html#software-using-ctags">Software using ctags</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="other-projects.html#other-interesting-ctags-repositories">Other interesting ctags repositories</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="other-projects.html#tracking-other-projects">Tracking other projects</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="developers.html">Who we are</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</section>
<div class="clearer"></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sphinxsidebar" role="navigation" aria-label="main navigation">
<div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper">
<h4>Next topic</h4>
<p class="topless"><a href="building.html"
title="next chapter">Building ctags</a></p>
<div id="searchbox" style="display: none" role="search">
<h3 id="searchlabel">Quick search</h3>
<div class="searchformwrapper">
<form class="search" action="search.html" method="get">
<input type="text" name="q" aria-labelledby="searchlabel" />
<input type="submit" value="Go" />
</form>
</div>
</div>
<script>$('#searchbox').show(0);</script>
</div>
</div>
<div class="clearer"></div>
</div>
<div class="related" role="navigation" aria-label="related navigation">
<h3>Navigation</h3>
<ul>
<li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px">
<a href="genindex.html" title="General Index"
>index</a></li>
<li class="right" >
<a href="building.html" title="Building ctags"
>next</a> |</li>
<li class="nav-item nav-item-0"><a href="#">Universal Ctags 0.3.0 documentation</a> »</li>
<li class="nav-item nav-item-this"><a href="">Universal Ctags Hacking Guide</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="footer" role="contentinfo">
© Copyright 2015, Universal Ctags Team.
Last updated on 11 Jun 2021.
Created using <a href="https://www.sphinx-doc.org/">Sphinx</a> 4.0.2.
</div>
</body>
</html>
|
