CTAGS
Symbol lookup

Ctags generates an index (or tag) file of language objects found in source files that allows these items to be quickly and easily located by Vedit.

The "ctags" facility is useful to programmers that are working on large programs, particularly programs that consist of many files. Once setup, you can place the cursor on any function (subroutine) or symbol name and select {MISC, More macros, Utags} or press a hot-key (default: <Ctrl-F12>) to lookup the symbol. VEDIT will open the file in which the symbol is declared, with the cursor on the symbol's declaration. You can then press another hot-key (default: <Ctrl-Shift-F12>)) to return to the original file/location.

As supplied, ctags.vdm supports C, Assembly language and Fortran modules. Item types supported include functions, macros and constants.

Ctags.vdm also supports a user specified symbol "search" string for other languages. It could also be used for non-programming applications.

Ctags.vdm works similar to the WILDFILE macro. At the files field of the dialog box, you enter a wildcard specification such as "*.c", "*.h" and "*.asm". It then processes all specified files in the directory given in directory field, and optionally in all subdirectories. After that, you can append more files from another directory and so on.

There is no limit in the database size. VEDIT's ctags facility therefore supports the biggest projects, even those with thousands of files in many subdirectories.

The format of the generated tags file is identical to that produced by the UNIX "ctags" utility. Therefore, as an alternative to the ctags.vdm macro, you should be able to produce the tags file with any utility that is "ctags" compatible.

The "ctags" facility consists of two macro files:

For details on using ctags facility, see the following topics:

Ctags.vdm - Setting up tags database
Utags.vdm - Lookup from tags database
Setting up User Menu and Keyboard shortcuts