How to parse the tagname and kind from output of ctags -R -x #2042

liuchengxu · 2019-03-12T06:02:37Z

The name of the parser: any one

The command line you used to run ctags:

$ ctags --options=NONE -R -x

The content of input file:

$ git clone https://github.com/liuchengxu/vista.vim
$ cd vista.vim
$ ctags --options=NONE -R -x

The tags output you are not satisfied with:

I have no idea how to parse the output of ctags -R -x. I want to filter the tagname and scope from the output of ctags -R -x, but don't know how to do properly.

The tags output you expect:

It's viable if there is also a specific format for ctags -R:

{tagname}<Tab>{tagfile}<Tab>{tagaddress}[;"<Tab>{tagfield}..]

The version of ctags:

$ ctags --version
Universal Ctags 0.0.0(1208e45), Copyright (C) 2015 Universal Ctags Team
Universal Ctags is derived from Exuberant Ctags.
Exuberant Ctags 5.8, Copyright (C) 1996-2009 Darren Hiebert
  Compiled: Mar 11 2019, 17:01:27
  URL: https://ctags.io/
  Optional compiled features: +wildcards, +regex, +iconv, +option-directory, +xpath, +case-insensitive-filenames, +packcc

How do you get ctags binary:

brew install ctags on macOS

The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered:

masatake · 2019-03-12T06:32:47Z

I don't understand your question.

Are you satisfied with the output of ctags -R? If yes, why don't you use -x option?
I would like to know the background of the use case more to answer your question.

I don't know vim script. However, as far as reading vim.c, the vim parser of ctags, it doesn't fill scope fields. If you think it is a bug, tell us the vim parser fills scope field for what kind of input.

liuchengxu · 2019-03-12T07:10:46Z

Sorry for not making it clear.

why use -x option?

Although ctags -R would meet my need, I don't want to the generate the tag file, so I use the -x option.

my use case.

Currently vista.vim only supports show the tags in some file, but some users would like to show all the tags in a project(liuchengxu/vista.vim#14). I tried to add ctags -R support, but don't know how to extract these output correctly.

In a word, how to extract vista#util#Trim, function, 18, autoload/vista/util.vim, vista#util#Trim(str) respectively?

ctags -R -x:

...
vista#util#Trim  function     18 autoload/vista/util.vim function! vista#util#Trim(str)
vista#util#Truncate function     13 autoload/vista/util.vim function! vista#util#Truncate(msg) abort
vista#util#Warning function     90 autoload/vista/util.vim function! vista#util#Warning(msg) abort
vista#viewer#Display function     90 autoload/vista/viewer.vim function! vista#viewer#Display(data) abort
vista#viewer#Render function     86 autoload/vista/viewer.vim function! vista#viewer#Render(data) abort
vista#viewer#prefixes function     94 autoload/vista/viewer.vim function! vista#viewer#prefixes() abort

masatake · 2019-03-12T07:53:35Z

With -o - option, ctags emits the output to stdout like:

[yamato@slave]/tmp/vista.vim% u-ctags -R -o - | head 
/	ftplugin/vista.vim	/^nnoremap <buffer> <silent> \/    :<c-u>call vista#finder#fzf#Run()<CR>$/;"	m
<CR>	ftplugin/vista.vim	/^nnoremap <buffer> <silent> <CR> :<c-u>call vista#cursor#FoldOrJump()<CR>$/;"	m
Commands	README.md	/^### Commands$/;"	S
Contributing	README.md	/^## Contributing$/;"	s
Features	README.md	/^## Features$/;"	s
Installation	README.md	/^## Installation$/;"	s
Introduction	README.md	/^## Introduction$/;"	s
License	README.md	/^## License$/;"	s
NeoVim	README.md	/^#### NeoVim$/;"	t
Options	README.md	/^### Options$/;"	S

You can customize the output with --_xformat= option:

 u-ctags -R -x --_xformat='TAGNAME:%N @@@ KIND:%K !!! LINE:%n +++ INPUT-FILE:%F === PATTERN:%P' | head
TAGNAME:/ @@@ KIND:map !!! LINE:38 +++ INPUT-FILE:ftplugin/vista.vim === PATTERN:/^nnoremap <buffer> <silent> \/    :<c-u>call vista#finder#fzf#Run()<CR>$/
TAGNAME:<CR> @@@ KIND:map !!! LINE:37 +++ INPUT-FILE:ftplugin/vista.vim === PATTERN:/^nnoremap <buffer> <silent> <CR> :<c-u>call vista#cursor#FoldOrJump()<CR>$/
TAGNAME:Commands @@@ KIND:subsection !!! LINE:101 +++ INPUT-FILE:README.md === PATTERN:/^### Commands$/
TAGNAME:Contributing @@@ KIND:section !!! LINE:164 +++ INPUT-FILE:README.md === PATTERN:/^## Contributing$/
TAGNAME:Features @@@ KIND:section !!! LINE:37 +++ INPUT-FILE:README.md === PATTERN:/^## Features$/
TAGNAME:Installation @@@ KIND:section !!! LINE:69 +++ INPUT-FILE:README.md === PATTERN:/^## Installation$/
TAGNAME:Introduction @@@ KIND:section !!! LINE:25 +++ INPUT-FILE:README.md === PATTERN:/^## Introduction$/
TAGNAME:License @@@ KIND:section !!! LINE:168 +++ INPUT-FILE:README.md === PATTERN:/^## License$/
TAGNAME:NeoVim @@@ KIND:subsubsection !!! LINE:90 +++ INPUT-FILE:README.md === PATTERN:/^#### NeoVim$/
TAGNAME:Options @@@ KIND:subsection !!! LINE:113 +++ INPUT-FILE:README.md === PATTERN:/^### Options$/

See http://docs.ctags.io/en/latest/news.html?highlight=--_xformat#customizing-xref-output .

If you don't want to write a parser, --output-format=json can be a choice:

u-ctags -R --output-format=json | head
{"_type": "tag", "name": "/", "path": "ftplugin/vista.vim", "pattern": "/^nnoremap <buffer> <silent> \\/    :<c-u>call vista#finder#fzf#Run()<CR>$/", "kind": "map"}
{"_type": "tag", "name": "<CR>", "path": "ftplugin/vista.vim", "pattern": "/^nnoremap <buffer> <silent> <CR> :<c-u>call vista#cursor#FoldOrJump()<CR>$/", "kind": "map"}
{"_type": "tag", "name": "Commands", "path": "README.md", "pattern": "/^### Commands$/", "kind": "subsection"}
{"_type": "tag", "name": "Contributing", "path": "README.md", "pattern": "/^## Contributing$/", "kind": "section"}
{"_type": "tag", "name": "Features", "path": "README.md", "pattern": "/^## Features$/", "kind": "section"}
{"_type": "tag", "name": "Installation", "path": "README.md", "pattern": "/^## Installation$/", "kind": "section"}
{"_type": "tag", "name": "Introduction", "path": "README.md", "pattern": "/^## Introduction$/", "kind": "section"}
{"_type": "tag", "name": "License", "path": "README.md", "pattern": "/^## License$/", "kind": "section"}
{"_type": "tag", "name": "NeoVim", "path": "README.md", "pattern": "/^#### NeoVim$/", "kind": "subsubsection"}
{"_type": "tag", "name": "Options", "path": "README.md", "pattern": "/^### Options$/", "kind": "subsection"}

liuchengxu · 2019-03-12T08:07:27Z

Thank you! I would try the --_xformat= option, since ctags installed by brew doesn't support --output-format=json by default, whether brew install ctags or brew install --HEAD universal-ctags/universal-ctags/universal-ctags .

masatake · 2019-03-12T08:29:15Z

@KazuakiM, isn't it possile to link ctags to libjansson.so.4?
u-ctags has json output mode. It is available if u-ctags is linked to libjansson.
Tell me if I should report this as a new issue on homebrew-universal-ctags repo.

masatake · 2019-03-12T08:31:00Z

@liuchengxu, tags file, the native format of ctags can be parserd with functions in readtags.c.
readtags command and python-ctags3, a python library uses readtags.c.

KazuakiM · 2019-03-16T09:44:13Z

@masatake
Hi, homebrew-universal-ctags supportes jansson.

$ brew info universal-ctags
universal-ctags/universal-ctags/universal-ctags: HEAD
Maintained ctags implementation
https://github.com/universal-ctags/ctags
Conflicts with:
  ctags (because this formula installs the same executable as the ctags formula)
/usr/local/Cellar/universal-ctags/HEAD-1b747b3 (325 files, 4.3MB) *
  Built from source on 2019-02-02 at 16:45:17
From: https://github.com/universal-ctags/homebrew-universal-ctags/blob/master/universal-ctags.rb
==> Dependencies
Build: autoconf ✔, automake ✔, pkg-config ✔
Optional: jansson ✔, libyaml ✔
==> Options
--with-jansson
        Build with jansson support
--with-libyaml
        Build with libyaml support
--without-doc
        Compile without man pages
--without-xml
        Compile without libxml2
--HEAD
        Install HEAD version
==> Caveats
Under some circumstances, emacs and ctags can conflict. By default,
emacs provides an executable `ctags` that would conflict with the
executable of the same name that ctags provides. To prevent this,
Homebrew removes the emacs `ctags` and its manpage before linking.
However, if you install emacs with the `--keep-ctags` option, then
the `ctags` emacs provides will not be removed. In that case, you
won't be able to install ctags successfully. It will build but not
link.

liuchengxu · 2019-03-16T10:34:40Z

@KazuakiM Good catch, I missed the help. JSON support needs the option --with-jansson.

$ brew reinstall --with-jansson universal-ctags/universal-ctags/universal-ctags

liuchengxu closed this as completed Mar 12, 2019

liuchengxu changed the title ~~How to parse the tagname and scope from output of ctags -R -x~~ How to parse the tagname and kind from output of ctags -R -x Mar 12, 2019

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How to parse the tagname and kind from output of ctags -R -x #2042

How to parse the tagname and kind from output of ctags -R -x #2042

liuchengxu commented Mar 12, 2019

masatake commented Mar 12, 2019

liuchengxu commented Mar 12, 2019 •

edited

masatake commented Mar 12, 2019

liuchengxu commented Mar 12, 2019

masatake commented Mar 12, 2019

masatake commented Mar 12, 2019

KazuakiM commented Mar 16, 2019

liuchengxu commented Mar 16, 2019

How to parse the tagname and kind from output of ctags -R -x #2042

How to parse the tagname and kind from output of ctags -R -x #2042

Comments

liuchengxu commented Mar 12, 2019

masatake commented Mar 12, 2019

liuchengxu commented Mar 12, 2019 • edited

masatake commented Mar 12, 2019

liuchengxu commented Mar 12, 2019

masatake commented Mar 12, 2019

masatake commented Mar 12, 2019

KazuakiM commented Mar 16, 2019

liuchengxu commented Mar 16, 2019

liuchengxu commented Mar 12, 2019 •

edited