Re: [Ctags] Emacs M-. finds argument variable instead of function name (lisp)

[Darren H. <dhi...@us...>]

On Tue, 23 Mar 2004, Aubrey Jaffer wrote:

> My TAGS file has over 10000 lines.  Many of the functions indexed by
> it have arguments named "obj".  When I try to find function-names
> containing obj, "M-. obj" serves me up every function taking an obj
> argument.
> 
> The entries in TAGS look like:
> 
>   (define-function vi:trim-n (?obj ?n)^?vi:trim-n^A1110,37381
> 
> But tags produced by etags (GNU Emacs 21.2) look like:
> 
>   (define-function vi:trim-n ^?vi:trim-n^A1110,37381

I don't believe the tag functionality of Emacs/etags has ever been
carefully thought out. This leads to the problem you encountered.
Notice the redundancy of the etags-produced TAGS file you cite. What
is the point of having the name, and only the name, in two different
fields? I put extra context information in the first field, which is
leading to the problem you describe. I wish I could find some
documentation on what the intended format of Emacs-style TAGS is.

> How do I get Ctags to leave out the argument lists?

Apply the attached patch, which will truncate it for vi-style tags
files also.

-- 
Darren Hiebert
http://DarrenHiebert.com
http://ctags.sourceforge.net