Ctags

Utilize Ctags with Textadept.

Install this module by copying it into your ~/.textadept/modules/ directory or Textadept's modules/ directory, and then putting the following in your ~/.textadept/init.lua:

require('ctags')

There will be a "Search > Ctags" menu.

There are four ways to tell Textadept about tags files:

1. Place a tags file in a project's root directory. This file will be used in a tag search from any of that project's source files.
2. Add a tags file or list of tags files to the ctags module for a project root key. This file(s) will be used in a tag search from any of that project's source files. For example: ctags['/path/to/project'] = '/path/to/tags'.
3. Add a tags file to the ctags module. This file will be used in any tag search. For example: ctags[#ctags + 1] = '/path/to/tags'.
4. As a last resort, if no tags files were found, or if there is no match for a given symbol, a temporary tags file is generated for the current file and used.

Textadept will use any and all tags files based on the above rules.

Generating Ctags

This module can also help generate Ctags files that can be read by Textadept. This is typically configured per-project. For example, a C project might want to generate tags for all files and subdirectories in a src/ directory:

ctags.ctags_flags['/path/to/project'] = '-R src/'

A Lua project has a couple of options for generating tags:

-- Use ctags with some custom flags for improved Lua parsing.
ctags.ctags_flags['/path/to/project'] = ctags.LUA_FLAGS

Then, invoking Search > Ctags > Generate Project Tags menu item will generate the tags file.

Key Bindings

Windows and Linux	macOS	Terminal	Command
Search
F12	F12	F12	Go to Ctag
Shift+F12	⇧F12	S-F12	Go to Ctag...

Fields defined by ctags

ctags.LUA_FLAGS

A set of command-line options for ctags that better parses Lua code. Combine this with other flags in ctags.ctags_flags if Lua files will be parsed.

ctags.ctags

Path to the ctags executable. The default value is 'ctags'.

Functions defined by ctags

_G.textadept.editing.autocompleters.ctag()

Autocompleter function for ctags. (Names only; not context-sensitive). Does not remove duplicates.

ctags.goto_tag(tag)

Jumps to the source of string tag or the source of the word under the caret. Prompts the user when multiple sources are found.

Parameters:

• tag: The tag to go to the source of.

Return:

• whether or not a tag was found and jumped to.

Tables defined by ctags

ctags.ctags_flags

Map of project root paths to string command-line options, or functions that return such strings, that are passed to ctags when generating project tags.

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