romainl/tags.md

## tags.md

      
    Raw
  

              tags.md
            
          
    Tags

Setup

Tell Vim to look for tags files:

in the directory of the current file,
in the working directory,
and in every parent directory, recursively,

with:
set tags=./tags;,tags;


See what tags files are found:
:echo tagfiles()


Tell Vim to look for a specific tags file (standard library, reference implementation, etc.) in addition to the standard ones define above:
set tags+=/path/to/somewhere/tags

better:
" after/ftplugin/foo.vim
setlocal tags+=/path/to/somewhere/tags

Usage

Jump to the tag under the cursor if there's only one, or list possible targets:
g<C-]>

Preview the tag under the cursor if there's only one, or list possible targets:
<C-w>g<C-}>

Jump to the given tag if there's only one, or list possible targets:
:tj[ump] foo

Preview the given tag if there's only one, or list possible targets:
:ptj[ump] bar

Force regex search if you don't want to type the whole name or don't know the exact capitalization:
:tj /foo

Climb up the "tag stack":
<C-t>

And that's about it. See :help tags for more information and write your own mappings if you don't like the default bindings.
Management

Use a super basic timer:
$ while sleep 3; do ctags -R .; done

Or a nicer one:
$ watch -n 3 ctags -R .


Use a file watcher:
$ ag -l | entr ctags -R .
$ ag -l --js path/to/dir | entr ctags -R .
$ ls dist/js/bundle.*.js | entr ctags -R .


Use a file watcher in a loop:
$ ctagsd


Use Git hooks.

Use Vim, manually
:!ctags -R .


Use Vim, automatically:
augroup ctags
    autocmd!
    autocmd BufWritePost <pattern> call if executable('ctags') | system('killall ctags && ctags -R . &') | endif
augroup END

Yes, it runs ctags in the background. Yes it's non-blocking. No, it doesn't use the new "async" features. Yes, this has been possible for a very long time. No, one didn't need to be a Vim wizard to come up with that. No, I don't think that's a good idea but it can obviously be done with minimum effort so, there.
Large projects

WIP

My Vim-related gists.