Exuberant ctags with vim

Exuberant ctags allow you to jump to definition of the method / object you have under your cursor. Here is how to set them up:

1. Run sudo apt install exuberant-ctags

2. Create .ctags file in your home directory

   This file is for storing configuration, mine looks like this:

    --exclude=.git
    --exclude=node_modules
    --exclude=log
    --exclude=vendor
    --exclude=tmp
    --exclude=legacy       <-- very nice for working with pytorch

3. Navigate to a directory with code you are working on.

4. This directory will be searched automatically. Create a file listing other directories you would like to index.

   In root of the fastai library I have a .srclist file containing the following line:

    /home/radek/workspace/pytorch

5. Run ctags -R -L .srclist .
   • -R tells ctags to recursively look at directories within the current directory
   • -L tells ctags to look at the listed locations

6. You are now ready to start using ctags in vim

   • ctrl+] takes you to the tag under cursor

   • ctrl+t takes you back

     For tags resolving to multiple source locations

   • :tnext or :tn takes you to the next location
   • :tprev or :tp takes you to the previous loation
   • :ts lists all source locations
7. There are many ways to refresh the tags when code changes. Three popular choices:
   • rerunning the command manually
   • using vim-tags
   • adding a crontab entry, for example 15 * * * * ctags -R -L .srclist ~/workspace/fastai/fastai

Suggestions from Jeremy Howard

• :tag is handy and supports tab completion

• mapping ctrl-] to :ts is a good idea

  This is what you need to add to .vimrc for this:

    noremap <C-]> g<C-]>
  

  (gives you a list for multiple defs and jumps immediately for single def)