Practical Vim, 2nd Edition

Tip 102

Meet ctags

To use Vim’s tag navigation features, we must first install ctags. Then we’ll learn how to execute the program and understand the index that it generates.

Installing Exuberant Ctags

Linux users should be able to get ctags with their package manager. For example, on Ubuntu you can install it by running the following:

$ sudo apt-get install exuberant-ctags

OS X ships with a BSD program called ctags. Beware: this is not the same thing as Exuberant Ctags. You’ll have to install Exuberant Ctags yourself. Using homebrew, it’s as easy as this:

$ brew install ctags

Check that ctags is installed and that it’s in your path by running the following:

$ ctags --version
Exuberant Ctags 5.8, Copyright (C) 1996-2009 ...