CODEWITHSUNDEEP
vimctags
IonutC
IonutC

Reputation: 75

Vim :tnext doesn't move cursor to the next tag

I tried to use ctags with vim and I discovered the following problem:

First, let's see the following picture: enter image description here If I press C-] then the cursor will move on line 7 as you can see here: enter image description here

But if I type the command :tn the cursor is still on line 7 instead of line 14, where the next tag is. Why is this happening and how can I solve this? If you look at the following picture enter image description here on the bottom left it shows: "tag 2 of 3" so that means :tn works, I think, but the cursor doesn't move.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 362

Answers (1)

romainl
romainl

Reputation: 196596

If you look at your tags file you can see that your three definitions for fc() are identical:

fc  pam.cpp /^        void fc() {$/;"   f   class:A
fc  pam.cpp /^        void fc() {$/;"   f   class:B
fc  pam.cpp /^        void fc() {$/;"   f   class:C

By default, Ctags doesn't provide a line:column information to Vim, it merely provides a search pattern. Since it's the same search pattern for all three tags, Vim always performs the same search and always ends up at the same spot. It doesn't matter if you use :tag fc, <C-]>, :tnext, :tselect or any of their friends.

With the -n option, Ctags outputs line numbers instead of search patterns:

fc  pam.cpp 14;"    f   class:B
fc  pam.cpp 21;"    f   class:C
fc  pam.cpp 7;" f   class:A

That's better because Vim can now jump to the correct line but the tags are ordered incorrectly. One way to fix this would be to use the -u option:

A   pam.cpp 5;" c   file:
fc  pam.cpp 7;" f   class:A
B   pam.cpp 12;"    c   file:
fc  pam.cpp 14;"    f   class:B
C   pam.cpp 19;"    c   file:
fc  pam.cpp 21;"    f   class:C

In conclusion, you should generate your tags with the -n and -u options. Something like:

$ ctags -Rnu .

See $ man ctags.

Upvotes: 3

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