Mercurial > emacs
annotate etc/ETAGS.EBNF @ 52400:b32a475b367f
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author | Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org> |
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date | Mon, 01 Sep 2003 15:45:46 +0000 |
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1 -*- indented-text -*- |
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2 |
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3 This file contains two sections: |
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4 |
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5 1) An EBNF (Extended Backus Normal Form) description of the format of |
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6 the tags file created by etags.c and interpreted by etags.el; |
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7 2) A discussion of tag names and implicit tag names. |
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9 ====================== 1) EBNF tag file description ===================== |
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11 Productions created from current behaviour to aid extensions |
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12 Francesco Potorti` <pot@gnu.org> 2002 |
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13 ---------------- |
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14 |
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16 |
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18 |
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19 DEL ::= #x7f /* pattern terminator */ |
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20 |
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21 SOH ::= #x01 /* name terminator */ |
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22 |
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23 regchar ::= [^#x0a#x0c#x7f] /* regular character */ |
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24 |
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25 regstring ::= { regchar } /* regular string */ |
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26 |
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27 unsint ::= [0-9] { [0-9] } /* non-negative integer */ |
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28 |
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29 |
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30 |
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31 tagfile ::= { tagsection } /* a tags file */ |
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32 |
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33 tagsection ::= FF LF ( includesec | regularsec ) LF |
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34 |
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35 includesec ::= filename ",include" [ LF fileprop ] |
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36 |
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37 regularsec ::= filename "," [ unsint ] [ LF fileprop ] { LF tag } |
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38 |
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39 filename ::= regchar regstring /* a file name */ |
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40 |
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42 |
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43 tag ::= directtag | patterntag |
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44 |
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47 patterntag ::= pattern DEL [ tagname SOH ] position |
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48 |
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49 pattern ::= regstring /* a tag pattern */ |
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50 |
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51 tagname ::= regchar regstring /* a tag name */ |
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52 |
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54 |
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55 realposition ::= "," unsint | unsint "," | unsint "," unsint |
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56 |
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57 ==================== end of EBNF tag file description ==================== |
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58 |
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59 |
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60 |
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61 ======================= 2) discussion of tag names ======================= |
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62 |
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63 - WHAT ARE TAG NAMES |
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64 Tag lines in a tags file are usually made from the above defined pattern |
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65 and by an optional tag name. The pattern is a string that is searched |
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66 in the source file to find the tagged line. |
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67 |
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68 - WHY TAG NAMES ARE GOOD |
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69 When a user looks for a tag, Emacs first compares the tag with the tag |
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70 names contained in the tags file. If no match is found, Emacs compares |
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71 the tag with the patterns. The tag name is then the preferred way to |
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72 look for tags in the tags file, because when the tag name is present |
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73 Emacs can find a tag faster and more accurately. These tag names are |
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74 part of tag lines in the tags file, so we call them "explicit". |
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75 |
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76 - WHY IMPLICIT TAG NAMES ARE EVEN BETTER |
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77 When a tag line has no name, but a name can be deduced from the pattern, |
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78 we say that the tag line has an implicit tag name. Often tag names are |
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79 redundant; this happens when the name of a tag is an easily guessable |
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80 substring of the tag pattern. We define a set of rules to decide |
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81 whether it is possible to deduce the tag name from the pattern, and make |
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82 an unnamed tag in those cases. The name deduced from the pattern of an |
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83 unnamed tag is the implicit name of that tag. |
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84 When the user looks for a tag, and Emacs founds no explicit tag names |
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85 that match it, Emacs then looks for an tag whose implicit tag name |
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86 matches the request. etags.c uses implicit tag names when possible, in |
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87 order to reduce the size of the tags file. |
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88 An implicit tag name is deduced from the pattern by discarding the |
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89 last character if it is one of ` \f\t\n\r()=,;', then taking all the |
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90 rightmost consecutive characters in the pattern which are not one of |
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91 those. |
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92 |
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93 ===================== end of discussion of tag names ===================== |