ctags doesn't undestand -e option (no exuberant tags option)

Question

When I type ctags -e it returns an error saying it doesn't know that command line option. I thought it should know about exuberant tags because etags works on cli.

Also, I recieve the following error: ctags: unrecognized option --langdef=arc and I have the following in my ~/.ctags file:

--langdef=arc
--langmap=arc:.arc
--regex-arc=/^\(def ([a-zA-Z1-9_*\/<>-]+)/\1/
--regex-arc=/^\(= ([a-zA-Z1-9_*\/<>-]+)/\1/
--regex-scheme=/^\(xdef ([a-zA-Z1-9_*\/<>-]+)/\1/

Answer 1

It turns out that my system has basic ctags installed, but not exuberant-ctags. so even though some etags command existed, exuberant-ctags is still different in some way or another.

sudo apt-get install ctags fixed the problem

Answer 2

etags is short for "Emacs tags", not "exuberant ctags". It sounds like you have Emacs' etags command installed, not exuberant-ctags'.

Answer 3

On windows, Emacs comes with etags and a similar executable file called ctags. In the emacs distribution, etags.exe = ctags.exe in the bin directory. You should download Exuberant Ctags from http://ctags.sourceforge.net/ Only exuberant ctags recognize -e option.