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1
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2 # Autotags
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3
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4 Autotags is a plugin that takes care of the much needed management of tags
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5 files in Vim. It will (re)generate tag files as you work while staying
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6 completely out of your way. It will even do its best to keep those tag files
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7 out of your way too. It has no dependencies and just works.
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8
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9 ## How?
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10
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11 Install Autotags like any other Vim plugin. I recommend something like
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12 [Pathogen][], so you can go:
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13
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14 cd ~/.vim/bundle
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15 hg clone https://bitbucket.org/ludovicchabant/vim-autotags
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16
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17 Then you only need to do a `:call pathogen#helptags()` to generate the
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18 documentation tags (how ironic, eh?) and you can access Autotag's help pages
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19 with `help autotags`.
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20
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21
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22 ## What?
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23
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24 In order to generate tag files, Autotags will have to figure out what's in
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25 your project. To do this, it will locate well-known project root markers like
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26 SCM folders (`.git`, `.hg`, etc.), any custom tags you define (with
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27 `autotags_project_root`), and even things you may have defined already with
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28 other plugins, like [CtrlP][].
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29
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30 If the current file you're editing is found to be in such a project, Autotags
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31 will make sure the tag file for that project is up to date. Then, as you work
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32 in files in that project, it will partially re-generate the tag file. Every
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33 time you save, it will silently, in the background, update the tags for that
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34 file.
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35
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36 Usually, ctags can only append tags to an existing tag file, so Autotags
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37 removes the tags for the current file first, to make sure the tag file is
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38 always consistent with the source code.
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39
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40 Also, Autotags is clever enough to not stumble upon itself by triggering
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41 multiple ctags processes if you save files to fast, or your project is really
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42 big.
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43
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44
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45 ## Why?
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46
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47 There are some similar Vim plugins out there ("vim-tags", "vim-autotag",
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48 "vim-automatic-ctags", etc.). They all fail on one or more of the requirements
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49 I set for myself with Autotags:
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50
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51 * No other dependency than running Vim: no Python, Ruby, or whatever.
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52 * Cross-platform: should work on at least Mac and Windows.
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53 * Incremental tags generation: don't re-generate the whole project all the
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54 time. This may be fine for small projects, but it doesn't scale.
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55 * External process management: if the ctags process is taking a long time,
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56 don't run another one because I saved the file again.
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57 * Keep the tag file consistent: don't just append the current file's tags to
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58 the tag file, otherwise you will still "see" tags for deleted or renamed
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59 classes and functions.
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60 * Automatically create the tag file: you open something from a freshly forked
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61 project, it should start indexing it automatically, just in Sublime Text or
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62 Visual Studio or any other IDE.
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63
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64 I hope Autotags will bring you as much closure as me regarding tag files. I know
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65 I don't want to think about it, and probably neither do you.
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66
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67
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68 [ctrlp]: https://github.com/kien/ctrlp.vim
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69
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