bug#43086: [PATCH] Allow tags backend to not query for TAGS file

[Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net>]

Dmitry Gutov <dgutov@yandex.ru> writes:

> Hi!
>
> On 28.08.2020 15:50, Philip K. wrote:
>
>> the xref backend for etags can be annoying at times, especially in
>> combination with other backends. This patch should improve the
>> situation, by allowing the user to configure how and when the etags
>> backend is activated. The new user option etags-query-file would allow
>> the backend to never query a TAGS file, or conditionally, depending on
>> the existence of a TAGS file (in which case it can also be automatically
>> loaded).
>
> This is a interesting patch, but it calls for some discussion:
>
> - The possible values all look pretty clever, but there are a lot of
>   them! Do we expect them all to be in demand? Ideally, I'd only leave
>   2-3 of them, to reduce the number of workflows we need to care
>   about. The rest could probably be set up in individual user
>   configurations in find-file-hook (like Projectile does).
>
> - The variable name implies it affects how etags.el works globally,
>   but the actual effect seems limited to the xref backend function. We
>   should either rename it to something like etags-xref-query-file, or
>   consider having it affect tags-completion-at-point-function as
>   well. Maybe find-tag too. But given that
>   tags-completion-at-point-function has for a long time behaved in the
>   "never query" fashion, perhaps the easiest and most
>  backward-compatible option is the former.
>
> - One current persistent annoyance is that currently
>   xref-find-references doesn't work well in many files where the xref
>   backend is the default one (etags) when ido-mode or icomplete-mode
>   are enabled because it prompts for the tags file to do identifier
>   completion. I wonder if the "no query" option will help with this,
>  too.
>
>> I could imagine this might be extended to allow an auto-generate option,
>> but that feature seems out of scope of this patch, and probably would
>> require some interoperation with project.el.
>
> Indeed. Actually, I have an old, WIP patch for tag file
> auto-generation which, yes, uses project.el. I can post it again if
> you're curious.

Hasn't this issue been resolved by `etags-regen-mode'?

-- 
	Philip Kaludercic on peregrine