Best way to get a cross-reference listing...

Best way to get a cross-reference listing...

[brian.auld]

Howdy,

I've made the push the past week, and feel that I've gotten over the initial emacs hump, and now feel comfortable sticking with it. I was coming from an intermediate vi and vslick background.

A couple questions on things I haven't figured out how to do well. 

(1) Cross-referencing
---------------------
I'm focussed on the linux kernel tree, mostly drivers. If I want to see all cross-references to a C symbol, so far I've found that M-x grep-find works the best. The problem is that I can't control what window the 'grep-find' results are displayed in. I usually have multiple windows open at one time, and want to display the result in a specific window. If I go to that window, and then enter the M-x grep-find command, the results are displayed in another window ... usually one that I don't want to be overwritten. I can always move buffer contents around later, but it's a pain.

Does anyone have any suggestions on (a) how to target a window with M-x grep-find, or an alternate way to cross-reference a code tree.

(2) etags
---------
I find if I try to etag the entire linux kernel tree using for example:

find . -name "*.[chCH]" | xargs etags -o kernel-tags

the tags never seem to be complete. What I end up doing is running something similar to the above for a bunch of sub-trees within the kernel that are of interest to me. Does anyone know why the above command doesn't seem to work for the entire kernel tree? Am I using the wrong command? Is there a different way to get a complete tags file?

Thanks,

-- Brian

Re: Best way to get a cross-reference listing...

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: brian.auld@adic.com
> Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 07:38:45 -0700
> 
> Does anyone have any suggestions on (a) how to target a window with
> M-x grep-find, or an alternate way to cross-reference a code tree.

Download and install the GNU Id-utils package, and then use the 
"M-x gid" command instead.  Not only is it _much_ faster than
grep-find, but it also knows about the syntax of C (and other
programming languages, so it will never show you false hits due
to a substring that matched.  It will also automatically search
for the symbol at point as the default, and keep the results of
each search in a separate buffer, so you could consult them again
later.

As for the problem of the window that pops up in seemingly random
places, this is actually a feature, and my advice is to get used to
it: Emacs was not designed for rigid position of its windows.
However, you could make that window pop in a different frame (see
the variables `special-display-regexps' and
`special-display-buffer-names', for more about this feature).

> I find if I try to etag the entire linux kernel tree using for example:
> 
> find . -name "*.[chCH]" | xargs etags -o kernel-tags
> 
> the tags never seem to be complete.

That's wrong usage: you don't need xargs.  Try this instead:

  find . -name "*.[chCH]" | etags -o kernel-tags -

(and I'd also include *.y files in the pattern, btw).

Re: Best way to get a cross-reference listing...

[Kai Großjohann]

brian.auld@adic.com writes:

> (2) etags
> ---------
> I find if I try to etag the entire linux kernel tree using for example:
>
> find . -name "*.[chCH]" | xargs etags -o kernel-tags
>
> the tags never seem to be complete.

Yeah.  xargs reads a number of filenames, then executes etags, then
reads another bunch of filenames, executes etags again.

The last bunch overwrites the previous TAGS files.

etags has an option to append to the previous TAGS file.  Maybe you
have to remove the old one before running the find command.
-- 
file-error; Data: (Opening input file no such file or directory ~/.signature)

RE: Best way to get a cross-reference listing...

[brian.auld]

Thanks for your valuable feedback. I have another question below.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eli Zaretskii [mailto:eliz@elta.co.il]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 5:25 AM
> To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> Subject: Re: Best way to get a cross-reference listing...
> 
> <--- cut ---->
>
> Download and install the GNU Id-utils package, and then use the
> "M-x gid" command instead.  


I downloaded and installed gid on my linux box. However, an 'M-x gid' results in a [no-match] beeeeep. Is there a step I'm missing??

>
> <--- cut ---->

Thanks again,

Brian

Re: Best way to get a cross-reference listing...

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: brian.auld@adic.com
> Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 06:35:09 -0700
> 
> I downloaded and installed gid on my linux box. However, an 'M-x gid' results in a [no-match] beeeeep. Is there a step I'm missing??

You need to install id-utils.el somewhere where Emacs will find it
(along your load-path) and add this line to your ~/.emacs init file:

 (autoload 'gid "id-utils" "Interface to ID Utils" t)

Re: Best way to get a cross-reference listing...

[Zap Branigan]

>>>>> "brian" == brian auld <brian.auld@adic.com> writes:

    brian> Thanks for your valuable feedback. I have another question
    brian> below.
    >> -----Original Message----- From: Eli Zaretskii
    >> [mailto:eliz@elta.co.il] Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 5:25
    >> AM To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Subject: Re: Best way to get a
    >> cross-reference listing...
    >> 
    >> <--- cut ---->
    >> 
    >> Download and install the GNU Id-utils package, and then use the
    >> "M-x gid" command instead.


    brian> I downloaded and installed gid on my linux box. However, an
    brian> 'M-x gid' results in a [no-match] beeeeep. Is there a step
    brian> I'm missing??

don't forget to build your (ID) index file.  man mkid.


-- 
Consider yon black dog, ranging thru stubble and shoot,
Meseems he coileth magic meshes 
To be a sometime fetter 'round out feet.
The circle narrows.  He draws near!                        _Faust_  

Re: Best way to get a cross-reference listing...

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 14:05:28 GMT
> Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help
> From: Zap Branigan <zbranigan@volcanomail.com>
> 
> don't forget to build your (ID) index file.  man mkid.

You mean "info mkid", right?

Re: Best way to get a cross-reference listing...

[Zap Branigan]

>>>>> "Eli" == Eli Zaretskii <eliz@elta.co.il> writes:

    >> Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 14:05:28 GMT Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help
    >> From: Zap Branigan <zbranigan@volcanomail.com>
    >> 
    >> don't forget to build your (ID) index file.  man mkid.

    Eli> You mean "info mkid", right?

Yeah.  my bad.



-- 
Consider yon black dog, ranging thru stubble and shoot,
Meseems he coileth magic meshes 
To be a sometime fetter 'round out feet.
The circle narrows.  He draws near!                        _Faust_