command: etags --declarations --language=c++ base.h child.h base.h: class base { int bar; } child.h: class child final : public base { int foo; } TAGS file: base.h,32 class base 1,0 int bar;2,13 child.h,0 If I delete the "final" keyword from child.h, as such: class child : public base { int foo; } The tags are generated correctly: mstiaszny@5057-desktop:~/src/etags-test$ cat TAGS base.h,32 class base 1,0 int bar;2,13 child.h,33 class child 1,0 int foo;2,28 I did some step-through debugging and created this patch that does indeed allow tags to be generated for final classes: mstiaszny@5057-desktop:~/src/emacs/emacs-27.1/lib-src$ diff etags.c etags.c.orig 3733,3735d3732 < else if (structdef == stagseen && !cjava && (strncmp(lp - 1, "final", 5) == 0)) { < lp += 4; < } However, that is almost certainly not the correct way to fix this; this is only here to be a guide for the maintainer. Bug #43203 - https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=43203 maybe be a symptom of the same underlying issue. --- info from M-x report-emacs-bug; probably not relevant, since this is an etags problem --- In GNU Emacs 27.1 (build 1, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.24.23) of 2020-10-26 built on 5057-desktop System Description: Ubuntu 14.04.6 LTS Configured features: XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG SOUND DBUS GSETTINGS GLIB NOTIFY INOTIFY GNUTLS LIBXML2 FREETYPE XFT ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS GTK2 X11 XDBE XIM MODULES THREADS PDUMPER Important settings: value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8 locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix Major mode: Info Minor modes in effect: tooltip-mode: t global-eldoc-mode: t electric-indent-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t font-lock-mode: t auto-composition-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t buffer-read-only: t column-number-mode: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t Load-path shadows: None found. Features: (shadow emacsbug sendmail novice sort gnus-cite shr-color color mail-extr gnus-async gnus-bcklg qp gnus-agent gnus-srvr gnus-score score-mode nnvirtual nntp gnus-ml gnus-msg disp-table nndoc gnus-cache gnus-dup gnus-art mm-uu mml2015 mm-view mml-smime smime dig gnus-sum shr svg dom gnus-group gnus-undo gnus-start gnus-cloud nnimap nnmail mail-source utf7 netrc nnoo parse-time iso8601 gnus-spec gnus-int gnus-range gnus-win gnus nnheader crm org ob ob-tangle ob-ref ob-lob ob-table ob-exp org-macro org-footnote org-src ob-comint org-pcomplete pcomplete org-list org-faces org-entities noutline outline org-version ob-emacs-lisp ob-core ob-eval org-table ol org-keys org-compat advice org-macs org-loaddefs find-func cal-menu calendar cal-loaddefs debbugs-gnu pcase edmacro kmacro add-log debbugs soap-client warnings rng-xsd rng-dt rng-util xsd-regexp xml compile comint ansi-color ring autoload radix-tree tar-mode arc-mode archive-mode cus-edit cus-start cus-load wid-edit cl-extra mm-archive message dired dired-loaddefs format-spec rfc822 mml mml-sec epa derived gnus-util rmail rmail-loaddefs text-property-search time-date mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-utils lisp-mnt help-mode gnutls network-stream url-http mail-parse rfc2231 rfc2047 rfc2045 mm-util ietf-drums mail-prsvr url-gw nsm rmc puny url-cache url-auth url url-proxy url-privacy url-expand url-methods url-history url-cookie url-domsuf url-util mailcap epg epg-config misearch multi-isearch mule-util jka-compr info vc-git diff-mode easy-mmode term/xterm xterm finder-inf rx package easymenu browse-url url-handlers url-parse auth-source cl-seq eieio eieio-core cl-macs eieio-loaddefs password-cache json subr-x map url-vars seq byte-opt gv bytecomp byte-compile cconv cl-loaddefs cl-lib tooltip eldoc electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel term/x-win x-win term/common-win x-dnd tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list replace newcomment text-mode elisp-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page tab-bar menu-bar rfn-eshadow isearch timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core term/tty-colors frame minibuffer cl-generic cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese eucjp-ms cp51932 hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese composite charscript charprop case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev obarray cl-preloaded nadvice loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote threads dbusbind inotify dynamic-setting system-font-setting font-render-setting move-toolbar gtk x-toolkit x multi-tty make-network-process emacs) Memory information: ((conses 16 557294 194503) (symbols 48 24597 2) (strings 32 127018 26928) (string-bytes 1 3504683) (vectors 16 33787) (vector-slots 8 406071 52780) (floats 8 6497 1337) (intervals 56 5924 5924) (buffers 1000 37) (heap 1024 30911 9014))