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[VTAGS - VHDL Tags Genrator]
V T A G S
Version: 0.10 Updated: 5th Dec 2009 Source: [ vtags-0.10.tar.gz ] Platform: Linux, Win32
VTAGS is a command line application that will generate a VI(M) compatible tags file for VHDL source files. This will read standard VHDL'87 files. It should also parse later VHDL ('93,etc...) but it does only take account of the basics.

It also groups the items that it finds by architecture. That is it adds the architecture that it finds them in to the extended field at the end of the tags line.

This app has been tested on Win32 systems and linux systems. It has been compiled with multiple compilers and compiles warning free.

VTAGS is released under the Artistic Licence.

Thanks Jun Ma for the patch to the build.

U s a g e
 vtags [-r] [-q] [-e<extension list>] [-f <file_path>] <path>

  -R  Recursive.
  -r  Recursive.
    This will cause the program to search the sub-directories as
    well.

  -e  Extension List.
    This is a comma separated list of file types that will be
    searched. The default is vhdl,vhd. These will be searched both
    as upper and lower case.

  -f  Tags File.
    The TAGS file to generate. If this is not present it will
    default to "./tags". If name = '-' then its written to stdout.

  -u  Unsorted.
    This will generate an unsorted tags file.

  -l  Format level.
    Level 1 not extensions, just the basic tags.
    Level 2 add the extensions (;") stuff.

  <path>  Search Path List
    This is comma separated list of directories that are to be
    searched for the source files to be parsed. If the -r flag is
    present then all the sub-directories are searched.
B u i l d i n g
  1. Uncompress the tar file in to a directory.
  2. cd to that directory.
  3. (cc) -c *.c
    where (cc) is your compiler.
  4. (cc) (object_name_flag)vtags.exe *.(object_extension)
    For VC: cl /Fevtags.exe *.obj
    gcc: gcc -ovtags *.o
  5. run it to your hearts content.
L i m i t a t i o n s
It currently does not parse "COMPONENTS". I am still working out if it should. I don't use them and I am not sure how a tags file would help with coding them.

Also CTAGS uses a better algorithm for deciding what the tags file line is. It is better at creating a unique search path. But, I have the problem that VHDL is not case dependant so the line is hard to make unique and correct.

K n o w n   I s s u e s
My quick linked-list sort is broken. It it fast enough on medium to large designs (under 30 seconds, 60M+ VHDL source). So spending much more time on fixing the algorithm does not seem worth it. If there is a serious problem with this let me know and I will try and find what I got wrong. PS: the algorithm is one that I created myself, So maybe it just does not work in this situation.