universal-ctags

Universal-Ctags packaged as an installable snap for Linux

About

Ctags parses source code to produce an index file, mapping the names of symbols, like functions, classes, and variables, to the locations where they are defined. This index is used by editors like Vim and Emacs to enable features like 'go to definition'. Universal Ctags (https://ctags.io/) is an active fork of the venerable Exuberant Ctags (http://ctags.sourceforge.net/, last release 2009), that adds additional features, including support for more languages. This is the snap package of universal-ctags (https://snapcraft.io/universal-ctags), which installs the application binary on any Linux distribution. **Usage** When installed, this snap provides executable `universal-ctags`, and alias `ctags`. ctags [options] [target files or directories] eg. `ctags -R .` (`-R` or `--recurse` to recursively search directories), or `ctags -R --languages=python --exclude=.git src/`. This snap does not install the man pages. See the online universal-ctags man pages at http://docs.ctags.io/en/latest/man/ctags.1.html for options and usage details. **Limitations** Compared to universal-ctags installed using apt, or compiled from source, this snap has some limitations, introduced by snap security restrictions. 1. Source files cannot be scanned if they are: * Outside the user's $HOME directory, or * In a top-level hidden directory in $HOME, eg. `~/.src`. Lower-level hidden directories, eg. `~/proj/.src`, can be scanned. 2. Ctags usually reads config from the following directories: * The user's `~/.ctags.d/` is read as expected. * The current directory's `ctags.d` is not read by default, but the '--options' arg can be used to read from it. * The current directory's `.ctags.d` cannot be read. 3. Configuration in other places, specified using `--options` or `--options-maybe`, will not be read if they are outside the user's HOME, or in a top-level hidden directory. 4. Tag files written using '-f' options or similar may not be outside the user's $HOME directory, nor in a top-level hidden file or directory. You may be able to work around this by using `-f -` and redirecting stdout to the required location. 5. The universal-ctags man pages are not installed. But you can see them online at http://docs.ctags.io/en/latest/man/ctags.1.html 6. The 'etags' executable alias (which defaults to Emacs style tags files) is not installed. Use `ctags --output-format=etags` or `ctags -e` instead. If these or other issues cause you problems, please file an issue at https://github.com/universal-ctags/ctags-snap/issues.

Additional information

Project

Publisher
Jonathan Hartley
License
GPL-2.0-only (free software)What this license lets you do
Homepage
ctags.io

Install

Available via
Snap (3) · Debian · Ubuntu · openSUSE · Slackware · Nixpkgs
All 8 packagings

Snap Store, Snap Store (Candidate build), Snap Store (Nightly build), Debian, Ubuntu, Nixpkgs, openSUSE, Slackware

About this data

Sources
8 independent sources agree
Catalog data as of
October 12, 2026
How each source lists it (8)
SourceNameVersionBuilt byLicenseDescription
Snap Storeuniversal-ctags0.2024-05-27+09:10:28+653ca9204—GPL-2.0+Universal-Ctags packaged as an installable snap for Linux
Snap Store (Candidate build)universal-ctags0.2024-11-04+00:16:42+54bc92200—GPL-2.0+Universal-Ctags packaged as an installable snap for Linux
Snap Store (Nightly build)universal-ctags0.2026-06-05+09:57:35+0361a1da5—GPL-2.0+Universal-Ctags packaged as an installable snap for Linux
Debianuniversal-ctags5.9.20210829.0-2Distribution build—build tag file indexes of source code definitions
Ubuntuuniversal-ctags6.2.1-1Distribution build—build tag file indexes of source code definitions
Nixpkgsuniversal-ctags6.2.1Distribution buildGPL-2.0-or-laterMaintained ctags implementation
openSUSEuniversal-ctags6.2.1Distribution buildGPL-2.0-onlyA program to generate language tag files used with various editors
Slackwareuniversal-ctags6.2.1-2Distribution build—universal-ctags (Universal Ctags)
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