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JSON output

Format

JSON output goes to standard output by default. Each generated tag line is represented as an object.

$./ctags --output-format=json /tmp/foo.py
{"_type": "tag", "name": "Foo", "path": "/tmp/foo.py", "pattern": "/^class Foo:$/", "kind": "class"}

Object keys which do not start with _ are normal fields and map directly to the fields of the default tags file format.

Keys that have names starting with _ are a JSON format meta field. Currently only _type is used and it can have the values tag for a normal tag or ptag for a pseudo tag.

JSON output is still under development and it is expected the format will change in the future. To give applications a chance to handle these changes ctags uses a pseudo tag, JSON_OUTPUT_VERSION, for specifying the format version.

$ ./ctags --extras='p' --pseudo-tags=JSON_OUTPUT_VERSION  --output-format=json /tmp/foo.py
{"_type": "ptag", "name": "JSON_OUTPUT_VERSION", "path": "0.0", "pattern": "in development"}
{"_type": "tag", "name": "Foo", "path": "/tmp/foo.py", "pattern": "/^class Foo:$/", "kind": "class"}
...

The JSON output format is newly designed and does not need to support the historical quirks of the default tags file format.

Kind long names are always used instead of kind letters. Enabling the k and/or K fields enables the z {kind} field internally.

Scope information is always split into scope kinds and scope names. Enabling the s field enables the Z {kind} and p {scopeKind} fields internally. As for all kinds, long names are used for printing ; kind letters are never used.

If you need kind letters, open an issue at the GitHub site of Universal-ctags.

Field introspection

Values for the most of all fields are represented in JSON string type. However, some of them are represented in integer type and/or boolean type. What kind of JSON data types used in a field can be known with the output of --list-fields option:

$ ./ctags --list-fields #LETTER NAME ENABLED LANGUAGE XFMT JSTYPE DESCRIPTION N name on NONE TRUE s-- tag name (fixed field) .. f file on NONE TRUE --b File-restricted scoping i inherits off NONE TRUE s-b Inheritance information ... n line off NONE TRUE -i- Line number of tag definition ...

JSTYPE column tells the data type of fields.

s
string
i
integer
b
boolean

For example, The value for "inherits" field is represented in the string or boolean type.