Jump to function definition in vim

Question

How can I jump to to a function definition using vim  For example with Visual Assist  I can type Alt g under a function and it opens a context menu listing the files with definitions   How can I do something like this in vim

User · Accepted Answer

Use ctags   Generate a tags file  and tell vim where it is using the  tags command   Then you can just jump to the function definition using Ctrl-   There are more tags tricks and tips in this question

User · Answer

Another common technique is to place the function name in the first column  This allows the definition to be found with a simple search   int main int argc  char  argv                  The above function could then be found with   main inside the file or with  grep -r   main    c in a directory  As long as code is properly indented the only time the identifier will occur at the beginning of a line is at the function definition   Of course  if you aren t using ctags from this point on you should be ashamed of yourself  However  I find this coding standard a helpful addition as well

User · Answer

After generating ctags  you can also use the following in vim    tag  lt f name gt    Above will take you to function definition

User · Answer

Use gd or gD while placing the cursor on any variable in your program    gd  will take you to the local declaration  gD  will take you to the global declaration    more navigation options can be found in here   Use cscope for cross referencing large project such as the linux kernel

User · Answer

g  does a decent job without ctags being set up   That is  type g    or just   - see below  to search for the word under the cursor  in this case  the function name   Then press n to go to the next  or Shift-n for previous  occurrence   It doesn t jump directly to the definition  given that this command just searches for the word under the cursor  but if you don t want to deal with setting up ctags at the moment  you can at least save yourself from having to re-type the function name to search for its definition   --Edit-- Although I ve been using g  for a long time  I ve recently discovered two shortcuts for these shortcuts    a    will jump to the next occurrence of the word under the cursor   No need to type the g  the  goto  command in vi      b    goes to the previous occurrence  in similar fashion   N and n still work  but     is often very useful to start the search initially in the reverse direction  for example  when looking for the declaration of a variable under the cursor

User · Answer

To second Paul s response  yes  ctags  especially exuberant-ctags  http   ctags sourceforge net    is great   I have also added this to my vimrc  so I can use one tags file for an entire project   set tags tags

User · Answer

As Paul Tomblin mentioned you have to use ctags  You could also consider using plugins to select appropriate one or to preview the definition of the function under cursor   Without plugins you will have a headache trying to select one of the hundreds overloaded  doAction  methods as built in ctags support doesn t take in account the context - just a name    Also you can use cscope and its  find global symbol  function  But your vim have to be compiled with  cscope support which isn t default one option of build   If you know that the function is defined in the current file  you can use  gD  keystrokes in a normal mode to jump to definition of the symbol under cursor   Here is the most downloaded plugin for navigation http   www vim org scripts script php script id 273   Here is one I ve written to select context while jump to tag http   www vim org scripts script php script id 2507

User · Answer

Install cscope  It works very much like ctags but more powerful  To go to definition  instead of Ctrl      do Ctrl       g  Of course you may use both concurrently  But with a big project  say Linux kernel   cscope is miles ahead

User · Answer

1- install exuberant ctags  If you re using osx  this article shows a little trick  http   www runtime-era com 2012 05 exuberant-ctags-in-osx-107 html  2- If you only wish to include the ctags for the files in your directory only  run this command in your directory    ctags -R   This will create a  tags  file for you   3- If you re using Ruby and wish to include the ctags for your gems  this has been really helpful for me with RubyMotion and local gems that I have developed   do the following   ctags --exclude  git --exclude    log  -R    bundle show --paths    credit  https   coderwall com p lv1qww  Note that I omitted the -e option which generates tags for emacs instead of vim   4- Add the following line to your    vimrc  set autochdir  set tags    tags     Why the semi colon  http   vim wikia com wiki Single tags file for a source tree    5- Go to the word you d like to follow and hit ctrl       if you d like to go back  use ctrl o  source  https   stackoverflow com a 53929 226255

User · Answer

If everything is contained in one file  there s the command gd  as in  goto definition    which will take you to the first occurrence in the file of the word under the cursor  which is often the definition

User · Answer

TL DR  Modern way is to use COC for intellisense-like completion and one or more language servers  LS  for jump-to-definition  and way way more   For even more functionality  but it s not needed for jump-to-definition  you can install one or more debuggers and get a full blown IDE experience  Quick-start   install vim-plug to manage your VIM plug-ins add COC and  optionally  Vimspector at the top of    vimrc  call plug begin   Plug  neoclide coc nvim     branch    release   Plug  puremourning vimspector  call plug end     quot  key mappings example nmap  lt silent gt  gd  lt Plug gt  coc-definition  nmap  lt silent gt  gD  lt Plug gt  coc-implementation  nmap  lt silent gt  gr  lt Plug gt  coc-references   quot  there s way more  see   help coc-key-mappings en    call  source  MYVIMRC   PlugInstall to reload VIM config and download plug-ins restart vim and call  CocInstall coc-marketplace to get easy access to COC extensions call  CocList marketplace and search for language servers  e g     type python to find coc-jedi  type php to find coc-phpls  etc     optionally  see install gadget py --help for available debuggers  e g       install gadget py --enable-python    install gadget py --force-enable-php  etc   You can jump to definition with gd  to interface implementation with gD  find all references with gr  More keybindings in  help coc-key-mappings en  Full answer  Language server  LS  is a separate standalone application  one for each programming language  that runs in the background and analyses your whole project in real time exposing extra capabilities to your editor  any editor  not only vim   You get things like   namespace aware tag completion jump to definition jump to next   previous error find all references to an object find all interface implementations rename across a whole project documentation on hover snippets  code actions  formatting  linting and more     Communication with language servers takes place via Language Server Protocol  LSP   Both nvim and vim8  or higher  support LSP through plug-ins  the most popular being Conquer of Completion  COC   List of actively developed language servers and their capabilities is available on Lang Server website  Not all of those are provided by COC extensions  If you want to use one of those you can either write a COC extension yourself or install LS manually and use the combo of following VIM plug-ins as alternative to COC   LanguageClient - handles LSP deoplete - triggers completion as you type  Communication with debuggers takes place via Debug Adapter Protocol  DAP   The most popular DAP plug-in for VIM is Vimspector  Language Server Protocol  LSP  was created by Microsoft for Visual Studio Code and released as an open source project with a permissive MIT license  standardized by collaboration with Red Hat and Codenvy   Later on Microsoft released Debug Adapter Protocol  DAP  as well  Any language supported by VSCode is supported in VIM  I personally recommend using COC   language servers provided by COC extensions   ALE for extra linting  but with LSP support disabled to avoid conflicts with COC    Vimspector   debuggers provided by Vimspector  called  quot gadgets quot     following VIM plug-ins  call plug begin   Plug  neoclide coc nvim  Plug  dense-analysis ale  Plug  puremourning vimspector  Plug  scrooloose nerdtree  Plug  scrooloose nerdcommenter  Plug  sheerun vim-polyglot  Plug  yggdroot indentline  Plug  tpope vim-surround  Plug  kana vim-textobj-user       Plug  glts vim-textobj-comment  Plug  janko vim-test  Plug  vim-scripts vcscommand vim  Plug  mhinz vim-signify  call plug end    You can google each to see what they do  Also  pipe character   separates VIM commands put in one line which makes it perfect to set up plug-in dependencies  i e  vim-textobj-comment doesn t work without vim-textobj-user so if installation of vim-textobj-user fails the rest of the line isn t executed  Here pipe is escaped with backslash   because it s in a new line but for VIM it s still a one-liner

[function] Jump to function definition in vim

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