Homepage: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs
Find a file corresponding to this one given a pattern
PURPOSE:
This package features a function called ff-find-other-file, which performs
the following function:
When in a .c file, find the first corresponding .h file in a set
of directories and display it, and vice-versa from the .h file.
Many people maintain their include file in a directory separate to their
src directory, and very often you may be editing a file and have a need to
visit the "other file". This package searches through a set of directories
to find that file.
THE "OTHER FILE", or "corresponding file", generally has the same basename,
and just has a different extension as described by the ff-other-file-alist
variable:
'(("\\.cc\\'" (".hh" ".h"))
("\\.hh\\'" (".cc" ".C" ".CC" ".cxx" ".cpp")))
If the current file has a .cc extension, ff-find-other-file will attempt
to look for a .hh file, and then a .h file in some directory as described
below. The mechanism here is to replace the matched part of the original
filename with each of the corresponding extensions in turn.
Alternatively, there are situations where the filename of the other file
cannot be determined easily with regexps. For example, a .c file may
have two corresponding .h files, for its public and private parts, or
the filename for the .c file contains part of the pathname of the .h
file, as between src/fooZap.cc and include/FOO/zap.hh. In that case, the
format above can be changed to include a function to be called when the
current file matches the regexp:
'(("\\.cc\\'" cc--function)
("\\.hh\\'" hh-function))
These functions must return a list consisting of the possible names of the
corresponding file, with or without path. There is no real need for more
than one function, and one could imagine the following value for cc-other-
file-alist:
(setq cc-other-file-alist
'(("\\.cc\\'" ff-cc-hh-converter)
("\\.hh\\'" ff-cc-hh-converter)
("\\.c\\'" (".h"))
("\\.h\\'" (".c" ".cc" ".C" ".CC" ".cxx" ".cpp"))))
ff-cc-hh-converter is included at the end of this file as a reference.
SEARCHING is carried out in a set of directories specified by the
ff-search-directories variable:
("." "../../src" "../include/*" "/usr/local/*/src/*" "$PROJECT/src")
This means that the corresponding file will be searched for first in
the current directory, then in ../../src, then in one of the directories
under ../include, and so on. The star is _not_ a general wildcard
character: it just indicates that the subdirectories of this directory
must each be searched in turn. Environment variables will be expanded in
the ff-search-directories variable.
If the point is on a #include line, the file to be #included is searched
for in the same manner. This can be disabled with the ff-ignore-include
variable, or by calling ff-get-other-file instead of ff-find-other-file.
If the file was not found, ff-find-other-file will prompt you for where
to create the new "corresponding file" (defaults to the current directory),
unless the variable ff-always-try-to-create is set to nil.
GIVEN AN ARGUMENT (with the ^U prefix), ff-find-other-file will get the
other file in another (the other?) window (see find-file-other-window and
switch-to-buffer-other-window). This can be set on a more permanent basis
by setting ff-always-in-other-window to t in which case the ^U prefix will
do the opposite of what was described above.
THERE ARE FIVE AVAILABLE HOOKS, called in this order if non-nil:
- ff-pre-find-hook - called before the search for the other file starts
- ff-not-found-hook - called when the other file could not be found
- ff-pre-load-hook - called just before the other file is 'loaded'
- ff-file-created-hook - called when the other file is created
- ff-post-load-hook - called just after the other file is 'loaded'
The *load-hook allow you to place point where you want it in the other
file.
CREDITS:
Many thanks go to TUSC Computer Systems Pty Ltd for providing an
environment that made the development of this package possible.
Many thanks also go to all those who provided valuable feedback throughout
the development of this package:
Rolf Ebert in particular, Fritz Knabe, Heddy Boubaker, Sebastian Kremer,
Vasco Lopes Paulo, Mark A. Plaksin, Robert Lang, Trevor West, Kevin
Pereira, Benedict Lofstedt & Justin Vallon.