Navigating through the text of large buffers, or multiple buffers, especially code.
General Navigation Facilities Included with Emacs
- BookMarks – Record locations so you can return to them later.
- MarkCommands – Common commands for manipulating and using the mark.
- GrepMode – Search via external “grep” utility.
- OccurMode – List all lines of the current buffer that match a regexp.
- CompilationMode – Navigate based on the output of compilers or any other utility that gives the line numbers.
- ImenuMode – Move quickly among definitions of functions, macros, classes, types, whatever.
- WhichFuncMode – Displays the current function name in the mode line.
- CEDET – An advanced development environment in Emacs.
Navigation by Tags
- Emacs tags – Record and locate identifier definitions in source files based on a tags file.
- Overview: EmacsTags (etags)
- Building tags files
- Navigating to tags (definitions)
- GnuGlobal – Database of code identifiers and tags.
- OpenGrok – Database of symbols and references
Navigation By Hyperlink
- EevMode – EmacsLisp hyperlinks that help navigate source code.
- LinkdMode – Embed hyperlinks in all kinds of text files
- WikiNavMode – Navigate text files via [[wiki-style]] double-bracketed links
Other Navigation Libraries
- VisibleBookmarks – Visible buffer-local bookmarks and the ability to jump between them.
- EAssist – find a function name by typing only part of it
- GonzuiForEmacs – Emacs interface of
‘gonzui’
, a source code search engine. - BackButton – an alternative method for navigation by analogy with the “back” button in a web browser
- FixmeeMode – Quickly navigate to FIXME notices in code.
- FixmeMode – Highlighting FIXME, TODO, BUG, and other warning comments, and jumping to these tags
- IdeBridge – Code completion, refactoring, and compilation for C# (only available on win32 now).
- IdUtils – Database of code identifiers.
- Icicles Imenu – Imenu with regexp completion. Like EmacsTags, works across multiple buffers, files, and saved regions.
- SimpleCallTree – A call-tree data structure that says which function calls which function. Highlights functions.
- Lisp:simple-call-tree+.el – major mode for displaying and navigating simple call tree
- XreFactory – Code completion, source browsing, and code refactoring.
- SrSpeedbar – Displays information about the current buffer, allowing you to better navigate your sources.
- CScopeAndEmacs – Look up where a symbol is defined, called, and so on.
- ToggleTest – Quickly toggle between Test files and Test Subject (Source) files
- Tree: Multi-directory find, grep, tags generation
Extension Libraries
These navigation utility libraries are useful from Emacs Lisp, but do not have user-facing interfaces.
- NavFlash – Temporarily highlight the line containing the point.
See Also