ctags cannot open option file ".ctags"

Question

ctags is not seeing my ~/.ctags file, so I've tried specifying it using the --options option but it always says it cannot find the file, no matter where I put it:

$ touch .ctags && ctags --options=.ctags
ctags: cannot open option file ".ctags" : No such file or directory

I'm using the latest homebrew version (5.8) and I've tried using HEAD as well.

Thanks!

Answer 1

The fix for me was to change .ctags to .ctags.cnf. I have no explanation why this worked. But it seems that Exuberant Ctags requires an extension, I changed it to .ctags.bak it it works as well.

Answer 2

You have to specify the full path to the ctags options: /Users/your_username/.ctags instead of ~/.ctags