---
name: "update-otags"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "otags"
version: "4.05.1-3"
release: "Debian 12 (Bookworm)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/update-otags"
---

# update-otags(8)

update system-wide tags tables

## NAME

update-otags - update system-wide tags tables

## SYNOPSIS

**update-otags**

## DESCRIPTION

**update-otags** runs **otags** on the system-wide installed  **OCaml** files (in ocamlc -where). This makes it possible to use the tag-features of  **vi/vim** and  **Emacs** to jump to the declarations of library functions in the system-wide installed  *.mli* files to read the documentation that is hopefully embedded in those files.

To use the system-wide tags table in  **Emacs,** use  *M-x visit-tags-table \<RET\> /var/lib/otags/TAGS.* To load it by default, customize *tags-table-list* to contain */var/lib/otags* (by using *M-x customize-variable,* for instance).

For **vim** use  *:set tags=/var/lib/otags/tags* or add *set tags=/var/lib/otags/tags* to your *.vimrc.*

One would typically update the system-wide tags tables with a cron-job once per week or day.

## FILES

- /var/lib/otags/{TAGS,tags}

  System-wide tags table for **Emacs** and  **vi/vim.**

## BUGS

See the sections KNOWN PROBLEMS and MISSING FEATURES in the **[otags(1)](/otags/1.md)** manual.

## CREDITS

**update-otags** appeared first in Debian Etch (see Debian bug #341939). It has been added to the contrib directory with an improved man page in  **otags** 3.12.2.

## AUTHOR

Hendrik Tews \<otags at askra.de\>

## SEE ALSO

[**otags**(1)](/otags/1.md)