cscope(1) cscope(1)
NAME
cscope - interactively examine a C program
SYNOPSIS
cscope [option...] file...
DESCRIPTION
cscope is an interactive screen-oriented tool that allows the user to
browse through C source files for specified elements of code.
By default, cscope examines the C, lex, and yacc source files in the
current directory. cscope may also be invoked for source files named
in the command line. In either case, cscope searches the standard
directories for #include files that it does not find in the current
directory. cscope uses a symbol cross-reference table, cscope.out by
default, to locate functions, function calls, macros, variables, and
preprocessor symbols in the files.
cscope builds the symbol cross-reference table the first time it is
used on the source files for the program being browsed. On a subse-
quent invocation, cscope rebuilds the cross-reference table only if a
source file has changed or the list of source files is different. When
the cross-reference table is rebuilt, the data for the unchanged files
are copied from the old cross-reference table, which makes rebuilding
faster than the initial build.
OPTIONS
-b Build the cross-references only.
-C Ignore letter case when searching.
-c Use only ASCII characters in the cross-reference table, that is,
do not compress the data.
-d Do not update the cross-reference table
-e Suppress the command prompt between files.
-f reffile
Use reffile as the filename for the cross-reference table instead
of cscope.out.
-I incdir
Before looking in INCDIR, the directory for header files (nor-
mally /usr/include), a search should be made in incdir for any
#include files whose names do not begin with / and that are not
specified on the command line or in namefile (see below). The
#include files may be specified with either double quotes or
angle brackets. The incdir directory is searched in addition to
the current directory and the standard directories. If the option
-I appears more than once, the directories are searched in the
order they appear on the command line.
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cscope(1) cscope(1)
-i namefile
Browse through all source files whose names are listed in
namefile instead of the default file cscope.files. Filenames are
separated by spaces, tabs, or new-lines. If this option is speci-
fied, cscope ignores any files appearing on the command line.
-L Do a single search with line-oriented output when used with the
-num pattern option.
-l Line-oriented interface (see section entitled "Line-oriented
interface").
-num pattern
Go to input field num and find pattern. Counting starts from 0.
-P path
Prepend path to relative filenames in a pre-built cross-reference
file so you do not have to change to the directory where the
cross-reference file was built. This option is only valid with
the -d option.
-p n Display the last n file path components instead of the default
(1). Use 0 to not display the filename at all.
-s dir
Look in dir for additional source files. This option is ignored
if source files are given on the command line.
-T Use only the first eight characters to match against C symbols. A
regular expression containing special characters other than a
period will not match any symbol if its minimum length is greater
than eight characters.
-U Do not check file time stamps. It is assumed that no files have
changed.
-u Unconditionally build the cross-reference file. It is assumed
that all files have changed.
-V Print on the first line of screen the version number of cscope.
The -I, -p, and -T options can also be in the cscope.files file.
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cscope(1) cscope(1)
Requesting the initial search
After the cross-reference table is ready, cscope will display this
menu:
Find this C symbol:
Find this global definition:
Find functions called by this function:
Find functions calling this function:
Find this text string:
Change this text string:
Find this egrep pattern:
Find this file:
Find files #including this file:
Press the TAB key repeatedly to move to the desired input field, type
the text to search for, and then press the RETURN key.
Issuing subsequent requests
If the search is successful, any of these key combinations can be
used:
1-9 Edit the line referenced by the number which was input
SPACE Output the next lines found
+ Output the next lines found
^v Output the next lines found
- Output the next files found
^e Edit all the files output, in order
> Append list of lines to a file
| Pass all the displayed lines to a shell command
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cscope(1) cscope(1)
The following key combinations can be used to control the cscope menu
and to execute other commands:
TAB Next input field
RETURN Next input field
^n Next input field
^p Previous input field
^y Search for last text input
^b Next input field and search pattern
^f Next input field and search pattern
^c Take uppercase/lowercase into account in searching
^r Recreate cross reference table
! Start an interactive shell (input ^d to return to cscope)
^l Redraw the screen
? Output help information about cscope commands
^d Exit cscope
If the first character of the text to be searched for matches one of
the specified key combinations, type a \ before this character.
Substituting new text for old text
After the text to be changed has been typed, cscope will prompt for
the new text, and then it will display the lines containing the old
text. Select the lines to be changed with the following keys:
1-9 Select a line
* Select a line
SPACE Output next line
+ Output next line
- Output previous line
a Select all lines
^d Amend and exit from selected lines
ESCAPE Exit from edit mode without altering the marked lines
Special keys
If your terminal has arrow keys that work in vi(1), you can use them
to move around between the input fields. The up-arrow key is useful to
move to the previous input field instead of using the TAB key repeat-
edly. If you have CLEAR, NEXT, or PREV keys they will act as the ^l,
+, and - commands, respectively.
Line-oriented interface
The -l option lets you use cscope where a screen-oriented interface
would not be useful, e.g., from another screen-oriented program.
cscope prompts with >> and then expects input of a field number
(counting from 0), immediately followed by the search pattern. For
example, lmain will find the definition of the main function.
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If you only want the file to be searched once, you should use the -L
and -num pattern options.
For -l, cscope outputs the number of reference lines
cscope: 2 lines
For each reference found, cscope outputs a line consisting of the
filename, function name, line number, and line text, separated by
spaces, e.g.,
main.c main 161 main(argc, argv)
Note that the editor is not called to display a single reference,
unlike the screen-oriented interface.
cscope will quit when it detects end-of-file, or when the first char-
acter of an input line is ^d or q.
Environment variables
EDITOR
The preferred editor
INCLUDEDIRS
Colon-separated list of directories to search for #include files.
HOME Home directory, which is automatically set at login.
SHELL
Preferred shell, which defaults to sh(1).
SOURCEDIRS
Colon-separated list of directories to search for additional
source files.
TERM Terminal type, which must be a screen terminal.
TERMINFO
Full pathname of terminal information directory. If your terminal
type is not in the standard terminfo directory, see curses(3X)
and terminfo(4) for how to make your own terminal description.
TMPDIR
Temporary file directory, which defaults to /var/tmp.
VIEWER
Selects the file display program (such as pg(1)). This has prior-
ity over EDITOR.
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cscope(1) cscope(1)
VPATH
A colon-separated list of directories, each of which has the same
directory structure.
If VPATH is set, cscope searches for source files in the direc-
tories specified; if it is not set, cscope searches only in the
current directory.
NOTES
cscope recognizes function definitions of the form:
fname blank ( args ) white argdecs white {
where:
fname is the function name
blank is zero or more spaces or tabs, not including newlines
args is any string that does not contain a ", a ( or ) or a
newline
white is zero or more spaces, tabs, or newlines
argdecs are zero or more argument declarations which may include
comments and white space
It is not necessary for a function declaration to start at the begin-
ning of a line. The return type may precede the function name; cscope
will still recognize the declaration. Function definitions that devi-
ate from this form will not be recognized by cscope.
The Function column of the search output for the menu option Find
functions called by this function: will only display the first func-
tion called in the line. That is, for the following function
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cscope(1) cscope(1)
e()
{
return (f() + g());
}
the display would be
Functions called by this function: e
File Function Line
a.c f 3 return(f() + g());
Occasionally, a function definition or call may not be recognized
because of braces inside #if statements. Similarly, the use of a vari-
able may be incorrectly recognized as a definition.
A typedef name preceding a preprocessor statement will be incorrectly
recognized as a global definition, e.g.,
LDFILE *
#if AR16WR
Preprocessor statements can also prevent the recognition of a global
definition, e.g.,
char flag
#ifdef ALLOCATESTORAGE
= -1
#endif
;
A function declaration inside a function is incorrectly recognized as
a function call, e.g., the following function declaration will be
incorrectly recognized as a call to g():
f()
{
void g();
}
cscope recognizes C++ classes by looking for the class keyword, but
doesn't recognize that a struct is also a class, so it doesn't recog-
nize inline member function definitions in a structure. It also
doesn't expect the class keyword in a typedef, so it incorrectly
recognizes X as a definition in:
typedef class X * Y;
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cscope(1) cscope(1)
It also doesn't recognize operator function definitions
Bool Feature::operator==(const Feature & other)
{
...
}
FILES
cscope.files
Default file containing -I, -p and -T options and the list of
sourcefiles; another choice can be made using the -i option.
cscope.out
Symbol cross-reference table, which is put in the home directory
if it cannot be created in the current directory.
ncscope.out
Temporary file containing new cross-reference table before it
replaces the old cross-reference.
INCDIR
Standard directory for #include files (usually /usr/include).
SEE ALSO
curses(3X), terminfo(4).
The "cscope" chapter in the "Guide to Tools for Programming in C".
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