cscope(1) cscope(1)
NAME
cscope - interactively examine a C program
SYNOPSIS
cscope [options] [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 (.c and .h), lex (.l), and
yacc (.y) source files in the current directory. cscope may
also be invoked for source files named on 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, cscope.out by default,
to locate functions, function calls, macros, variables, and
preprocessor symbols in the files.
cscope builds the symbol cross-reference the first time it is
used on the source files for the program being browsed. On a
subsequent invocation, cscope rebuilds the cross-reference
only if a source file has changed or the list of source files
is different. When the cross-reference is rebuilt, the data
for the unchanged files are copied from the old cross-
reference, which makes rebuilding faster than the initial
build.
The following options can appear in any combination:
-b Build the cross-reference only.
-C Ignore letter case when searching.
-c Use only ASCII characters in the cross-
reference file, that is, do not compress the
data.
-d Do not update the cross-reference.
-e Suppress the CTRL-e command prompt between
files.
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cscope(1) cscope(1)
-F symfile Read symbol reference lines from symfile. (A
symbol reference file is created by > and >>,
and can also be read using the < command,
described under ``Issuing Subsequent
Requests,'' below.)
-f reffile Use reffile as the cross-reference file name
instead of the default cscope.out.
-I incdir Look in incdir (before looking in INCDIR, the
standard place for header files, normally
/usr/include) for any #include files whose
names do not begin with / and that are not
specified on the command line or in namefile
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 (which is searched first)
and the standard list (which is searched last).
If more than one occurrence of -I appears, the
directories are searched in the order they
appear on the command line.
-i namefile Browse through all source files whose names are
listed in namefile (file names separated by
spaces, tabs, or new-lines) instead of the
default (cscope.files). If this option is
specified, 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 ``Line-Oriented
Interface'' below).
-num pattern Go to input field num (counting from 0) and
find pattern.
-P path Prepend path to relative file names 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.
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-p n Display the last n file path components instead
of the default (1). Use 0 to not display the
file name at all.
-q Build an inverted index for quick symbol
searching. If you use this option with the -f
option, you must use -f on every call to
cscope, including when you build the cross-
reference file, because it changes the names of
the inverted index files.
-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 Check file time stamps. This option will
update the time stamp on the database even if
no files have changed.
-u Unconditionally build the cross-reference file
(assume that all files have changed).
-V Print on the first line of screen the version
number of cscope.
The -I, -p, -q, and -T options can also be in the cscope.files
file.
Requesting the Initial Search
After the cross-reference is ready, cscope will display this
menu:
Find this C symbol:
Find this function definition:
Find functions called by this function:
Find functions calling this function:
Find this text string:
Change this text string:
Find this egrep pattern:
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cscope(1) cscope(1)
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 single-character
commands can be used:
1-9 Edit the file referenced by the given line number.
SPACE Display next set of matching lines.
+ Display next set of matching lines.
- Display previous set of matching lines.
^e Edit displayed files in order.
> Write the displayed list of lines to a file.
>> Append the displayed list of lines to a file.
< Read lines from a file that is in symbol reference
format (created by > or >>), just like the -F
option.
^ Filter all lines through a shell command and
display the resulting lines, replacing the lines
that were already there.
| Pipe all lines to a shell command and display them
without changing them.
At any time these single-character commands can also be used:
TAB Move to next input field.
RETURN Move to next input field.
^n Move to next input field.
^p Move to previous input field.
^y Search with the last text typed.
^b Move to previous input field and search pattern.
^f Move to next input field and search pattern.
^c Toggle ignore/use letter case when searching.
(When ignoring letter case, search for FILE will
match File and file.)
^r Rebuild the cross-reference.
! Start an interactive shell (type ^d to return to
cscope).
^l Redraw the screen.
? Give help information about cscope commands.
^d Exit cscope.
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cscope(1) cscope(1)
Note: If the first character of the text to be searched for
matches one of the above commands, escape it by typing a \
(backslash) first.
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
these single-character commands:
1-9 Mark or unmark the line to be changed.
* Mark or unmark all displayed lines to be changed.
SPACE Display next set of lines.
+ Display next set of lines.
- Display previous set of lines.
a Mark or unmark all lines to be changed.
^d Change the marked lines and exit.
ESCAPE Exit without changing the marked lines.
! Start an interactive shell (type ^d to return to
cscope).
^l Redraw the screen.
? Give help information about cscope commands.
Special Keys
If your terminal has arrow keys that work in vi(1), you can
use them to move around the input fields. The up-arrow key is
useful to move to the previous
input field instead of using the TAB key repeatedly. 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, for example, from another
screen-oriented program.
cscope will prompt with >> when it is ready for an input line
starting with the field number (counting from 0) immediately
followed by the search pattern, for example, lmain finds the
definition of the main function.
If you just want a single search, instead of the -l option use
the -L and -num pattern options, and you won't get the >>
prompt.
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cscope(1) cscope(1)
For -l, cscope outputs the number of reference lines
cscope: 2 lines
For each reference found, cscope outputs a line consisting of
the file name, function name, line number, and line text,
separated by spaces, for example,
main.c main 161 main(argc, argv)
Note that the editor is not called to display a single
reference, unlike the screen-oriented interface.
You can use the c command to toggle ignore/use letter case
when searching. (When ignoring letter case, search for FILE
will match File and file.)
You can use the r command to rebuild the database.
cscope will quit when it detects end-of-file, or when the
first character of an input line is ^d or q.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
EDITOR Preferred editor, which defaults to vi(1).
HOME Home directory, which is automatically set at
login.
INCLUDEDIRS Colon-separated list of directories to search
for #include files.
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 Terminal information directory full path name.
If your terminal is not in the standard
terminfo directory, see curses(3curses) and
terminfo(4) for how to make your own terminal
description.
TMPDIR Temporary file directory, which defaults to
/var/tmp.
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cscope(1) cscope(1)
VIEWER Preferred file display program [such as
pg(1)], which overrides EDITOR (see above).
VPATH A colon-separated list of directories, each of
which has the same directory structure below
it. If VPATH is set, cscope searches for
source files in the directories specified; if
it is not set, cscope searches only in the
current directory.
FILES
cscope.files Default files containing -I, -p, -q, and -T
options and the list of source files
(overridden by the -i option).
cscope.out Symbol cross-reference file (overridden by the
-f option), which is put in the home directory
if it cannot be created in the current
directory.
cscope.in.out
cscope.po.out Default files containing the inverted index
used for quick symbol searching (-q option).
If you use the -f option to rename the cross-
reference file (so it's not cscope.out), the
names for these inverted index files will be
created by adding .in and .po to the name you
supply with -f. For example, if you indicated
-f xyz, then these files would be named xyz.in
and xyz.po.
INCDIR Standard directory for #include files (usually
/usr/include).
REFERENCES
cc(1), curses(3curses), terminfo(4)
NOTICES
cscope recognizes function definitions of the form:
fname blank ( args ) white arg_decs white {
where:
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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 " or a
newline
white is zero or more spaces, tabs, or newlines
arg_decs are zero or more argument declarations (arg_decs
may include comments and white space)
It is not necessary for a function declaration to start at the
beginning of a line. The return type may precede the function
name; cscope will still recognize the declaration. Function
definitions that deviate 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: input field will only
display the first function called in the line, that is, for
this function
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 variable may be incorrectly recognized
as a definition.
A typedef name preceding a preprocessor statement will be
incorrectly recognized as a global definition, for example,
LDFILE *
#if AR16WR
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cscope(1) cscope(1)
Preprocessor statements can also prevent the recognition of a
global definition, for example,
char flag
#ifdef ALLOCATE_STORAGE
= -1
#endif
;
A function declaration inside a function is incorrectly
recognized as a function call, for example,
f()
{
void g();
}
is incorrectly recognized as a call to 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 recognize 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;
It also doesn't recognize operator function definitions
Bool Feature::operator==(const Feature & other)
{
...
}
Nor does it recognize function definitions with a function
pointer argument
ParseTable::Recognize(int startState, char *pattern,
int finishState, void (*FinalAction)(char *))
{
...
}
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