NAME

cscope - interactively examine a C program

SYNOPSIS

cscope [options] files...

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 ^e command prompt between files.

-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.

-p n           Display  the  last  n  file  path  components
               instead  of  the  default  (1).  Use 0 to not
               display the file name 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 (assume that 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, 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:
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.
>          Append the displayed list of lines to a file.
|          Pipe all lines to a shell command.

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.

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 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 the 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 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,  e.g.,  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.

   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, 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.

   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).
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  termi-
               nal.
TERMINFO       Terminal  information  directory  full   path
               name.   If  your terminal is not in the stan-
               dard 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         Preferred file display program [such as  pg],
               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 speci-
               fied; if it is not set, cscope searches  only
               in the current directory.

FILES

cscope.files   Default  files  containing  -I,  -p,  and  -T
               options  and  the list of source files (over-
               ridden by the -i option).
cscope.out     Symbol cross-reference file, which is put  in
               the home directory if it cannot be created in
               the current directory.
ncscope.out    Temporary file containing new cross-reference
               before it replaces the old cross-reference.
INCDIR         Standard directory for #include  files  (usu-
               ally /usr/include).

SEE ALSO

The ``cscope'' chapter in the Programmer's Guide: ANSI C and
Programming Support Tools.

NOTES

cscope recognizes function definitions of the form:
     fname blank ( args ) white arg_decs 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 " or a new-
           line
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.  Simi-
larly, 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, e.g.,
      LDFILE *
      #if AR16WR
Preprocessor statements can also prevent the recognition  of
a global definition, e.g.,
      char flag
      #ifdef ALLOCATE_STORAGE
           = -1
      #endif
      ;
A function declaration  inside  a  function  is  incorrectly
recognized as a function call, e.g.,
      f()
      {
           void g();
      }
is incorrectly recognized as a call to g().
cscope recognizes C++ classes by looking for the class  key-
word,  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)
      {
           ...
      }