CSCOPE(1)CSCOPE(1)NAMEcscope - interactively examine a C program
SYNOPSIScscope [ -bCcdehkLlqRTUuV ] [-Fsymfile] [-freffile] [-Iincdir]
[-inamefile] [-numpattern] [-pn] [-sdir]
DESCRIPTIONcscope 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 func
tions, 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.
OPTIONS
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.
-F symfile
Read symbol reference lines from symfile. (A symbol refer
ence 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.
-h View the long usage help display.
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CSCOPE(1)CSCOPE(1)-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. The argument namefile can be set to ``-''
to accept a list of files from stdio.
-k ``Kernel Mode'', turns off the use of the default include
dir (usually /usr/include) when building the database,
since kernel source trees generally do not use it.
-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 direc
tory 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.
-q Enable fast symbol lookup via an inverted index. This
option causes cscope to create 2 more files (default names
``cscope.in.out'' and ``cscope.po.out'') in addition to the
normal database. This allows a faster symbol search algo
rithm that provides noticeably faster lookup performance
for large projects.
-R Recurse subdirectories for source files.
-s dir Look in dir for additional source files. This option is
ignored if source files are given on the command line.
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CSCOPE(1)CSCOPE(1)-T Use only the first eight characters to match against C sym
bols. 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, -c, -k, -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:
Find this file:
Find files #including this file:
Press the <Up> or <Down> keys 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 com
mands can be used:
0-9a-zA-Z
Edit the file referenced by the given line number.
<Space>
Display next set of matching lines.
<Tab> Alternate between the menu and the list of matching lines
<Up> Move to the previous menu item (if the cursor is in the
menu) or move to the previous matching line (if the cursor
is in the matching line list.)
<Down> Move to the next menu item (if the cursor is in the menu)
or move to the next matching line (if the cursor is in the
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matching line list.)
+ 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:
<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 ignor
ing 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
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(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:
0-9a-zA-Z
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.
<Esc> 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, 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 inter
face would not be useful, for example, from another screen-ori
ented program.
cscope will prompt with >> when it is ready for an input line
starting with the field number (counting from 0) immediately fol
lowed by the search pattern, for example, ``lmain'' finds the def
inition of the main function.
If you just want a single search, instead of the -l option use the
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CSCOPE(1)CSCOPE(1)-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, 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
CSCOPE_EDITOR
Overrides the EDITOR and VIEWER variables. Use this if you
wish to use a different editor with cscope than that speci
fied by your EDITOR/VIEWER variables.
CSCOPE_LINEFLAG
Format of the line number flag for your editor. By default,
cscope invokes your editor via the equivalent of ``editor
+N file'', where ``N'' is the line number that the editor
should jump to. This format is used by both emacs and vi.
If your editor needs something different, specify it in
this variable, with ``%s'' as a placeholder for the line
number. Ex: if your editor needs to be invoked as ``editor
-#103 file'' to go to line 103, set this variable to
``-#%s''.
CSCOPE_LINEFLAG_AFTER_FILE
Set this variable to ``yes'' if your editor needs to be
invoked with the line number option after the filename to
be edited. To continue the example from CSCOPE_LINEFLAG,
above: if your editor needs to see ``editor file -#num
ber'', set this environment variable. Users of most stan
dard editors (vi, emacs) do not need to set this variable.
EDITOR Preferred editor, which defaults to vi.
HOME Home directory, which is automatically set at login.
INCLUDEDIRS
Colon-separated list of directories to search for #include
files.
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SHELL Preferred shell, which defaults to sh.
SOURCEDIRS
Colon-separated list of directories to search for addi
tional source files.
TERM Terminal type, which must be a screen terminal.
TERMINFO
Terminal information directory full path name. If your ter
minal is not in the standard terminfo directory, see curses
and terminfo for how to make your own terminal description.
TMPDIR Temporary file directory, which defaults to /var/tmp.
VIEWER Preferred file display program (such as less), which over
rides 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, -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).
Noticescscope recognizes function definitions of the form:
fname blank ( args ) white arg_decs white {
where: fname is the function name
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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 defi
nitions 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 dis
play 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 incor
rectly recognized as a global definition, for example,
LDFILE *
#if AR16WR
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,
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CSCOPE(1)CSCOPE(1)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 incor
rectly 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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