CSCOPE(1) General Commands Manual CSCOPE(1)
NAME
cscope - interactively examine a C program
SYNOPSIS
cscope [-bCcdehkLlqRTUuVv] [-Fsymfile] [-freffile] [-Iincdir] [-inamefile] [-0123456789pattern] [-pn] [-sdir]
[files]
DESCRIPTION
cscope is an interactive, screen-oriented tool that allows the user to browse through C source files for spec‐
ified 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, called 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.
OPTIONS
Some command line arguments can only occur as the only argument in the execution of cscope. They cause the
program to just print out some output and exit immediately:
-h View the long usage help display.
-V Print on the first line of screen the version number of cscope.
--help Same as -h
--version
Same as -V
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.
-Fsymfile
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.)
-freffile
Use reffile as the cross-reference file name instead of the default "cscope.out".
-Iincdir
whitespace have to be enclosed in "double quotes". Inside such quoted filenames, any double-quote and
backslash characters have to be escaped by backslashes.
-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).
-[0-9]pattern
Go to input field num (counting from 0) and find pattern.
-Ppath 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.
-pn Display the last n file path components instead of the default (1). Use 0 not to 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 algorithm that provides noticeably faster lookup performance for large projects.
-R Recurse subdirectories during search for source files.
-sdir Look in dir for additional source files. This option is ignored if source files are given on the com‐
mand line.
-T Use only the first eight characters to match against C symbols. A regular expression containing spe‐
cial 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 Be more verbose in line-oriented mode. Output progress updates during database building and searches.
files A list of file names to operate on.
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:
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 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 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.
* 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 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.
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
``editor file -#number'', set this environment variable. Users of most standard 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.
SHELL Preferred shell, which defaults to sh.
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 direc‐
tory, 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 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).
Notices
cscope recognizes function definitions of the form:
fname blank ( args ) white arg_decs white {
where: fname is the function name
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
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)
{
...
}
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