cscope

<h2 id="history">History</h2>
<p>Joe Steffen began writing cscope in 1980, as an aid to his programming word on a <a href="/facts/PDP-11/9HkGUzFn">PDP-11</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a> The tool became very popular within <a href="/facts/Bell_Labs/fKP5Gk0H">Bell Labs</a>, as fellow employees requested more features and improvements. The tool was later made part of the <a href="/facts/AT%2526T_Unix/Epm6GEY4">AT&T Unix distribution</a>. It is still used by developers today, some of whom are most accustomed to using <a href="/facts/Vi_(text_editor)/d8G1PkDh">vi</a> or other text-based editors, instead of <a href="/facts/Graphical_user_interface/wBlQFWDP">GUI</a> editors. The functions in cscope are available to varying degrees in modern graphical text editors.
</p>
<h2 id="usage">Usage</h2>
<p>cscope is used in two phases. First, a developer builds the cscope database of the source code. The developer can often use <a href="/facts/Find_(Unix)/bg18ASlI">find</a> or other Unix tools to get the list of filenames needed to index into a file called cscope.files. The developer then builds a database using the command cscope -b -q -k. The k flag is intended to build a database for an operating system or C library source code. It will not look in /usr/include. Second, the developer can now search those files using the command cscope -d. An index must be rebuilt whenever changes are made to indexed files.
</p><p>cscope was created to search content within C code, but it can also be used (with some caveats) for C++ and Java code.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a>
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<h2 id="derived-software">Derived software</h2>
<ul><li>KScope runs on <a href="/facts/KDE/PCh32IWA">KDE</a> and integrates the <a href="/facts/Kate_(text_editor)/lGzAv33F">Kate text editor</a>. The KScope project is no longer being maintained.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a></li>
<li>Seascope runs on <a href="/facts/PyQt/n8x1XTxb">PyQt</a>4 and integrates the <a href="/facts/Scintilla_(editing_component)/SGgVAN82">Scintilla text editor</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a></li>
<li>Gscope is based on GTK2 and GTK3 and integrates with multiple text editors.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a></li>
<li>CCTree is a native Vim plugin that integrates with the Vim editor and offers functions similar to KScope and Seascope.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a></li>
<li>Csope is a <a href="/facts/Fork_(software_development)/D6khxhpr">fork</a> with an altered <a href="/facts/Text-based_user_interface/bngNtqIY">TUI</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a></li></ul>
<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Ctags/pxQedaX0">ctags</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Cross-reference/Fe1Bwq7c">Cross-reference</a> (X-Ref)</li>
<li><a href="/facts/LXR_Cross_Referencer/Af7mUzT7">LXR Cross Referencer</a>, Web-based source code browsing with hyperlinks</li>
<li><a href="/facts/OpenGrok/SsE9YnKh">OpenGrok</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<ul><li><a href="http://cscope.sourceforge.net/">Official website</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.lemis.com/grog/software/source-code-navigation.php">Source code navigation tools</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>"The History of Cscope". cscope.sourceforge.net. Retrieved 2023-09-06. <a href="https://cscope.sourceforge.net/history.html" target="_blank">https://cscope.sourceforge.net/history.html</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>CScope home page: "The fuzzy parser supports C, but is flexible enough to be useful for C++ and Java[...]" <a href="http://cscope.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank">http://cscope.sourceforge.net/</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>KScope homepage <a href="http://kscope.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank">http://kscope.sourceforge.net/</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>Seascope homepage <a href="https://code.google.com/p/seascope/" target="_blank">https://code.google.com/p/seascope/</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:5"><p>Gscope homepage <a href="https://github.com/tefletch/gscope/wiki" target="_blank">https://github.com/tefletch/gscope/wiki</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:6"><p>"CCTree - C Call-Tree Explorer -- Cscope based source-code browser; code flow analyzer : Vim online". <a href="http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2368" target="_blank">http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2368</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:7"><p>Csope homepage <a href="https://github.com/agvxov/csope" target="_blank">https://github.com/agvxov/csope</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

cscope open-in-new

cscope