if_cscop.txt For Vim version 9.1. Last change: 2024 May 11 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Andy Kahn cscope Cscope This document explains how to use Vim's cscope interface. Cscope is a tool like ctags, but think of it as ctags on steroids since it does a lot more than what ctags provides. In Vim, jumping to a result from a cscope query is just like jumping to any tag; it is saved on the tag stack so that with the right keyboard mappings, you can jump back and forth between functions as you normally would with tags. 1. Cscope introduction cscope-intro 2. Cscope related commands cscope-commands 3. Cscope options cscope-options 4. How to use cscope in Vim cscope-howtouse 5. Limitations cscope-limitations 6. Suggested usage cscope-suggestions 7. Availability & Information cscope-info This is currently for Unix and Win32 only. ============================================================================== 1. Cscope introduction cscope-intro The following text is taken from a version of the cscope man page: ----- Cscope is an interactive screen-oriented tool that helps you: Learn how a C program works without endless flipping through a thick listing. Locate the section of code to change to fix a bug without having to learn the entire program. Examine the effect of a proposed change such as adding a value to an enum variable. Verify that a change has been made in all source files such as adding an argument to an existing function. Rename a global variable in all source files. Change a constant to a preprocessor symbol in selected lines of files. It is designed to answer questions like: Where is this symbol used? Where is it defined? Where did this variable get its value? What is this global symbol's definition? Where is this function in the source files? What functions call this function? What functions are called by this function? Where does the message "out of space" come from? Where is this source file in the directory structure? What files include this header file? Cscope answers these questions from a symbol database that it builds the first time it is used on the source files. On a subsequent call, cscope rebuilds the database only if a source file has changed or the list of source files is different. When the database is rebuilt the data for the unchanged files is copied from the old database, which makes rebuilding much faster than the initial build. ----- When cscope is normally invoked, you will get a full-screen selection screen allowing you to make a query for one of the above questions. However, once a match is found to your query and you have entered your text editor to edit the source file containing match, you cannot simply jump from tag to tag as you normally would with vi's Ctrl-] or :tag command. Vim's cscope interface is done by invoking cscope with its line-oriented interface, and then parsing the output returned from a query. The end result is that cscope query results become just like regular tags, so you can jump to them just like you do with normal tags (Ctrl-] or :tag) and then go back by popping off the tagstack with Ctrl-T. (Please note however, that you don't actually jump to a cscope tag simply by doing Ctrl-] or :tag without remapping these commands or setting an option. See the remaining sections on how the cscope interface works and for suggested use.) ============================================================================== 2. Cscope related commands cscope-commands :cscope :cs :scs :scscope E259 E262 E560 E561 All cscope commands are accessed through suboptions to the cscope commands. :cscope or :cs is the main command :scscope or :scs does the same and splits the window :lcscope or :lcs uses the location list, see :lcscope The available subcommands are: E563 E564 E566 E568 E622 E623 E625 E626 E609 add : Add a new cscope database/connection. USAGE :cs add {file|dir} [pre-path] [flags] [pre-path] is the pathname used with the -P command to cscope. [flags] are any additional flags you want to pass to cscope. EXAMPLES :cscope add /usr/local/cdb/cscope.out :cscope add /projects/vim/cscope.out /usr/local/vim :cscope add cscope.out /usr/local/vim -C cscope-find cs-find E567 find : Query cscope. All cscope query options are available except option #5 ("Change this grep pattern"). USAGE :cs find {querytype} {name} {querytype} corresponds to the actual cscope line interface numbers as well as default nvi commands: 0 or s: Find this C symbol 1 or g: Find this definition 2 or d: Find functions called by this function 3 or c: Find functions calling this function 4 or t: Find this text string 6 or e: Find this egrep pattern 7 or f: Find this file 8 or i: Find files #including this file 9 or a: Find places where this symbol is assigned a value For all types, except 4 and 6, leading white space for {name} is removed. For 4 and 6 there is exactly one space between {querytype} and {name}. Further white space is included in {name}. EXAMPLES :cscope find c vim_free :cscope find 3 vim_free These two examples perform the same query: functions calling "vim_free". :cscope find t initOnce :cscope find t initOnce The first one searches for the text "initOnce", the second one for " initOnce". :cscope find 0 DEFAULT_TERM Executing this example on the source code for Vim 5.1 produces the following output: Cscope tag: DEFAULT_TERM # line filename / context / line 1 1009 vim-5.1-gtk/src/term.c <<GLOBAL>> #define DEFAULT_TERM (char_u *)"amiga" 2 1013 vim-5.1-gtk/src/term.c <<GLOBAL>> #define DEFAULT_TERM (char_u *)"win32" 3 1017 vim-5.1-gtk/src/term.c <<GLOBAL>> #define DEFAULT_TERM (char_u *)"pcterm" 4 1021 vim-5.1-gtk/src/term.c <<GLOBAL>> #define DEFAULT_TERM (char_u *)"ansi" 5 1025 vim-5.1-gtk/src/term.c <<GLOBAL>> #define DEFAULT_TERM (char_u *)"vt52" 6 1029 vim-5.1-gtk/src/term.c <<GLOBAL>> #define DEFAULT_TERM (char_u *)"os2ansi" 7 1033 vim-5.1-gtk/src/term.c <<GLOBAL>> #define DEFAULT_TERM (char_u *)"ansi" 8 1037 vim-5.1-gtk/src/term.c <<GLOBAL>> # undef DEFAULT_TERM 9 1038 vim-5.1-gtk/src/term.c <<GLOBAL>> #define DEFAULT_TERM (char_u *)"beos-ansi" 10 1042 vim-5.1-gtk/src/term.c <<GLOBAL>> #define DEFAULT_TERM (char_u *)"mac-ansi" 11 1335 vim-5.1-gtk/src/term.c <<set_termname>> term = DEFAULT_TERM; 12 1459 vim-5.1-gtk/src/term.c <<set_termname>> if (STRCMP(term, DEFAULT_TERM)) 13 1826 vim-5.1-gtk/src/term.c <<termcapinit>> term = DEFAULT_TERM; 14 1833 vim-5.1-gtk/src/term.c <<termcapinit>> term = DEFAULT_TERM; 15 3635 vim-5.1-gtk/src/term.c <<update_tcap>> p = find_builtin_term(DEFAULT_TERM); Enter nr of choice (<CR> to abort): The output shows several pieces of information: 1. The tag number (there are 15 in this example). 2. The line number where the tag occurs. 3. The filename where the tag occurs. 4. The context of the tag (e.g., global, or the function name). 5. The line from the file itself. help : Show a brief synopsis. USAGE :cs help E261 kill : Kill a cscope connection (or kill all cscope connections). USAGE :cs kill {num|partial_name} To kill a cscope connection, the connection number or a partial name must be specified. The partial name is simply any part of the pathname of the cscope database. Kill a cscope connection using the partial name with caution! If the specified connection number is -1, then _ALL_ cscope connections will be killed. reset : Reinit all cscope connections. USAGE :cs reset show : Show cscope connections. USAGE :cs show :lcscope :lcs This command is same as the ":cscope" command, except when the 'cscopequickfix' option is set, the location list for the current window is used instead of the quickfix list to show the cscope results. :cstag E257 E562 If you use cscope as well as ctags, :cstag allows you to search one or the other before making a jump. For example, you can choose to first search your cscope database(s) for a match, and if one is not found, then your tags file(s) will be searched. The order in which this happens is determined by the value of csto. See cscope-options for more details. :cstag performs the equivalent of ":cs find g" on the identifier when searching through the cscope database(s). :cstag performs the equivalent of :tjump on the identifier when searching through your tags file(s). ============================================================================== 3. Cscope options cscope-options Use the :set command to set all cscope options. Ideally, you would do this in one of your startup files (e.g., .vimrc). Some cscope related variables are only valid within .vimrc. Setting them after vim has started will have no effect! cscopeprg csprg 'cscopeprg' specifies the command to execute cscope. The default is "cscope". For example: :set csprg=/usr/local/bin/cscope cscopequickfix csqf E469 {not available when compiled without the |+quickfix| feature} 'cscopequickfix' specifies whether to use quickfix window to show cscope results. This is a list of comma-separated values. Each item consists of cscope-find command (s, g, d, c, t, e, f, i or a) and flag (+, - or 0). '+' indicates that results must be appended to quickfix window, '-' implies previous results clearance, '0' or command absence - don't use quickfix. Search is performed from start until first command occurrence. The default value is "" (don't use quickfix anyway). The following value seems to be useful: :set cscopequickfix=s-,c-,d-,i-,t-,e-,a- cscopetag cst If 'cscopetag' is set, the commands ":tag" and CTRL-] as well as "vim -t" will always use :cstag instead of the default :tag behavior. Effectively, by setting 'cst', you will always search your cscope databases as well as your tag files. The default is off. Examples: :set cst :set nocst cscoperelative csre If 'cscoperelative' is set, then in absence of a prefix given to cscope (prefix is the argument of -P option of cscope), basename of cscope.out location (usually the project root directory) will be used as the prefix to construct an absolute path. The default is off. Note: This option is only effective when cscope (cscopeprg) is initialized without a prefix path (-P). Examples: :set csre :set nocsre cscopetagorder csto The value of 'csto' determines the order in which :cstag performs a search. If 'csto' is set to zero, cscope database(s) are searched first, followed by tag file(s) if cscope did not return any matches. If 'csto' is set to one, tag file(s) are searched before cscope database(s). The default is zero. Examples: :set csto=0 :set csto=1 cscopeverbose csverb If 'cscopeverbose' is not set (the default), messages will not be printed indicating success or failure when adding a cscope database. Ideally, you should reset this option in your .vimrc before adding any cscope databases, and after adding them, set it. From then on, when you add more databases within Vim, you will get a (hopefully) useful message should the database fail to be added. Examples: :set csverb :set nocsverb cscopepathcomp cspc The value of 'cspc' determines how many components of a file's path to display. With the default value of zero the entire path will be displayed. The value one will display only the filename with no path. Other values display that many components. For example: :set cspc=3 will display the last 3 components of the file's path, including the file name itself. ============================================================================== 4. How to use cscope in Vim cscope-howtouse The first thing you need to do is to build a cscope database for your source files. For the most basic case, simply do "cscope -b". Please refer to the cscope man page for more details. Assuming you have a cscope database, you need to "add" the database to Vim. This establishes a cscope "connection" and makes it available for Vim to use. You can do this in your .vimrc file, or you can do it manually after starting vim. For example, to add the cscope database "cscope.out", you would do: :cs add cscope.out You can double-check the result of this by executing ":cs show". This will produce output which looks like this: # pid database name prepend path 0 28806 cscope.out <none> Note: Because of the Microsoft RTL limitations, Win32 version shows 0 instead of the real pid. Once a cscope connection is established, you can make queries to cscope and the results will be printed to you. Queries are made using the command ":cs find". For example: :cs find g ALIGN_SIZE This can get a little cumbersome since one ends up doing a significant amount of typing. Fortunately, there are ways around this by mapping shortcut keys. See cscope-suggestions for suggested usage. If the results return only one match, you will automatically be taken to it. If there is more than one match, you will be given a selection screen to pick the match you want to go to. After you have jumped to the new location, simply hit Ctrl-T to get back to the previous one. ============================================================================== 5. Limitations cscope-limitations Cscope support for Vim is only available on systems that support these four system calls: fork(), pipe(), execl(), waitpid(). This means it is mostly limited to Unix systems. Additionally Cscope support works for Win32. For more information and a cscope version for Win32 see (link seems dead): http://iamphet.nm.ru/cscope/index.html The DJGPP-built version from http://cscope.sourceforge.net is known to not work with Vim. Hard-coded limitation: doing a :tjump when :cstag searches the tag files is not configurable (e.g., you can't do a tselect instead). ============================================================================== 6. Suggested usage cscope-suggestions Put these entries in your .vimrc (adjust the pathname accordingly to your setup): if has("cscope") set csprg=/usr/local/bin/cscope set csto=0 set cst set nocsverb " add any database in current directory if filereadable("cscope.out") cs add cscope.out " else add database pointed to by environment elseif $CSCOPE_DB != "" cs add $CSCOPE_DB endif set csverb endif By setting 'cscopetag', we have effectively replaced all instances of the :tag command with :cstag. This includes :tag, Ctrl-], and "vim -t". In doing this, the regular tag command not only searches your ctags generated tag files, but your cscope databases as well. Some users may want to keep the regular tag behavior and have a different shortcut to access :cstag. For example, one could map Ctrl-_ (underscore) to :cstag with the following command: map <C-_> :cstag <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> A couple of very commonly used cscope queries (using ":cs find") is to find all functions calling a certain function and to find all occurrences of a particular C symbol. To do this, you can use these mappings as an example: map g<C-]> :cs find 3 <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> map g<C-\> :cs find 0 <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> These mappings for Ctrl-] (right bracket) and Ctrl-\ (backslash) allow you to place your cursor over the function name or C symbol and quickly query cscope for any matches. Or you may use the following scheme, inspired by Vim/Cscope tutorial from Cscope Home Page (http://cscope.sourceforge.net/): nmap <C-_>s :cs find s <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> nmap <C-_>g :cs find g <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> nmap <C-_>c :cs find c <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> nmap <C-_>t :cs find t <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> nmap <C-_>e :cs find e <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> nmap <C-_>f :cs find f <C-R>=expand("<cfile>")<CR><CR> nmap <C-_>i :cs find i ^<C-R>=expand("<cfile>")<CR>$<CR> nmap <C-_>d :cs find d <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> nmap <C-_>a :cs find a <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> " Using 'CTRL-spacebar' then a search type makes the vim window " split horizontally, with search result displayed in " the new window. nmap <C-Space>s :scs find s <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> nmap <C-Space>g :scs find g <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> nmap <C-Space>c :scs find c <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> nmap <C-Space>t :scs find t <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> nmap <C-Space>e :scs find e <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> nmap <C-Space>f :scs find f <C-R>=expand("<cfile>")<CR><CR> nmap <C-Space>i :scs find i ^<C-R>=expand("<cfile>")<CR>$<CR> nmap <C-Space>d :scs find d <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> nmap <C-Space>a :scs find a <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> " Hitting CTRL-space *twice* before the search type does a vertical " split instead of a horizontal one nmap <C-Space><C-Space>s \:vert scs find s <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> nmap <C-Space><C-Space>g \:vert scs find g <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> nmap <C-Space><C-Space>c \:vert scs find c <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> nmap <C-Space><C-Space>t \:vert scs find t <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> nmap <C-Space><C-Space>e \:vert scs find e <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> nmap <C-Space><C-Space>i \:vert scs find i ^<C-R>=expand("<cfile>")<CR>$<CR> nmap <C-Space><C-Space>d \:vert scs find d <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> nmap <C-Space><C-Space>a \:vert scs find a <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR> ============================================================================== 7. Cscope availability and information cscope-info If you do not already have cscope (it did not come with your compiler license or OS distribution), then you can download it for free from: http://cscope.sourceforge.net/ This is released by SCO under the BSD license. In Solaris 2.x, if you have the C compiler license, you will also have cscope. Both are usually located under /opt/SUNWspro/bin There is source to an older version of a cscope clone (called "cs") available on the net. Due to various reasons, this is not supported with Vim. The cscope interface/support for Vim was originally written by Andy Kahn <ackahn@netapp.com>. The original structure (as well as a tiny bit of code) was adapted from the cscope interface in nvi. cscope-win32 For a cscope version for Win32 see (seems abandoned): https://code.google.com/archive/p/cscope-win32/ Win32 support was added by Sergey Khorev <sergey.khorev@gmail.com>. Contact him if you have Win32-specific issues. vim:tw=78:ts=8:noet:ft=help:norl: