Ubuntu Manpage: gtags-cscope - interactively examine a C program

NAME

       gtags-cscope - interactively examine a C program

SYNOPSIS

       gtags-cscope [-abCdehilLvV][-F file ][-012345678 pattern][-p n]

DESCRIPTION

       gtags-cscope  is  an  interactive,  screen-oriented  tool  that  allows the user to browse
       through source files for specified elements of code.

       gtags-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, gtags-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, it is updated incrementally, which makes
       rebuilding faster than the initial build.

       gtags-cscope is a tool which just borrows user interface of cscope; it  is  Global  itself
       for the substance.

OPTIONS

       Some command line arguments can only occur as the only argument in the execution of gtags-
       cscope.  They cause the program to just print out some output and exit immediately:

       -h     View the long usage help display.

       -V     Print the version number of gtags-cscope.

       --help Same as -h

       --version
              Same as -V

       The following options can appear in any combination:

       -a     Print absolute path names.

       -b     Build the cross-reference only.

       -C     Ignore letter case when searching.

       -d     Do not update the cross-reference.

       -e     Suppress the ´^e´ command prompt between files.

       -F file
              Read symbol reference lines from file.  (A symbol reference file is  created  by  >
              and  >>,  and  can  also  be  read  using  the < command, described under ``Issuing
              Subsequent Requests'', below.)

       -i     Ignore SIGINT signal in line-oriented mode.

       -L     Do a single search with line-oriented  output  when  used  with  the  -num  pattern
              option.

       -l     Line-oriented interface.  This option implies the -d option.

       -[0-9] pattern
              Go to input field num (counting from 0) and find pattern.

       -p n   Display  the last n file path components instead of the default (1). Use ´0´ to not
              display the file name at all.

       -v     Be more verbose in line-oriented mode.

Requesting the initial search

       After the cross-reference is ready, gtags-cscope will display this menu:

       Find this symbol:
       Find this global definition:
       Find functions called by this function (N/A):
       Find references of this function:
       Find this text string:
       Change this text string:
       Find this egrep pattern:
       Find this file:
       Find files #including this file:
       Find assignments to this symbol:

       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 commands 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 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.

       ^g     Read lines from the result of the execution of global(1).

       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, a search
              for ´FILE´ will match ´File´ and ´file´.)

       ^r     Rebuild the cross-reference.

       !      Start an interactive shell (type ´^d´ to return to gtags-cscope).

       ^l     Redraw the screen.

       ?      Give help information about gtags-cscope commands.

       ^d     Exit gtags-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, gtags-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 gtags-cscope).

       ^l     Redraw the screen.

       ?      Give help information about gtags-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 gtags-cscope where a screen-oriented  interface  would  not  be
       useful, for example, from another screen-oriented program.

       gtags-cscope  will  prompt with ´>>´ when it is ready for an input line, which starts with
       the field number (counting from 0),  immediately  followed  by  the  search  pattern.  For
       example, ´1main´ 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, gtags-cscope outputs the number of reference lines:
       cscope: 2 lines

       For each reference found, gtags-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, a search for ´FILE´ will match ´File´ and ´file´.)

       You can use the ´r´ command to rebuild the database.

       gtags-cscope  will  quit  when  it  detects end-of-file, or when the first character of an
       input line is ´^d´ or ´q´.

ENVIRONMENT

The following environment variables are of cscope origin.

CSCOPE_EDITOR
Overrides the EDITOR and VIEWER variables. Use this if you wish to use a different
editor with cscope than that specified 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. Eg: 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 -#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.

SHELL Preferred shell, which defaults to sh.

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 directory, see curses and terminfo for how to make your own
terminal description.

TMPDIR Temporary file directory, which defaults to ´/tmp´.

VIEWER Preferred file display program (such as less), which overrides EDITOR (see above).

The following environment variables are of Global origin.

GTAGSCONF
Configuration file.

GTAGSGLOBAL
If this variable is set, ´$GTAGSGLOBAL´ is used as the name of global(1). The
default is global.

GTAGSGTAGS
If this variable is set, ´$GTAGSGTAGS´ is used as the name of gtags(1). The default
is gtags.

GTAGSDBPATH
The directory in which the tag files exist. This value is ignored when GTAGSROOT
is not defined.

GTAGSLABEL
Configuration label. The default is ´default´.

GTAGSLIBPATH
If this variable is set, it is used as the path to search for library functions. If
the specified tags is not found in the project, global also searches in these
paths. Since only ´GTAGS´ is targeted in the retrieval, this variable is ignored
when -r or -s is specified.

GTAGSROOT
The root directory of the project.

MAKEOBJDIR
If this variable is set, ´$MAKEOBJDIR´ is used as the name of BSD-style objdir. The
default is ´obj´.

MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX
If this variable is set, ´$MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX´ is used as the prefix of BSD-style
objdir. The default is ´/usr/obj´.

FILES

       ´GTAGS´
              Tag file for definitions.

       ´GRTAGS´
              Tag file for references.

       ´GPATH´
              Tag file for source files.

       ´GTAGSROOT´
              If environment variable GTAGSROOT is not set and file  ´GTAGSROOT´  exists  in  the
              same directory as ´GTAGS´ then global sets GTAGSROOT to the contents of the file.

       ´gtags.conf´, ´$HOME/.globalrc´
              Configuration data for GNU Global.  See gtags.conf(5).

BUG

       The function field of the display is almost <unknown> since Global doesn't recognize it.

       ´Find functions called by this function´ is not implemented.

AUTHOR

       Joe Steffen (original author) and others.

HISTORY

       Cscope  was originally developed at Bell Labs in the early 1980s, and was released as free
       software under the BSD license in April 2000.  Gtags-cscope is a derivative of  cscope  to
       use  Global  as the back-end.  Its line-oriented interface was originally written in 2006,
       and was re-implemented in 2011 using cscope itself.