Using Cscope INSIDE Vim

The goal we want to accomplish here is, jumping to a function definition (maybe in another file,) finding out where a symbol is defined, finding out what function(s) call current function and what functions are called from this function, ALL WITHOUT LEAVING VIM.

First, make sure you have cscope installed by issuing the following command:

$ cscope --version

If bash complains "command not find", then install cscope. In Ubuntu, the command is:

$ sudo apt-get install cscope

Then, we need to generate cscope database. If you're dealing with C files, then in the root directory of the source tree, using this command:

$ cscope -RUbq

If you're dealing with Java files, before generating the database, we need to tell cscope tracing which files:

$ find . -name *.java > cscope.files
$ cscope -RUbq

The explanations are:

-R: Recurse subdirectories during search for source files.
-U: Check file time stamps. This option will update the time stamp on the database even if no files have changed.
-b: Build the cross-reference only. We don't want the interactive mode.
-q: Enable fast symbol lookup via an inverted index

For more details, consult the cscope manual:

$ man cscope

After this step, several cscope database files will be generated. If you're using git or hg to manage your code, you may want to ignore them in the git/hg repository. Do that by adding these lines into your .gitignore/.hgignore

cscope.*

Then we need to tell Vim how to interact with cscope. Add the following lines into your .vimrc:

if has("cscope")
    set csprg=/usr/bin/cscope
    set csto=0
    set cst
    set csverb
    " C symbol
    nmap <C-\>s :cs find s <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR>
    " definition
    nmap <C-\>g :cs find g <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR>
    " functions that called by this function
    nmap <C-\>d :cs find d <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR>
    " funtions that calling this function
    nmap <C-\>c :cs find c <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR>
    " test string
    nmap <C-\>t :cs find t <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR>
    " egrep pattern
    nmap <C-\>e :cs find e <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR>
    " file
    nmap <C-\>f :cs find f <C-R>=expand("<cfile>")<CR><CR>
    " files #including this file
    nmap <C-\>i :cs find i ^<C-R>=expand("<cfile>")<CR>$<CR>

    " Automatically make cscope connections
    function! LoadCscope()
        let db = findfile("cscope.out", ".;")
        if (!empty(db))
            let path = strpart(db, 0, match(db, "/cscope.out$"))
            set nocscopeverbose " suppress 'duplicate connection' error
            exe "cs add " . db . " " . path
            set cscopeverbose
        endif
    endfunction
    au BufEnter /* call LoadCscope()

endif

We're done! Now using Vim to edit a source code file. Put the cursor on a symbol (variable, function, etc.), First press Ctrl+\, then press:

s: find all appearance of this symbol
g: go to the definition of this symbol
d: functions that called by this function
c: functions that calling this function

For more details about cscope, inside Vim, press :h cs to see the help message of cscope.

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