<s>
cscope	B-Application
is	O
a	O
programming	B-Application
tool	I-Application
which	O
works	O
in	O
console	O
mode	O
,	O
text-based	O
interface	O
,	O
that	O
allows	O
computer	B-Application
programmers	I-Application
or	O
software	B-Application
developers	I-Application
to	O
search	O
source	O
code	O
of	O
the	O
programming	B-Language
language	I-Language
C	I-Language
,	O
with	O
some	O
support	O
for	O
C++	B-Language
and	O
Java	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
is	O
often	O
used	O
on	O
very	O
large	O
projects	O
to	O
aid	O
code	B-General_Concept
comprehension	I-General_Concept
to	O
find	B-Application
source	O
code	O
,	O
functions	O
,	O
declarations	O
,	O
definitions	O
and	O
regular	O
expressions	O
given	O
a	O
text	B-General_Concept
string	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
cscope	B-Application
is	O
free	O
and	O
released	O
under	O
a	O
BSD	B-Operating_System
license	I-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
original	O
developer	B-Application
of	O
cscope	B-Application
is	O
Joe	O
Steffen	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
history	O
of	O
the	O
tool	O
goes	O
back	O
to	O
the	O
days	O
of	O
the	O
PDP-11	B-Device
,	O
but	O
it	O
is	O
still	O
used	O
by	O
developers	B-Application
who	O
are	O
accustomed	O
to	O
using	O
the	O
vi	B-Application
or	O
Vim	B-Application
editor	I-Application
or	O
other	O
text-based	O
editors	O
,	O
instead	O
of	O
editors	O
based	O
on	O
graphical	B-Application
user	I-Application
interfaces	I-Application
(	O
GUIs	B-Application
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
functions	O
in	O
cscope	B-Application
are	O
available	O
to	O
varying	O
degrees	O
in	O
modern	O
graphical	O
source	O
editors	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
cscope	B-Application
is	O
used	O
in	O
two	O
phases	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
First	O
a	O
developer	B-Application
builds	O
the	O
cscope	B-Application
database	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
developer	B-Application
can	O
often	O
use	O
find	B-Application
or	O
other	O
Unix	B-Application
tools	O
to	O
get	O
the	O
list	O
of	O
filenames	O
needed	O
to	O
index	O
into	O
a	O
file	O
called	O
cscope.files	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
developer	B-Application
then	O
builds	O
a	O
database	O
using	O
the	O
command	O
cscope	B-Application
-b	O
-q	O
-k	O
.	O
The	O
k	O
flag	O
is	O
intended	O
to	O
build	O
a	O
database	O
for	O
an	O
operating	O
system	O
or	O
C	B-Language
library	O
source	O
code	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Second	O
,	O
the	O
developer	B-Application
can	O
now	O
search	O
those	O
files	O
using	O
the	O
command	O
cscope	B-Application
-d	O
.	O
Often	O
an	O
index	O
must	O
be	O
rebuilt	O
whenever	O
changes	O
are	O
made	O
to	O
files	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
software	O
development	O
it	O
is	O
often	O
very	O
useful	O
to	O
be	O
able	O
to	O
find	B-Application
the	O
callers	O
of	O
a	O
function	O
because	O
this	O
is	O
the	O
way	O
to	O
understand	O
how	O
code	O
works	O
and	O
what	O
other	O
parts	O
of	O
the	O
program	O
expect	O
from	O
a	O
function	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
cscope	B-Application
can	O
find	B-Application
the	O
callers	O
and	O
callees	O
of	O
functions	O
,	O
but	O
it	O
is	O
not	O
a	O
compiler	O
and	O
it	O
does	O
that	O
by	O
searching	O
the	O
text	B-General_Concept
for	O
keywords	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
There	O
are	O
other	O
programs	O
that	O
can	O
extract	O
this	O
information	O
by	O
parsing	B-Language
the	O
source	O
code	O
or	O
looking	O
at	O
the	O
generated	O
object	O
files	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
cscope	B-Application
was	O
created	O
to	O
search	O
content	O
within	O
C	B-Language
files	O
,	O
but	O
it	O
can	O
also	O
be	O
used	O
(	O
with	O
some	O
limits	O
)	O
for	O
C++	B-Language
and	O
Java	B-Language
files	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Three	O
graphical	B-Application
user	I-Application
interface	I-Application
(	O
GUI	B-Application
)	O
frontends	O
are	O
available	O
for	O
cscope	B-Application
which	O
ease	O
its	O
use	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
KScope	O
runs	O
on	O
KDE	B-Application
and	O
integrates	O
the	O
Kate	B-Application
text	I-Application
editor	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
Seascope	O
runs	O
on	O
PyQt4	O
and	O
integrates	O
the	O
Scintilla	B-Language
text	I-Language
editor	I-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
Gscope	O
is	O
based	O
on	O
GTK2	O
and	O
GTK3	O
and	O
integrates	O
with	O
multiple	O
text	B-General_Concept
editors	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
CCTree	O
is	O
a	O
native	O
Vim	B-Application
plugin	O
that	O
integrates	O
with	O
the	O
Vim	B-Application
editor	I-Application
and	O
offers	O
functions	O
similar	O
to	O
KScope	O
and	O
Seascope	O
.	O
</s>
