cscope ☆

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Description:
Tool for browsing source code

Type: Formula | Latest Version: 15.9@0 | Tracked Since: Dec 17, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: Developer tools

Tags: code-navigation c developer-tools indexing cli

Install: brew install cscope

About:
Cscope is a command-line tool that indexes source code to enable rapid searching for function definitions, calls, and symbols. It significantly speeds up code navigation in large C projects by providing an interactive interface. Developers use it to quickly understand complex codebases without relying on full IDEs.

Key Features:

Fast cross-referencing of C source code
Interactive text-based user interface
Supports symbol, file, and call tree searches
Generates and queries inverted index databases

Use Cases:

Navigating large legacy C codebases
Identifying all callers of a specific function
Quickly locating function or macro definitions

Alternatives:

GNU Global – Supports multiple languages and integrates with editors, but requires more setup than Cscope.
ctags – Generates tag indexes for editors like Vim; focuses on definition lookup rather than call graphs.

License: BSD-3-Clause

Bottles available for: arm64_tahoe, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_ventura, arm64_monterey, arm64_big_sur, sonoma, ventura, monterey, big_sur, catalina, arm64_linux, x86_64_linux

Version History

Detected	Version	Rev	Change	Commit
Sep 11, 2025 3:18am		0	VERSION_BUMP	d8ffabb6