This is a tool to index, then query or search C, C++, Java, Python, Ruby, Go and Javascript source code.

It builds upon the databases of cscope and Exuberant ctags. It can also work with Universal ctags, which is a drop-in replacement for Exuberant ctags.

The databases of cscope and ctags would be processed by the cqmakedb tool to generate the CodeQuery database file.

The CodeQuery database file can be viewed and queried using the codequery GUI tool.

Latest version = 0.23.0

Windows and Linux binaries available here for download: CodeQuery@sourceforge downloads

To build on Linux, please read the INSTALL-LINUX file.

On Mac, the software can be installed through Brew using brew install codequery .

Please read NEWS to find out more.

Both cscope and ctags can do symbol lookup and identify functions, macros, classes and structs.

cscope is very C-centric, but is fuzzy enough to cover C++ and Java, but not very well for e.g. it doesn’t understand destructors and class member instantiations. It can’t provide relationships of class inheritance and membership. cscope can do “functions that call this function” and “functions called by this function”. This is a very powerful feature that makes cscope stand out among comparable tools.

ctags does many languages well and understands destructors, member instantiations, and the relationships of class membership and inheritance. From ctags, we can find out “members and methods of this class”, “class which owns this member or method”, “parent of this class”, “child of this class” etc. However, it doesn’t do “functions that call this function” or “functions called by this function”.

So both these tools have their pros and cons, but complement each other.

CodeQuery is a project that attempts to combine the features available from both cscope and ctags, provide faster database access compared to cscope (because it uses sqlite) and provides a nice GUI tool as well. Due to this faster database access, fast auto-completion of search terms and multiple complex queries to perform visualization is possible.

In addition, pycscope is used to add support for Python, in place of cscope.

In addition, starscope is used to add support for Ruby, Go and Javascript, in place of cscope.

What features does CodeQuery have?

Combines the best of both cscope and ctags

Faster due to the use of sqlite for the CodeQuery database

Cross-platform GUI tool

Fast auto-completion of search term

Case-insensitive, partial keyword search - wildcard search supported * and ?

Exact match search

Filter search results by file path

File viewer with syntax highlighting, for UTF-8 encoded source files

Ability to open viewed file in an external editor or IDE

Visualization of function call graph and class inheritance based on search term

Visualization graphs can be saved to PNG or Graphviz DOT files

What types of query can I make?

Symbol

Function or macro definition

Class or struct

Functions calling this function

Functions called by this function

Calls of this function or macro

Class which owns this member or method

Members and methods of this class

Parent of this class (inheritance)

Children of this class (inheritance)

Files including this file

Full path for file

Functions and macros inside this file

Grep

What does it look like?

How does the visualization look like?

Here’s a function call graph based on the search term of “updateFilePathLabel”. A -> B means A calls B:



Are other editors like vim or emacs or Visual Studio Code supported?

Yes!

There is a vim plugin for CodeQuery called vim-codequery by devjoe.

There is a Visual Studio Code extension for CodeQuery called codequery4vscode by ruben2020. The Visual Studio Code Extension Marketplace page for this extension is ruben2020.codequery4vscode.

We welcome contributors to develop plugins for other editors too.

What does it cost? How is it licensed?

It’s freeware and free open source software.

This software is licensed under the Mozilla Public License, version 2.0 (MPL-2.0). See LICENSE.md or LICENSE.txt. This applies to both the distributed Source Code Form and the distributed Executable Form of the software.

To understand the MPL-2.0 license, please read the MPL-2.0 FAQ by mozilla.org.

Files under the querylib directory are licensed under the MIT license. See QueryLib README. This is a library to query CodeQuery database files. This library is MIT-licensed, so that it may be used to create plugins for editors, IDEs and other software without restrictions. It’s only dependency is on sqlite3.

Can I use it in a commercial environment without purchasing, for an unlimited time?

Yes. However, donations are welcomed.

Which platforms are supported?

It has been tested on Windows 7 64-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Mac OS X, Ubuntu and Fedora Linux 64-bit and, Ubuntu and Fedora Linux 32-bit.

Contributions are welcomed to attempt ports to other operating systems.

Is the software available in other languages?

Yes. This applies only to the GUI tool.

Contributions are welcomed to update or provide new translations.

How to install it?

On Windows, EXE setup packages will be provided here: CodeQuery@sourceforge downloads. The EXE setup package shall also contain cscope.exe, ctags.exe and the required DLLs. So, everything you need is in one package. However, pycscope (optional - only for Python) and starscope (optional - only for Ruby, Go and Javascript) are not bundled together with this setup package and need to be installed separately.

On Linux, tar.gz, RPM and Debian package installations will be provided here: CodeQuery@sourceforge downloads.

On Mac, the software can be installed through Brew using brew install codequery .

To build on Linux and Mac, please read the INSTALL-LINUX file.

Version 15.8a of cscope or higher, works best with CodeQuery.

How do I use it?

On Windows: HOWTO-WINDOWS. This file is included in the EXE setup package.

On Linux and Mac: HOWTO-LINUX

Please read the HOWTO file provided for each platform. The workflow looks like this:

How do I generate whole-program call graphs or UML class diagrams?

CodeQuery cannot do this at the moment.

To generate whole-program call graphs, please use GNU cflow or CodeViz for C and C++. For Java, there is Javashot.

To generate whole-program UML class diagrams for various object-oriented languages, please use tags2uml.

Are there any known limitations?

For C and C++, inline assembly code is not supported by all the tools. This mainly affects embedded software, OS and driver code.

Please exclude files with inline assembly code from the list of files (cscope.files) to be scanned.

Please see the email address below, and also the Issues tab in GitHub.

Email address:



Website: CodeQuery website

How can I contribute?

Report bugs

Provide feedback, new ideas, suggestions etc. What would you like to see?

Tell your friends, recommend it on StackOverflow or social media

Fix bugs (see Issues tab)

Update translations (Deutsch, Francais, Japanese etc.)

Port to other platforms

Write plugins for emacs, eclipse, Notepad++, NetBeans, Jenkins etc.

Add support for other languages e.g. Objective-C, Swift

List of Contributors

ruben2020

naseer

bruno-

devjoe

jonashaag

ilovezfs

JCount

brianonn

teungri

(More welcomed)

Credits

We thank the people behind the following projects:

cscope - our database is derived from this

Exuberant ctags- our database is derived from this

Universal ctags - drop-in replacement for Exuberant ctags

pycscope - our database (for Python) is derived from this

starscope - our database (for Ruby, Go and Javascript) is derived from this

sqlite3 - our database is using this format

CMake - cross-platform build toolchain for CodeQuery

Qt open source - GUI toolkit used to build CodeQuery

showgraph - visualization done using this library

scintilla - our code editing widget

vim-codequery - vim plugin for CodeQuery

Axialis - free images for CodeQuery and this website

brew - binaries for Mac here