==== Various utilities, that make FreeBSD developer life easier ====

----

This page has been created with the intention of exchanging
opinions on which tools help you to improve your work on
%%FreeBSD%% source tree. It shares some good development habits as
well.

**Building binaries:**

  * ''%%make(1)%%''
    * ''%%/usr/share/mk%%'' Provides %%FreeBSD%%-specific and general BSDmakefile libraries, which assist in building executables, libraries, managing installation, manual pages, etc.

**Source code editing:**

  * ''%%nvi(1)%%''

  * ''%%editors/vim%%''

    * ''%%/usr/src/tools/tools/editing/freebsd.vim%%'' Provides %%FreeBSD%%-specific settings for %%ViM%%

%%<%%put some macros here>

  * ''%%editors/emacs%%''

    * ''%%/usr/src/tools/tools/editing/freebsd.el%%'' Provides %%FreeBSD%%-specific settings for Emacs

%%<%%put some macros here>

  * ''%%editors/jed%%''
    * Provides very nice syntax highlighting.

**Source code reading:**

  * ''%%devel/ctags%%''

Extended ctags

See if these are very different from typical tags..

  * ''%%devel/cscope%%'' Lets you to quickly move between source code files. It builds a database of tags (similar to ctags), which is used later to jump between function prototypes/definitions.

It can be easily integrated with vim(1) editor as well as Emacs (xcscope.el can be chosen as an option at ''%%cscope%%'' installation time).

  * ''%%devel/cscout%%'' [[DiomidisSpinellis/CScout|CScout]] Analyzes source code and lets you to start local WWW server. Once it's done, you can move through your source-code base in a Web browser; it provides call graph generation and other enhencements.

**Source code reading online:**

  * [[http://fxr.watson.org]] Cross-referenced source code of various open source operating systems indexed in clickable manner.

  * [[http://BXR.SU/|BXR.SU — Super User's BSD Cross Reference]] The same, but [[http://www.freebsd.org/news/status/report-2013-01-2013-03.html#BXR.SU-%E2%80%94-Super-User%27s-BSD-Cross-Reference|done differently]] (with %%OpenGrok%% software)

**Code documenting:**
  * ''%%/usr/src/tools/kerneldoc/subsys/%%'' Doxygen scripts. You can see HTML result here: [[http://www.leidinger.net/FreeBSD/dox/]], but please don't mirror this site. Index sources by yourself.

**Additional tools:**

  * ''%%textproc/diffstat%%''

lets you to see a statistics of a patch in terms
of inserted/deleted/changed lines. It's similar to what you see
on git-related mailing lists.

//If you're currently reading this page and you use a tool that isn't mentioned//
//here but improves your code-writing tasks, skills, either update the page or let me//
//know (WojciechKoszek)//