How to find nested calls of a specific function in C++ source and header files?

fwinter has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I guess this is a nice application for regular expressions in Perl.

Say, I would like to know how many times in a whole source code (consisting of hundreds of C++ source and header files) a function "foo" is called in a nested manner. (Nested is important here.) So, I am looking for statements like:

foo(...foo(...)...) ...
[download]

foo(...
   ...foo(...)...) ...
[download]

but not

foo(...) ... foo(...).
[download]

The statement in the source code might span over multiple code lines (like in the 2nd example). So, somehow the regexp must look across multiple lines. I think this might be the tricky part of the task. C++ is has not a regular syntax. However, it can be assumed that there is no preprocessor directive in the middle of a statement, and (of course since its legal C++) the statement is terminated with a semicolon.

How would one do this? Maybe split the task into 2 separate ones. Like: First transform the code into code with 1 statement per line, then look for nested calls in this transformed code...?!?

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Re: How to find nested calls of a specific function in C++ source and header files? by Anonymous Monk on Jan 23, 2012 at 13:02 UTC
So, somehow the regexp must look across multiple lines I'd use a parser c++ parse C++ header parser http://starship.python.net/~tbryan/PERCEPS/ C::Analyzer, Inline::C::ParseRegExp , Text::Balanced, Elegant examples to parse parenthesised strings How do I find matching/nesting anything? Can I use Perl regular expressions to match balanced text? How do I use a regular expression to strip C style comments from a file?	[reply]
Re: How to find nested calls of a specific function in C++ source and header files? by Anonymous Monk on Jan 23, 2012 at 12:50 UTC
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8971191/how-to-find-nested-calls-of-a-specific-function-in-c-source-and-header-files	[reply]
Re: How to find nested calls of a specific function in C++ source and header files? by fwinter (Initiate) on Jan 23, 2012 at 12:55 UTC
Since I just saw that a cross-link was posted to stackoverflow... Is this site for Q&A superfluous and this activity is moving to stackoverflow ? I this case one would rather post there?	[reply]
Re^2: How to find nested calls of a specific function in C++ source and header files? by Anonymous Monk on Jan 23, 2012 at 13:39 UTC
Hint: label your cross-posts. Not doing so is terribly impolite to the people who give answers but do not happen to visit both sites.	[reply]
Re^3: How to find nested calls of a specific function in C++ source and header files? by Anonymous Monk on Jan 23, 2012 at 13:48 UTC
To quote davido Please make sure when you cross-post that you identify such, so that people here (or there) don't end up working on a problem that is solved. Identifying cross-posting will promote collaborative progress too. Getting a bunch of people doing research for you in parallel without knowing about each others' progress defeats the collaboration aspect of public forums.	[reply]
Re: How to find nested calls of a specific function in C++ source and header files? by i5513 (Pilgrim) on Jan 23, 2012 at 21:40 UTC
=== Start Of Topic === I'm not an expert, but seems task to Coccinelle! === End Of Topic === I hope that help	[reply]