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![[image of the Head of a GNU]](http://web.archive.org/web/20130606032037/http://www.gnu.org/graphics/gnu-head-sm.jpg)
An 'ID database' is a binary file containing
a list of file names, a list of tokens,
and a sparse matrix indicating
which tokens appear in which files.
With this database and some tools to query it, many text-searching tasks
become simpler and faster.
For example, you can list all files that
reference a particular `#include' file throughout a huge source hierarchy,
search for all the memos containing references to a project, or
automatically invoke an editor on all files containing references to some
function or variable.
Anyone with a large software project to maintain, or
a large set of text files to organize, can benefit from the ID utilities.
Although the name `ID' is short for `identifier', the ID utilities
handle more than just identifiers; they also treat other kinds of
tokens, most notably numeric constants, and the contents of certain
character strings.
You can obtain the GNU idutils using one of the following methods:
http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/idutils/
[via HTTP]
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/idutils/
[via FTP]
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.savannah.gnu.org:/sources/idutils co idutils
[via anonymous CVS]
A recent CVS build is also available on GNU sites and mirrors.
The official GNU idutils manual is available here:
http://www.gnu.org/software/idutils/manual/
