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| # GRAAL: a Generic Repository AnALyzer [](https://travis-ci.org/valeriocos/graal) [](https://coveralls.io/github/valeriocos/graal?branch=master) | ||
| # Graal: a Generic Repository AnALyzer [](https://travis-ci.org/valeriocos/graal) [](https://coveralls.io/github/valeriocos/graal?branch=master) | ||
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| Graal extends the Git backend of [Perceval](https://github.com/chaoss/grimoirelab-perceval) to enable ad-hoc source code analysis. Thus, | ||
| it fetches the commits from a Git repository and provides a mechanism to plug third party tools/libraries focused on source code analysis. | ||
| Graal leverages on the Git backend of [Perceval](https://github.com/chaoss/grimoirelab-perceval) and enhances it to set up ad-hoc | ||
| source code analysis. Thus, it fetches the commits from a Git repository and provides a mechanism to plug third party tools/libraries focused on source code analysis. | ||
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| # How it works | ||
| TODO | ||
| ## How it works | ||
| The Perceval Git backend creates a local mirror of a Git repository (local or remote), fetches the metadata of commits in chronological order and returns them as a list of JSON documents | ||
| (one per commit). Graal leverages on the incremental functionalities provided by the Git backend and enhances the logic to handle Git repositories by creating a | ||
| working tree to perform checkout operations (which are not possible on a Git mirror). Graal intercepts each JSON document and enables the user to perform the following steps: | ||
| - **Filter.** The filtering is used to select or discard commits based on the information available in the JSON document and/or via the Graal parameters. For any selected commit, | ||
| Graal executes a checkout on the working tree using the commit hash, thus setting the state of the working tree at that given revision. | ||
| - **Analyze.** The analysis takes the JSON document and the current working tree and enables the user to set up ad-hoc source code analysis by plugging existing tools through system calls | ||
| or their Python interfaces, when possible. The results of the analysis are parsed and manipulated by the user and then automatically embedded in the JSON document. It is worth | ||
| noting that in this step the user can rely on some predefined functionalities of Graal to deal with the repository snapshot (e.g., listing files, creating archives). | ||
| - **Post-process.** In the final step, the inflated JSON document can be optionally processed to alter (e.g., renaming, removing) its attributes, thus granting the user complete control over the output of Graal executions. | ||
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| # Examples | ||
| TODO | ||
| Several parameters (inherited from the [Git backend](http://perceval.readthedocs.io/en/latest/perceval.backends.core.html#module-perceval.backends.core.git)) are available to control the execution; for instance, **from_date** and **to_date** | ||
| allow to select commits authored since and before a given date, **branches** allows to fetch commits only from specific branches, | ||
| and **latest_items** returns only those commits which are new since the last fetch operation. Graal includes additional parameters to drive | ||
| the analysis to filter in/out files and directories in the repository (**in_paths** and **out_paths**), set the **entrypoint** | ||
| and define the **details** level of the analysis (useful when analyzing large software projects). | ||
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| ## Requirements | ||
| - lizard>=1.14.10 | ||
| - perceval>=0.9.6 | ||
| - pylint>=1.8.4 | ||
| - networkx>=2.1 | ||
| - pydot>=1.2.4 | ||
| - bandit>=1.4.0 | ||
| - grimoirelab-toolkit>=0.1.4 | ||
| - [cloc](http://cloc.sourceforge.net/) | ||
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| ## How to install/uninstall | ||
| Graal is being developed and tested mainly on GNU/Linux platforms. Thus it is very likely it will work out of the box | ||
| on any Linux-like (or Unix-like) platform, upon providing the right version of Python (3.5, 3.6). | ||
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| **To install**, run: | ||
| ``` | ||
| $> git clone https://github.com/valeriocos/graal | ||
| $> python3 setup.py build | ||
| $> python3 setup.py install | ||
| ``` | ||
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| **To uninstall**, run: | ||
| ``` | ||
| $> pip3 uninstall graal | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ## Backends | ||
| Several backends have been developed to assess the genericity of Graal. Those backends leverage on source code analysis | ||
| tools, where executions are triggered via system calls or their Python interfaces. In the current status, the backends | ||
| mostly target Python code, however other backends can be easily developed to cover other programming languages. The | ||
| currently available backends are: | ||
| - **CoCom** gathers data about code complexity (e.g., cyclomatic complexity, LOC) from projects written in popular | ||
| programming languages such as: C/C++, Java, Scala, JavaScript, Ruby and Python. It leverages on [Cloc](http://cloc.sourceforge.net/)) and | ||
| [Lizard](https://github.com/terryyin/lizard). | ||
| - **CoDep** extracts package and class dependencies of a Python module and serialized them as JSON structures, composed of | ||
| edges and nodes, thus easing the bridging with front-end technologies for graph visualizations. It combines [PyReverse](https://pypi.org/project/pyreverse/) | ||
| and [NetworkX](https://networkx.github.io/). | ||
| - **CoQua** retrieves code quality insights, such as checks about line-code’s length, well-formed variable names, unused | ||
| imported modules and code clones. It uses [PyLint](https://www.pylint.org/). | ||
| - **CoVuln** scans the code to identify security vulnerabilities such as potential SQL and Shell injections, hard-coded | ||
| passwords and weak cryptographic key size. It relies on [Bandit](https://github.com/PyCQA/bandit). | ||
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| ### How to develop a backend | ||
| Creating your own backend is pretty easy, you only need to redefine the following methods of Graal: | ||
| - **_filter_commit.** This method is used to select or discard commits based on the information available in the JSON document | ||
| and/or via the Graal parameters (e.g., the commits authored by a given user or targeting a given software component). | ||
| For any selected commit, Graal executes a checkout on the working tree using the commit hash, thus setting the state of | ||
| the working tree at that given revision. | ||
| - **_analyze.** This method takes the document and the current working tree and allows to connect existing tools through system calls or their Python interfaces, when possible. | ||
| The results of the analysis, parsed and manipulated by the user, are automatically embedded in the JSON document. | ||
| - **_post.** This method allows to alter (e.g., renaming, removing) the attributes of the inflated JSON documents. | ||
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| ## How to use | ||
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| Graal can be used from command line or directly from Python, both usages are described below. | ||
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| ### From command line | ||
| Launching Graal from command line does not require much effort, but only some basic knowledge of GNU/Linux shell commands. | ||
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| The example below shows how easy it is to fetch code complexity information from a Git repository. The **CoCom** backend | ||
| requires the URL where the repository is located (_https://github.com/chaoss/grimoirelab-perceval_) and the local path | ||
| where to mirror the repository (_/tmp/graal-cocom_). Then, the JSON documents produced are redirected to the file _graal-cocom.test_. | ||
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| ``` | ||
| $ graal cocom https://github.com/chaoss/grimoirelab-perceval --git-path /tmp/graal-cocom > /graal-cocom.test | ||
| Starting the quest for the Graal. | ||
| Git worktree /tmp/... created! | ||
| Fetching commits: ... | ||
| Git worktree /tmp/... deleted! | ||
| Fetch process completed: .. commits inspected | ||
| Quest completed. | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ### From Python | ||
| Graal’s functionalities can be embedded in Python scripts. Again, the effort of using Graal is minimum. In this case the user | ||
| only needs some knowledge of Python scripting. The example below shows how to use Graal in a script. | ||
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| The **graal.backends.core.cocom** module is imported at the beginning of the file, then the **repo_uri** and **repo_dir** variables | ||
| are set to the URI of the Git repository and the local path where to mirror it. These variables are used to initialize a | ||
| **CoCom class object**. In the last line of the script, the commits inflated with the result of the analysis are retrieved | ||
| using the fetch method. The fetch method inherits its argument from **Perceval**, thus it optionally accept two Datetime | ||
| objects to gather only those commits after and before a given date, a list of branches to focus on specific development | ||
| activities, and a flag to collect the commits available after the last execution. | ||
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| ``` | ||
| #! /usr/bin/env python3 | ||
| from graal.backends.core.cocom import CoCom | ||
| # URL for the git repo to analyze | ||
| repo_uri = ’http://github.com/chaoss/grimoirelab-perceval’ | ||
| # directory where to mirror the repo | ||
| repo_dir = ’/tmp/graal-cocom’ | ||
| # Cocom object initialization | ||
| cc = CoCom(uri=repo_url, gitpath=repo_dir) | ||
| # fetch all commits | ||
| commits = [commit for commit in cc.fetch()] | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ## How to integrate it with Arthur | ||
| [Arthur](https://github.com/chaoss/grimoirelab-kingarthur) is another tool of the [Grimoirelab ecosystem](https://chaoss.github.io/grimoirelab/). It was originally designed to allow to schedule | ||
| and run Perceval executions at scale through distributed **Redis** queues, and store the obtained results in an **ElasticSearch** database. | ||
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| Arthur has been extended to allow handling Graal tasks, which inherit from Perceval Git tasks. The code to make this extension possible is | ||
| available at: https://github.com/chaoss/grimoirelab-kingarthur/pull/33. | ||
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| Information about Arthur is available at https://github.com/chaoss/grimoirelab-kingarthur. |