Google Summer of Code 2019/Increase archive coverage

Title:

Increase archive coverage

Description:

As Software Heritage works on archiving and sharing source code, one of the major tasks is to ingest the latest source code available in the database from time to time and from all the possible sources where you can fetch the source code using listers and ingest them using loaders. Listers are components that crawl the APIs of software forges (e.g., Bitbucket, GitHub, Sourceforge, ...) and return a list of the software available in it whereas [Loaders take a bundle of software (tarball, Git repository ...) and load it into Software Heritage, by adapting it so that it matches the archive data model. The goal of this project is to increase the archive coverage by making listers and loaders for different websites that which stores source code, so that Software Heritage can fetch as much source code as possible and store it in the database to preserve it for future generations.

Student:

Archit Agrawal

• Forge activity

Mentors:

• Nicolas Dandrimont
• Antoine R. Dumont

Work Done:

• Listers:
  • Completed and merged
    • Phabricator Lister
    • GNU Lister
    • CRAN Lister
    • Packagist Lister
    • CGit Lister
  • Did research on the methods that could be used to make following listers and made an implementation plan for the same
    • Launchpad Lister
    • Rubygem Lister
    • NuGET(.NET) Lister
    • Maven Lister
  • Add tests to PyPI Lister
  • Refractor base tests for listers
  • Add documentation on *How to run a new lister*
• Loaders:
  • Base Package Manager Loader
    • Ingesting source code from package managers is a process somewhat similar for all of the package managers. This calls for a common base implementation for loading content from package managers into the archive. I worked on this idea, analysed the steps required to make a loader and the implementation of present package manager loader. Came up with the plan to implement the base loader and made the pass(D1694, D1810, D1811, D1812, D1813, D1814, D1744). However, after the recommendation from my mentor, we changed the approach to make the base loader. Instead of making the whole base loader in one go, we decided to break it into multiple steps(3 steps) and follow the incremental approach.
  • GNU Loader
    • As part of the first step towards the implementation of Base Loader, GNU Loader was implemented.

TO-DO:

• Implement the Listers using the research done and the implementation plan made for Launchpad, Rubygem.
• Find the workarounds to solve the challenges in making the Maven and NuGET(.NET) Lister.
• Work on the remaining steps in order to complete the Base Package Manager Loader.

Learnings:

Working in Software Heritage was a wholesome experience. I got to learn a new thing almost every day. It would me injustice id I say I can account all my learnings in a section of a blog, however here are a list of few of most prominent once:

• Working on a huge codebase
• Plan and design before jumping to code
• Writing clean and well-commented code
• Difference between doing projects in college and in the industry(Spoiler Alert: A lot)
• Multiple language integration in a python library (Used in CRAN Lister)
• Different programming methodologies explained to me by my mentors(eg TDD)
• Working with git and forge
• Working with Docker

Activity reports:

• May 2019
  • Week 20 Second Week (Community Bonding)
  • Week 21 Third Week (Community Bonding)
  • Week 22 First Week (Coding)
• June 2019
  • Week 23 Second Week (Coding)
  • Week 24 Third Week (Coding)
  • Week 25 Fourth Week (Coding)(Work Summary)
  • Week 26 Fifth Week (First Evaluation)
• July 2019
  • Week 27 Sixth Week (Coding)
  • Week 28 Seventh Week (Coding)
  • Week 29 Eight Week (Coding)(Work Summary)
  • Week 30 Nineth Week (Second Evaluation)
• August 2019
  • Week 31 Tenth Week (Coding)
  • Week 32 Eleventh Week (Coding)
  • Week 33 Twelfth Week (Coding)
  • Week 34 Thirteenth Week (Final Evaluation)

Links

• Lister source code repository
• Loader source code repository
• see project on the GSoC portal