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
- Did research on the methods that could be used to make following listers and made an implementation plan for the same
- 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:

Links