Contributors are asked to adhere to the Python Community Code of Conduct.
Linux is the preferred operating system to use while contributing to the csaf tool.
Only use a supported version of Python (this is any version of Python from version 3.7).
It is recommended that a virtual python environment virtualenv is used to minimise interference that dependencies may have on your environment. It also enables the use of the tool using different versions of Python.
To install it:
pip install virtualenv
To make a new venv using python 3.9:
virtualenv -p python3.9 ~/Code/venv3.9
Each time you want to use a virtualenv, you "activate" it using the activate script:
source ~/Code/venv3.9/bin/activate
And when you're done with the venv, you can deactivate it using the deactivate
command.
While you're in a venv, the python
command will point to whatever version you specified when the venv was created, and pip command will install things only in that venv so you don't have to worry about conflicts with other versions or system packages.
If you're planning to contribute, first you'll want to get a local copy of the source code (also known as "cloning the repository")
Once you've got the copy, you can update it using
git pull
You're also going to want to have your own "fork" of the repository on GitHub. To make a fork on GitHub, read the instructions at Fork a repo. A fork is a copy of the main repository that you control, and you'll be using it to store and share your code with others. You only need to make the fork once.
Any additional packages needed are listed in the requirements.txt
file in the main directory.
These can be installed using the following pip command:
pip install -U -r requirements.txt
The -U
in that line above will update you to the latest versions of packages as needed, which is recommended
in order to have all the latest updates available. The -r requirements.txt
specifies the file with all the requirements.
pip install -r dev-requirements.txt
One of the reasons that virtualenv is suggested is that it makes it easier to do this section.
To run a local copy, the recommended way is to install it locally. From the main directory, run:
python3 -m pip install --user -e .
You should then be able to type sbom2doc --help
on the command line, and it should show the help information. If this does not
work, then double check that you have setup the local environment correctly, have downloaded and installed the code correctly,
that you are in your virtual environment and that the latest versions of
any dependent components have been installed.
The following tools can be used to improve code quality and readability:
isort
sorts imports alphabetically and by typeblack
provides automatic style formatting. This will give you basic PEP8 compliance. (PEP8 is where the default python style guide is defined.)flake8
provides additional code "linting" for more complex errors like unused imports.pyupgrade
helps to be forward compatible with new versions of python.
To format the imports using isort, you run isort --profile black
followed by the filename. You will have to add --profile black
when calling isort to make it compatible with Black formatter. For formatting a particular file name filename.py.
isort --profile black filename.py
Alternatively, you can run isort recursively for all the files by adding .
instead of filename
isort --profile black .
To format the code, you run black
followed by the filename you wish to reformat. For formatting a particular file name filename.py.
black filename.py
black
should be run after isort
.
As well as black
for automatically making sure code adheres to the style guide, flake8
is used to help find things like unused imports. The flake8 documentation covers what you need to know about running it.
pyupgrade is used to ensure any syntax is updated to fit new versions of python.
Most of our "style" stuff is caught by the black
and flake8
linters, but we also recommend that
contributions use f-strings for formatted strings:
Python provides multiple ways to format a string (you can read about them here) . This tool uses f-string formatting.
- Example: Formatting string using f-string
#Program prints a string containing name and age of person
name = "John Doe"
age = 23
print(f"Name of the person is {name} and his age is {age}")
#Output
# "Name of the person is John Doe and his age is 23"
Note that the string started with the f
followed by the string. Values are always added in the curly braces. Also we don't need to convert age into string. (we may have used str(age)
before using it in the string) f-strings are useful as they provide many cool features. You can read more about features and the good practices to use f-strings here.
The documentation is within the README.md file, which is stored in the main directory.
Any updates to the usage of the tool, particularly any updates to command line options or limitations should be described in the README.md file
Note that the contents of the README.md file is included in the documentation when the tool is released to pypi.