10 Code Search Tricks for Open Source

Learn how to leverage Sourcegraph code search to improve onboarding and productivity in the context of open source software.

Talk presented at JSWorld Online on February 10, 2022.

Transcript

1. 10 Code Search Tricks for Open Source Using Sourcegraph to improve onboarding and productivity in the context of OSS JSWorld Online 2021
2. Sourcegraph Code Search • Search across millions of indexed open source repositories ◦ doesn't require an account • Search across your public and private repositories ◦ requires an account to sync your repos from multiple code hosts • Other options: Self hosted ◦ free up to 10 users
3. Browser-based search (sourcegraph.com/search)
4. IDE-based search (VSCode Plugin)
5. 1. Find projects that welcome contributors Use case: you want to find a welcoming open source project to contribute to (ex: for Hacktoberfest)
6. Search string: contributing lang:Markdown
9. 2. Find welcoming projects in language or framework Use case: you want to find a welcoming open source project in your language or framework of choice to contribute to
10. Search string: contributing lang:Markdown repohasfile:"^composer.json$" patterntype:regexp
12. 3. Find projects relying on specific dependencies Use case: you want to find out which projects are relying on a library you wrote, and how they're using it
13. Search string: tailwindcss file:package.json
15. 4. Find how an object is used across multiple repositories Use case: you want to use an undocumented function or method from an open source project and would like to see usage examples
16. Search string: repo:^github\.com/minicli/.* new TableHelper lang:PHP
18. Search string: repo:^github\.com/minicli/.* getPrinter()->out(...,...) patterntype:structural
20. 5. Find exposed keys and secrets across repositories Use case: you want to check if any of your repositories contains exposed keys and secrets that were committed by mistake
21. Search string: repo:^github\.com/sourcegraph/.* (key|secret|token)-[\w+]{32,} patterntype:regexp
22. 6. Find usage of compromised dependencies Use case: you find out about a compromised package and want to check if the malicious code is included in any of your repositories
23. Search string: symfont/process lang:JSON
25. 7. Audit an organization for outdated dependencies Use case: you want to check across repositories for dependencies with a specific version
26. Search string: file:package.json lodash 4.17.19 patterntype:regexp
27. 8. Find code that is not up to language standards Use case: you want to audit one or multiple repositories for code that is not up to predefined standards and best practices
28. Search string: lang:PHP ^if([(...)]) patterntype:regexp
30. 9. Search for recent changes in large or multiple projects Use case: you want to be on top of any new functionality or bug patches in a project you rely on
31. Search string: repo:^github\.com/laravel/laravel$ type:commit after:lastweek
33. 10. Find deprecated function calls across repositories Use case: you need to update a project to a newer version of a framework or language, but there might be breaking changes
34. Search string: mhash(...) lang:PHP select:content patterntype:structural
36. Thank You! Questions? Twitter: @erikaheidi E-mail: erika.heidi@sourcegraph.com https://sourcegraph.com