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
   

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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
   

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3. Browser-based search (sourcegraph.com/search)
   

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4. IDE-based search (VSCode Plugin)
   

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5. 1. Find projects that
   welcome contributors
   Use case: you want to find a welcoming open source project to
   contribute to (ex: for Hacktoberfest)
   

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6. Search string:
   contributing lang:Markdown
   

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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
   

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10. Search string:
    contributing lang:Markdown
    repohasfile:"^composer.json$" patterntype:regexp
    

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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
    

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13. Search string:
    tailwindcss file:package.json
    

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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
    

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16. Search string:
    repo:^github\.com/minicli/.* new TableHelper
    lang:PHP
    

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18. Search string:
    repo:^github\.com/minicli/.*
    getPrinter()->out(...,...) patterntype:structural
    

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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
    

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21. Search string:
    repo:^github\.com/sourcegraph/.*
    (key|secret|token)-[\w+]{32,} patterntype:regexp
    

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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
    

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23. Search string:
    symfont/process lang:JSON
    

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25. 7. Audit an organization for
    outdated dependencies
    Use case: you want to check across repositories for dependencies with
    a specific version
    

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26. Search string:
    file:package.json lodash 4.17.19
    patterntype:regexp
    

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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
    

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28. Search string:
    lang:PHP ^if([(...)]) patterntype:regexp
    

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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
    

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31. Search string:
    repo:^github\.com/laravel/laravel$ type:commit
    after:lastweek
    

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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
    

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34. Search string:
    mhash(...) lang:PHP select:content
    patterntype:structural
    

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36. Thank You!
    Questions?
    Twitter: @erikaheidi
    E-mail: erika.heidi@sourcegraph.com
    https://sourcegraph.com
    

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