328 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
328 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
---
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stage: Verify
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group: Testing
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info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#designated-technical-writers
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type: reference, howto
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---
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# Code Quality
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> - [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/1984) in [GitLab Starter](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/) 9.3.
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> - Made [available in all tiers](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/212499) in 13.2.
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Ensuring your project's code stays simple, readable and easy to contribute to can be problematic. With the help of [GitLab CI/CD](../../../ci/README.md), you can analyze your
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source code quality using GitLab Code Quality.
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Code Quality:
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- Uses [Code Climate Engines](https://codeclimate.com), which are
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free and open source. Code Quality does not require a Code Climate
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subscription.
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- Runs in [pipelines](../../../ci/pipelines/index.md) using a Docker image built in the
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[GitLab Code
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Quality](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ci-cd/codequality) project using [default Code Climate configurations](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ci-cd/codequality/-/tree/master/codeclimate_defaults).
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- Can make use of a [template](#example-configuration).
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- Is available with [Auto
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DevOps](../../../topics/autodevops/stages.md#auto-code-quality).
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- Can be extended through [Analysis Plugins](https://docs.codeclimate.com/docs/list-of-engines) or a [custom tool](#implementing-a-custom-tool).
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## Code Quality Widget
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> - [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/1984) in [GitLab Starter](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/) 9.3.
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> - Made [available in all tiers](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/212499) in 13.2.
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Going a step further, GitLab can show the Code Quality report right
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in the merge request widget area if a report from the target branch is available to compare to:
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![Code Quality Widget](img/code_quality.png)
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Watch a quick walkthrough of Code Quality in action:
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<div class="video-fallback">
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See the video: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B32LxtJKo9M">Code Quality: Speed Run</a>.
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</div>
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<figure class="video-container">
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<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B32LxtJKo9M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true"> </iframe>
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</figure>
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NOTE: **Note:**
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For one customer, the auditor found that having Code Quality, SAST, and Container Scanning all automated in GitLab CI/CD was almost better than a manual review! [Read more](https://about.gitlab.com/customers/bi_worldwide/).
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See also the Code Climate list of [Supported Languages for Maintainability](https://docs.codeclimate.com/docs/supported-languages-for-maintainability).
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## Use cases
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For instance, consider the following workflow:
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1. Your backend team member starts a new implementation for making a certain
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feature in your app faster.
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1. With Code Quality reports, they analyze how their implementation is impacting
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the code quality.
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1. The metrics show that their code degrades the quality by 10 points.
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1. You ask a co-worker to help them with this modification.
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1. They both work on the changes until Code Quality report displays no
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degradations, only improvements.
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1. You approve the merge request and authorize its deployment to staging.
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1. Once verified, their changes are deployed to production.
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## Example configuration
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This example shows how to run Code Quality on your code by using GitLab CI/CD and Docker.
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It requires GitLab 11.11 or later, and GitLab Runner 11.5 or later. If you are using
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GitLab 11.4 or earlier, you can view the deprecated job definitions in the
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[documentation archive](https://docs.gitlab.com/12.10/ee/user/project/merge_requests/code_quality.html#previous-job-definitions).
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First, you need GitLab Runner configured:
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- For the [Docker-in-Docker workflow](../../../ci/docker/using_docker_build.md#use-docker-in-docker-workflow-with-docker-executor).
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- With enough disk space to handle generated Code Quality files. For example on the [GitLab project](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab) the files are approximately 7 GB.
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Once you set up GitLab Runner, include the Code Quality template in your CI configuration:
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```yaml
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include:
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- template: Code-Quality.gitlab-ci.yml
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```
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The above example will create a `code_quality` job in your CI/CD pipeline which
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will scan your source code for code quality issues. The report will be saved as a
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[Code Quality report artifact](../../../ci/pipelines/job_artifacts.md#artifactsreportscodequality)
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that you can later download and analyze.
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It's also possible to override the URL to the Code Quality image by
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setting the `CODE_QUALITY_IMAGE` variable. This is particularly useful if you want
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to lock in a specific version of Code Quality, or use a fork of it:
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```yaml
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include:
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- template: Code-Quality.gitlab-ci.yml
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code_quality:
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variables:
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CODE_QUALITY_IMAGE: "registry.example.com/codequality-fork:latest"
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```
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In [GitLab 13.4 and later](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/11100), you can override the [Code Quality environment variables](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ci-cd/codequality#environment-variables):
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```yaml
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variables:
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TIMEOUT_SECONDS: 1
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include:
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- template: Code-Quality.gitlab-ci.yml
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```
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By default, report artifacts are not downloadable. If you need them downloadable on the
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job details page, you can add `gl-code-quality-report.json` to the artifact paths like so:
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```yaml
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include:
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- template: Code-Quality.gitlab-ci.yml
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code_quality:
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artifacts:
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paths: [gl-code-quality-report.json]
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```
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The included `code_quality` job is running in the `test` stage, so it needs to be included in your CI configuration, like so:
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```yaml
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stages:
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- test
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```
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TIP: **Tip:**
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This information will be automatically extracted and shown right in the merge request widget.
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CAUTION: **Caution:**
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On self-managed instances, if a malicious actor compromises the Code Quality job
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definition they will be able to execute privileged Docker commands on the runner
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host. Having proper access control policies mitigates this attack vector by
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allowing access only to trusted actors.
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### Disabling the code quality job
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The `code_quality` job will not run if the `$CODE_QUALITY_DISABLED` environment
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variable is present. Please refer to the environment variables [documentation](../../../ci/variables/README.md)
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to learn more about how to define one.
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To disable the `code_quality` job, add `CODE_QUALITY_DISABLED` as a custom environment
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variable. This can be done:
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- For the whole project, [in the project settings](../../../ci/variables/README.md#create-a-custom-variable-in-the-ui)
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or [CI/CD configuration](../../../ci/variables/README.md#create-a-custom-variable-in-the-ui).
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- For a single pipeline run:
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1. Go to **CI/CD > Pipelines**
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1. Click **Run Pipeline**
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1. Add `CODE_QUALITY_DISABLED` as the variable key, with any value.
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### Using with merge request pipelines
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The configuration provided by the Code Quality template does not let the `code_quality` job
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run on [pipelines for merge requests](../../../ci/merge_request_pipelines/index.md).
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If pipelines for merge requests is enabled, the `code_quality:rules` must be redefined.
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The template has these [`rules`](../../../ci/yaml/README.md#rules) for the `code quality` job:
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```yaml
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code_quality:
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rules:
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- if: '$CODE_QUALITY_DISABLED'
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when: never
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- if: '$CI_COMMIT_TAG || $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH'
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```
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If you are using merge request pipelines, your `rules` (or [`workflow: rules`](../../../ci/yaml/README.md#workflowrules))
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might look like this example:
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```yaml
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job1:
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rules:
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- if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"' # Run job1 in merge request pipelines
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- if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "master"' # Run job1 in pipelines on the master branch (but not in other branch pipelines)
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- if: '$CI_COMMIT_TAG' # Run job1 in pipelines for tags
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```
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To make these work together, you will need to overwrite the code quality `rules`
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so that they match your current `rules`. From the example above, it could look like:
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```yaml
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include:
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- template: Code-Quality.gitlab-ci.yml
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code_quality:
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rules:
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- if: '$CODE_QUALITY_DISABLED'
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when: never
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- if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"' # Run code quality job in merge request pipelines
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- if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH' # Run code quality job in pipelines on the master branch (but not in other branch pipelines)
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- if: '$CI_COMMIT_TAG' # Run code quality job in pipelines for tags
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```
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## Configuring jobs using variables
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The Code Quality job supports environment variables that users can set to
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configure job execution at runtime.
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For a list of available environment variables, see
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[Environment variables](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ci-cd/codequality#environment-variables).
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## Implementing a custom tool
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It's possible to have a custom tool provide Code Quality reports in GitLab. To
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do this:
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1. Define a job in your `.gitlab-ci.yml` file that generates the
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[Code Quality report
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artifact](../../../ci/pipelines/job_artifacts.md#artifactsreportscodequality).
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1. Configure your tool to generate the Code Quality report artifact as a JSON
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file that implements a subset of the [Code Climate
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spec](https://github.com/codeclimate/platform/blob/master/spec/analyzers/SPEC.md#data-types).
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The Code Quality report artifact JSON file must contain an array of objects
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with the following properties:
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| Name | Description |
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| ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| `description` | A description of the code quality violation. |
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| `fingerprint` | A unique fingerprint to identify the code quality violation. For example, an MD5 hash. |
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| `location.path` | The relative path to the file containing the code quality violation. |
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| `location.lines.begin` | The line on which the code quality violation occurred. |
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Example:
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```json
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[
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{
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"description": "'unused' is assigned a value but never used.",
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"fingerprint": "7815696ecbf1c96e6894b779456d330e",
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"location": {
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"path": "lib/index.js",
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"lines": {
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"begin": 42
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}
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}
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}
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]
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```
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NOTE: **Note:**
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Although the Code Climate spec supports more properties, those are ignored by
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GitLab.
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## Code Quality reports **(STARTER)**
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Once the Code Quality job has completed:
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- The full list of code quality violations generated by a pipeline is shown in the
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Code Quality tab of the Pipeline Details page.
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- Potential changes to code quality are shown directly in the merge request.
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The Code Quality widget in the merge request compares the reports from the base and head of the branch,
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then lists any violations that will be resolved or created when the branch is merged.
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- The full JSON report is available as a
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[downloadable artifact](../../../ci/pipelines/job_artifacts.md#downloading-artifacts)
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for the `code_quality` job.
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## Extending functionality
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### Using Analysis Plugins
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Should there be a need to extend the default functionality provided by Code Quality, as stated in [Code Quality](#code-quality), [Analysis Plugins](https://docs.codeclimate.com/docs/list-of-engines) are available.
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For example, to use the [SonarJava analyzer](https://docs.codeclimate.com/docs/sonar-java),
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add a file named `.codeclimate.yml` containing the [enablement code](https://docs.codeclimate.com/docs/sonar-java#enable-the-plugin)
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for the plugin to the root of your repository:
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```yaml
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version: "2"
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plugins:
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sonar-java:
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enabled: true
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```
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This adds SonarJava to the `plugins:` section of the [default `.codeclimate.yml`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ci-cd/codequality/-/blob/master/codeclimate_defaults/.codeclimate.yml)
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included in your project.
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Changes to the `plugins:` section do not affect the `exclude_patterns` section of the
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default `.codeclimate.yml`. See the Code Climate documentation for
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[excluding files and folders](https://docs.codeclimate.com/docs/excluding-files-and-folders)
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for more details.
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Here's [an example project](https://gitlab.com/jheimbuck_gl/jh_java_example_project) that uses Code Quality with a `.codeclimate.yml` file.
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## Troubleshooting
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### Changing the default configuration has no effect
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A common issue is that the terms `Code Quality` (GitLab specific) and `Code Climate`
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(Engine used by GitLab) are very similar. You must add a **`.codeclimate.yml`** file
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to change the default configuration, **not** a `.codequality.yml` file. If you use
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the wrong filename, the [default `.codeclimate.yml`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ci-cd/codequality/-/blob/master/codeclimate_defaults/.codeclimate.yml)
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is still used.
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### No Code Quality report is displayed in a Merge Request
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This can be due to multiple reasons:
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- You just added the Code Quality job in your `.gitlab-ci.yml`. The report does not
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have anything to compare to yet, so no information can be displayed. Future merge
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requests will have something to compare to.
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- Your pipeline is not set to run the code quality job on your default branch. If there is no report generated from the default branch, your MR branch reports will not have anything to compare to.
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- If no [degradation or error is detected](https://docs.codeclimate.com/docs/maintainability#section-checks),
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nothing will be displayed.
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- The [`artifacts:expire_in`](../../../ci/yaml/README.md#artifactsexpire_in) CI/CD
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setting can cause the Code Quality artifact(s) to expire faster than desired.
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- Large `codeclimate.json` files (esp. >10 MB) are [known to prevent the report from being displayed](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/2737).
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As a work-around, try removing [properties](https://github.com/codeclimate/platform/blob/master/spec/analyzers/SPEC.md#data-types)
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that are [ignored by GitLab](#implementing-a-custom-tool). You can:
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- Configure the Code Quality tool to not output those types.
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- Use `sed`, `awk` or similar commands in the `.gitlab-ci.yml` script to
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edit the `codeclimate.json` before the job completes.
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### Only a single Code Quality report is displayed, but more are defined
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GitLab only uses the Code Quality artifact from the latest created job (with the largest job ID).
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If multiple jobs in a pipeline generate a code quality artifact, those of earlier jobs are ignored.
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To avoid confusion, configure only one job to generate a `codeclimate.json`.
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