SVNChecker - the Missing Link between Version Control and Bug Tracking

Abstract

The SVNChecker is an Open Source framework for pre- and post-commit hooks in a number of version control systems (VCS). It allows tight integration of the VCS into existing development environments and to perform a variety of checks of the committed source code. The major use cases are the integration of VCS with issue and bug tracking systems and the check of source code against coding standards and unit tests.

The SVNChecker is designed and developed as an open extensible framework. By writing appropriate plug-ins it can be extended to almost any kind of "check". This can be used to enforce a variety of regulations of the software development process. By developing "handler" plug-ins the result of checks can be handled in almost all required ways (for example for sending mails, updating databases or running any given external software).

At the moment the SVNChecker is extended with a plug-in technology to allow the integration of any kind of VCS (for example git or Perforce). The programm and its plug-in API is written in pure Python.

This talk starts with a short overview of the process of software engineering and the tools which are typically involved. It describes how version control is used with subversion and how the SVNChecker fits into this to support the checking of source code.

After this general overview the talk will give detailed information about the design of the SVNChecker and will show how it can be extended to fulfil special needs.