What is VPPDetector?

VPPDetector is a tool designed to detect variadic parameter pitfalls (VPPs) in Python code, i.e., an API with variadic parameters internally passes these parameters to other APIs that do not support variadic parameters. VPPDetector helps developers identify and avoid potential compatibility issues arising from VPPs.

Prerequisites

• Linux (tested on Ubuntu 18.04.1)
• Python 3.9.12
• PCART: Download PCART's source code and put vppdetector.py into the root directory of PCART

Usage

Step1: Download different versions of one Python third-party library to the local environment using the pip command, and add the path into the tool code. The directory structure is as follows:

/home/usr/Packages/
├── library/
│   ├── version1/
│       ├── file1.py
│       └── file2.py
|       ...
|	├── version1
|   ├── version2
|   ...

Step2: Detection

Run Command

python vppdetector.py

Output

The final detection results are saved into a JSON file, which records the file and line number where each API is located in detail.

{
    "/home/zhang/Packages/aiohttp/aiohttp0.18.0/client.py": [
        {
            "aiohttp.client.ClientSession.get": 322,
            "_request": [
                325,
                "[125]"
            ]
        },
    ...
}

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Publication

Coding Pitfalls: Demystifying the Potential API Compatibility Risk of Variadic Parameters in Python (ISSRE24-fast abstracts).

@inproceedings{zhang2024coding,
  title={Coding Pitfalls: Demystifying the Potential API Compatibility Risk of Variadic Parameters in Python},
  author={Zhang, Shuai and He, Gangqiang and Xiao, Guanping},
  booktitle={2024 IEEE 35th International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering Workshops (ISSREW)},
  pages={105--106},
  year={2024},
  organization={IEEE}
}