Plugins for RepoBee (the plugin category)
RepoBee defines a fairly simple but powerful plugin system that allows programmers to create plugins that hook into certain execution points of specific commands, or define new commands altogether. This chapter details general usage of existing plugins, such as installing, uninstalling and activating them. To read more about how to create plugins of your own, see repobee-plug Developer Documentation.
Listing available plugins (the list action)
The plugin list command allows you to list available plugins for RepoBee.
It should look something like this:
plugin list command$ repobee plugin list
╒═══════════╤══════════════════════════════════════════╤═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╤══════════╤════════════════╕
│ Name │ Description │ URL │ Latest │ Installed │
│ │ │ │ │ (√ = active) │
╞═══════════╪══════════════════════════════════════════╪═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╪══════════╪════════════════╡
│ junit4 │ Plugin for RepoBee that runs JUnit4 on │ https://github.com/repobee/repobee-junit4 │ v1.0.0 │ v1.0.0 │
│ │ cloned repos │ │ │ │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┼────────────────┤
│ feedback │ A RepoBee plugin for opening feedback │ https://github.com/repobee/repobee-feedback │ v0.6.2 │ v0.6.2 √ │
│ │ issues in on student issue trackers │ │ │ │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┼────────────────┤
│ sanitizer │ A plugin for sanitizing master │ https://github.com/repobee/repobee-sanitizer │ v0.1.0 │ - │
│ │ repositories before distribution to │ │ │ │
│ │ students │ │ │ │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┼────────────────┤
│ csvgrades │ A plugin for RepoBee that parses the │ https://github.com/repobee/repobee-csvgrades │ v0.2.0 │ - │
│ │ JSON file produced by list-issues to │ │ │ │
│ │ report grades into a CSV file │ │ │ │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┼────────────────┤
│ gitlab │ Makes RepoBee compatible with GitLab │ https://repobee.readthedocs.io/en/stable/plugins.html │ N/A │ built-in │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┼────────────────┤
│ javac │ Runs javac on student repos after │ https://repobee.readthedocs.io/en/stable/plugins.html │ N/A │ built-in │
│ │ cloning │ │ │ │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┼────────────────┤
│ pairwise │ Makes peer review allocation pairwise │ https://repobee.readthedocs.io/en/stable/plugins.html │ N/A │ built-in │
│ │ (if student A reviews student B, then │ │ │ │
│ │ student B reviews student A) │ │ │ │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┼────────────────┤
│ pylint │ Runs pylint on student repos after │ https://repobee.readthedocs.io/en/stable/plugins.html │ N/A │ built-in │
│ │ cloning │ │ │ │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┼────────────────┤
│ query │ An experimental query command for │ https://repobee.readthedocs.io/en/stable/plugins.html │ N/A │ built-in │
│ │ querying the hooks results file (NOTE: │ │ │ │
│ │ This plugin is not stable) │ │ │ │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┼────────────────┤
│ tamanager │ Manager plugin for adding and removing │ https://repobee.readthedocs.io/en/stable/plugins.html │ N/A │ built-in √ │
│ │ teachers/teaching assistants from the │ │ │ │
│ │ target organization. Teachers are granted │ │ │ │
│ │ read access to all repositories in the │ │ │ │
│ │ organization. This plugin should not be │ │ │ │
│ │ used with GitLab due to performance │ │ │ │
│ │ issues. (NOTE: This plugin is not stable │ │ │ │
│ │ yet and may change without notice) │ │ │ │
╘═══════════╧══════════════════════════════════════════╧═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╧══════════╧════════════════╛
There are a few things to note from the output. First of all, several plugins
are listed as built-in in the column labeled Installed. This means that
they ship with RepoBee, and there is no need to install them. Any plugin not
listed as built-in is external, and must be installed as described in the next
section. You may also note a √ next to certain version numbers. This means
that the plugin is active, which is discussed in Activating and deactivating installed plugins (the activate action).
Important
Documentation for plugins: It’s important to know where to find
documentation for any given plugin. For built-in plugins, you can find the
documentation in Built-in plugins. External plugins have separate
documentation, which can be found by going to the URL listed by the
list action.
Installing plugins (the install action)
The install action allows a user to install one of our curated plugins, or
user-made plugins. To install a curated plugin, simply run repobee plugin
install, and a menu system much like the config wizard will guide you
through the install process. To upgrade a plugin, simply run the install
action again and select a newer version.
It’s possible to perform a non-interactive install of a specific plugin and
version. This is useful for scripts and the like. For example, installing
junit4 version v1.0.0 can be done like so:
$ repobee plugin install --plugin-spec junit4@v1.0.0
The install action also allows for a local install. This is useful if you
want to install an unofficial plugin, or perhaps something that you wrote
yourself. To perform a local install, simply provide the path to the file (if
single-file plugin) or directory (if a packaged plugin) containing the plugin
to the --local option.
$ repobee plugin install --local path/to/plugin
Note that a local install may sometimes be dependent on its location in the local file system. If you move or delete the local plugin, it may break RepoBee’s installation of it.
Finally, one can also install plugins directly from a remote Git repository,
which is primarily intended to allow users to easily install unofficial plugins.
For example, we can install the junit4 plugin directly from its repository
like so:
$ repobee plugin install --git-url https://github.com/repobee/repobee-junit4@v1.0.0
The version specifier (here, @v1.0.0) can be any Git ref (e.g. branch, tag
or commit sha), and is optional. If omitted, RepoBee will install the latest
version from the default branch of the repository.
Important
For a plugin to be installable directly from a Git repository, the project must follow the packaging conventions detailed in Packaging plugins.
Uninstalling plugins (the uninstall action)
To uninstall a plugin, simply run repobee plugin uninstall. This will guide
you through the process of uninstalling any installed plugin.
Hint
Sometimes, plugins break, and may cause RepoBee to fail to load. If you
experience this, try running uninstall with the --no-plugins
preparser option.
$ repobee --no-plugins plugin uninstall
Much like for installing plugins, it’s possible to uninstall plugins
non-interactively. It is however sufficient to specify the name of the plugin,
as it is not possible to have multiple versions of a plugin installed at the
same time. A non-interactive uninstall of the junit4 plugin can for example
be executed like so:
$ repobee plugin uninstall --plugin-name junit4
Activating and deactivating installed plugins (the activate action)
A plugin being installed is not enough for it to actually do anything (otherwise, all of the plugins that ship with RepoBee would always do things). There are two ways to activate plugins: temporarily and persistently.
Temporary plugin activation
You can activate plugins temporarily for a single command execution by
specifying them with the --plug|-p option to the preparser. For example, if
I want to run repos clone with the javac plugin active, I would do
something like this:
$ repobee -p javac repos clone [...]
Warning
Recall that a command in RepoBee follows the pattern repobee <category>
<action> [args ...]. A common pitfall of temporary plugin activation is to
forget to specify the category in the command, which is never implied by
activating a plugin.
repos clone# this is incorrect, as the `repos` category is missing
$ repobee -p javac clone [...]
# this is correct
$ repobee -p javac repos clone [...]
We recommend using the -p preparser option for plugins that you only want to
activate from time to time, but you don’t necessarily want them active all the
time.
Hint
You can specify the -p option multiple times to temporarily activate
multiple plugins. That is to say, type repobee -p javac -p pylint [...]
to activate both the javac and pylint plugins.
Persistent plugin activation and deactivation
To persistently activate or deactivate a plugin, RepoBee provides an
activate action. Run repobee plugin activate, and follow the prompts to
activate or deactivate your desired plugin(s).
Note
Read the prompt at the top for how to activate/deactivate a plugin, just hovering over a plugin with the cursor and pressing enter does nothing.
We recommend activating plugins in this fashion if they are to be used
indefinitely, such as plugins that add commands, or plugins that fundamentally
change how RepoBee operates. For example, the gitlab plugin is a good
candidate for persistent activation, as is the feedback plugin, while the
junit4 plugin may be better suited for temporary activation.
As with the uninstall action, it’s possible to run the activate action
non-interactively. For example, one can toggle the active-status of a single
plugin like so.
$ repobee plugin activate --plugin-name gitlab
If the gitlab plugin was not active prior to running activate
non-interactively, it would now be active. If it was already active, it would
now be deactivated.
Plugin configuration
Some plugins are configurable, meaning that they read values from the
configuration file. To be able to configure a plugin with the config wizard
command, the plugin must be active. It doesn’t matter if the plugin is
temporarily or persistently activated. As an example, I can configure the
javac plugin by running the config wizard like so.
$ repobee -p javac config wizard
Plugins typically use sections other than the repobee section of the
configuration file, and you’ll find that new sections pop up in the config
wizard when certain plugins are active.