Extracting source code

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9612850-B2
Application number	US-201514794596-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 8, 2015
Priority date	May 30, 2014
Publication date	Apr 4, 2017
Grant date	Apr 4, 2017

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for extracting source code. One of the methods includes receiving, by a newly created process, a request to execute code of an executable file in the newly created process, wherein the request specifies a parameter. The newly created process loads a process interception library. Library initialization code of the process interception library determines whether the parameter should be intercepted. In response to determining that the parameter should be intercepted, the parameter is provided to another process.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method performed on a computer system comprising one or more computers, the method comprising:
receiving, by a newly created process, a request to execute code of an executable file in the newly created process, wherein the request specifies a location of a source code file;
loading, by the newly created process, a process interception library;
determining, by library initialization code of the process interception library, that the executable file is a compiler; and
in response to determining that the executable file is a compiler, invoking, by the library initialization code, a new extractor process and providing the location of the source code file as a parameter to the new extractor process.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the library initialization code is code that executes in response to the process interception library being loaded.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising executing the library initialization code before executing a main routine of the executable file.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein loading, by the newly created process, the process interception library causes all child processes of the newly created process also to load the process interception library.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein loading, by the newly created process, the process interception library preempts one or more default create-process functions of a particular operating system.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising invoking a new compiler process using a default create process function.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein invoking the new compiler process comprises modifying an argument or an environment variable specified in the request.

8. A system comprising:
one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
receiving, by a newly created process, a request to execute code of an executable file in the newly created process, wherein the request specifies a location of a source code file;
loading, by the newly created process, a process interception library;
determining, by library initialization code of the process interception library, that the executable file is a compiler; and
in response to determining that the executable file is a compiler, invoking, by the library initialization code, a new extractor process and providing the location of the source code file as a parameter to the new extractor process.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the library initialization code is code that executes in response to the process interception library being loaded.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise executing the library initialization code before executing a main routine of the executable file.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein loading, by the newly created process, the process interception library causes all child processes of the newly created process also to load the process interception library.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein loading, by the newly created process, the process interception library preempts one or more default create-process functions of a particular operating system.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the operations further comprise invoking a new compiler process using a default create-process function.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein invoking the new compiler process comprises modifying an argument or an environment variable specified in the request.

15. A computer program product, encoded on one or more non-transitory computer storage media, comprising instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
receiving, by a newly created process, a request to execute code of an executable file in the newly created process, wherein the request specifies a location of a source code file;
loading, by the newly created process, a process interception library;
determining, by library initialization code of the process interception library, that the executable file is a compiler; and
in response to determining that the executable file is a compiler, invoking, by the library initialization code, a new extractor process and providing the location of the source code file as a parameter to the new extractor process.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the library initialization code is code that executes in response to the process interception library being loaded.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the operations further comprise executing the library initialization code before executing a main routine of the executable file.

18. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein loading, by the newly created process, the process interception library causes all child processes of the newly created process also to load the process interception library.

19. The computer program product of claim 18 , wherein loading, by the newly created process, the process interception library preempts one or more default create-process functions of a particular operating system.

20. The computer program product of claim 19 , wherein the operations further comprise invoking a new compiler process using a default create-process function.

21. The computer program product of claim 20 , wherein invoking the new compiler process comprises modifying an argument or an environment variable specified in the request.

Assignees

• Semmle Ltd

Inventors

• Tibble Julian
• Avgustinov Pavel
• Cawley Peter

Classifications

• G06F9/44521 Primary

  Dynamic linking or loading; Link editing at or after load time, e.g. Java class loading · CPC title

• G06F8/54 Primary

  Link editing before load time · CPC title

• G06F8/423

  Preprocessors · CPC title

• G06F8/70

  Software maintenance or management · CPC title

• G06F8/75

  Structural analysis for program understanding · CPC title