Indiana Jones and The Legend of the Lost Codebase
Well... I'm donning the old fedora again, and off in search of the Lost Codebase. It's really quite amazing the skill that some people have to hide code. I'm sure they don't think of it that way - they probably consider it to be exactly where they want it to be - the right spot. But if I can't find it after working in the repository for nearly two months, then it's time to call it "hidden". Yup... hidden. And that means I need to get out the fedora and get exploring.
The first thing I check is of course, the most obvious - the name of the directory. Clearly, this is a trap, for who in their right mind would put the code in a clearly labeled directory. No, that's the location for some of the code. Maybe. Hard to tell as the class files are nearly completely empty, and one would wonder if the code even compiles. I'm not fool enough to fall for that trick - typing 'make' could end of wiping out my entire machine's drive. I'm no fool.
Next, I check the similarly named directories. No luck there, but not nearly as complex, and some of the traps aren't even well constructed. In one there's no Makefile - a dead giveaway, if ever there was one. In another, they foolishly only include a handful of files. This is too easily scanned and I can see what I'm looking for isn't there. In all, a minor detour, but I have no idea where to go next.
Next I have to go with the big guns - I grep for a keyword in the entire source tree. As expected, this yields far too many hits, and I need to filter it down. Doggedly, I wrestle the filter on the grep to give me something I can work with. I struggle weeding out the false hits. I finally think I may be onto something only to have my hopes dashed when it's a simple comment and not the real code I'm looking for.
It's frustrating, and in the end, I realize I've met my match. I have to back off, regroup, and hope that when the author(s) decide to come in for the day, they have some answers to where the hid the secret directory to the code.
Oh yeah... I even checked for the hidden directories... no luck.