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‎_posts/2020-02-12-calculate-tech-debt-using-skunk-on-github-actions.md

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---
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layout: post
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title: "How to Calculate Tech Debt Using Skunk on GitHub Actions"
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date: 2020-02-12 9:16:00
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categories: ["code-quality"]
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author: etagwerker
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---
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In preparation for my talk at [RubyConf Australia](https://www.rubyconf.org.au/) this
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month, I've been working on a way to make it easy for anyone to run [`skunk`](https://www.fastruby.io/blog/code-quality/intruducing-skunk-stink-score-calculator.html) on
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their Ruby projects. In order to do that I decided to use GitHub Actions. It's a powerful
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service by GitHub and it's quite easy to set up.
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This is an article about the process that I followed and how you can use it in your own
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application.
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<!--more-->
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[GitHub Actions have been around for more than a year](https://github.blog/2018-10-17-action-demos/)
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and I had been meaning to play around with them to incorporate some automation to
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our workflows at [FastRuby.io](https://fastruby.io). The good news is that [GoRails](https://gorails.com)
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already published an article about setting up CI in your Rails app:
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[Continuous Integration with GitHub Actions](https://gorails.com/episodes/github-actions-continuous-integration-ruby-on-rails)
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After following those steps, I ended up with a copy/pasted YAML file that looked like this:
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```yaml
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# .github/workflows/ci.yml
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name: CI
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on: [push]
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jobs:
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  test:
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    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
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    services:
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      db:
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        image: postgres:11
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        ports: ['5432:5432']
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        options: >-
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          --health-cmd pg_isready
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          --health-interval 10s
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          --health-timeout 5s
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          --health-retries 5
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      redis:
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        image: redis
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        ports: ['6379:6379']
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        options: --entrypoint redis-server
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    steps:
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      - uses: actions/checkout@v1
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      - name: Setup Ruby
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        uses: actions/setup-ruby@v1
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        with:
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          ruby-version: 2.6.x
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      - uses: borales/[email protected]
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        with:
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          cmd: install
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      - name: Build and run tests
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        env:
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          DATABASE_URL: postgres://postgres:@localhost:5432/test
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          REDIS_URL: redis://localhost:6379/0
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          RAILS_ENV: test
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          RAILS_MASTER_KEY: ${{ secrets.RAILS_MASTER_KEY }}
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        run: |
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          sudo apt-get -yqq install libpq-dev
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          gem install bundler
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          bundle install --jobs 4 --retry 3
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          bundle exec rails db:prepare
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          bundle exec rails test
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```
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Considering that [`skunk`](https://github.com/fastruby/skunk) is a Ruby gem (it
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doesn't need Rails, Redis, nor Postgres) and I didn't need all the steps I copied
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from the GoRails tutorial, I thought it was best to simplify it to look like this:
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```yaml
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# .github/workflows/skunk.yml
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name: Skunk
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on: [push]
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jobs:
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  skunk:
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    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
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    steps:
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      - uses: actions/checkout@v1
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      - name: Setup Ruby
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        uses: actions/setup-ruby@v1
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        with:
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          ruby-version: 2.6.x
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      - name: Run Skunk on Project
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        run: |
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          gem install skunk
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          skunk lib/
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```
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This tells [GitHub](https://github.com) to run the [`skunk`](https://github.com/fastruby/skunk)
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action every time there is any push to GitHub. To see an entire list
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of events that you can configure: [Webhook Events](https://help.github.com/en/actions/automating-your-workflow-with-github-actions/events-that-trigger-workflows#webhook-events)
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There are only two steps:
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1. Setup my Ruby environment. I'm going to need this because `skunk` is a Ruby gem.
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1. Install the `skunk` gem and run it on the `lib/` directory.
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I really like that the configuration file is easy to read and understand. The
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order of the steps defined in the `steps` section is **important**. It will run
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steps synchronously, from top to bottom. If you want to run `skunk` for a Rails
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application, you can change the last step to `skunk app/`
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The next thing I wanted to do is run `skunk` on a pull request in order to
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compare the [_Stink Score_](https://github.com/fastruby/skunk#what-is-the-stinkscore)
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between the pull request and `master`. This will help us answer this question:
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> Are we increasing or decreasing the tech debt average in our project?
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In order to do this, I had to tweak the call to `skunk` to use the `--branch`
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option:
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```yaml
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# .github/workflows/skunk.yml
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name: Skunk
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on: [push]
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jobs:
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skunk:
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runs-on: ubuntu-latest
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steps:
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- uses: actions/checkout@v1
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- name: Setup Ruby
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uses: actions/setup-ruby@v1
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with:
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ruby-version: 2.6.x
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- name: Run Skunk on Project
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run: |
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gem install skunk
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CURRENT_BRANCH="$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)"
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if [[ "$CURRENT_BRANCH" != "master" ]]; then
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echo "Executing within branch: $CURRENT_BRANCH"
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skunk lib/ -b master
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else
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echo "Executing within master branch"
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skunk lib/
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fi
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```
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There is some `bash` logic in there: The GitHub Action will [compare your branch vs. master](https://github.com/fastruby/skunk#comparing-one-branch-vs-another) if
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it is running within the context of a pull request, or [generate a tech debt report](https://github.com/fastruby/skunk#getting-a-sorted-list-of-stinkiest-files) if
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it is running a commit pushed to the `master` branch.
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One last thing I had to add was a step to generate [SimpleCov](https://github.com/colszowka/simplecov)'s
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resultset JSON file. Skunk is most useful when it considers code coverage data.
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[The StinkScore is a combination of code smells; complexity; and code coverage data](https://github.com/fastruby/skunk#what-is-the-stinkscore).
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I tweaked the steps configuration to look like this:
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```yaml
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steps:
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- uses: actions/checkout@v1
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- name: Setup Ruby
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uses: actions/setup-ruby@v1
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with:
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ruby-version: 2.6.x
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- name: Run test suite with COVERAGE=true
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run: |
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gem install bundler
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bundle install --jobs 4 --retry 3
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COVERAGE=true bundle exec rake test
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- name: Run Skunk on Project
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run: |
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gem install skunk
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CURRENT_BRANCH="$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)"
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if [[ "$CURRENT_BRANCH" != "master" ]]; then
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echo "Executing within branch: $CURRENT_BRANCH"
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skunk lib/ -b master
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else
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echo "Executing within master branch"
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skunk lib/
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fi
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```
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Now you can see the difference in tech debt between `master` and your pull
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request:
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```
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Base branch (master) average stink score: 13.42
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Feature branch ((HEAD detached at 0315f34)) average stink score: 13.42
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Score: 13.42
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```
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This particular example shows that there is no difference in my application's
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technical debt: [https://github.com/fastruby/skunk/pull/26](https://github.com/fastruby/skunk/pull/26).
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That's because I didn't change any Ruby code (just a YAML file).
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You can see the GitHub Action run over here:
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[https://github.com/fastruby/skunk/runs/437118684](https://github.com/fastruby/skunk/runs/437118684)
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## Final Thoughts
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GitHub Actions can be very useful when you want to run something really quickly
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without setting up your own development environment. It can take a lot of trial
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and error to get the final configuration right.
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If you wanted to give `skunk` a try, now there are _no more excuses_. You don't
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need to install anything in your environment. You can add this GitHub workflow
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and that's it:
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<script src="https://gist.github.com/etagwerker/52e0add0af4281ed38fdc54a502b653f.js"></script>
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I hope you can use this free and open source tool to find out your tech debt
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hot spots!
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## References
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- You can see all the trial and error that went into writing this article:
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[https://github.com/fastruby/skunk/actions?query=workflow%3ASkunk](https://github.com/fastruby/skunk/actions?query=workflow%3ASkunk)
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- A new update to GitHub Actions adds even more features to it:
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[https://github.blog/2020-02-06-manage-secrets-and-more-with-the-github-actions-api/](https://github.blog/2020-02-06-manage-secrets-and-more-with-the-github-actions-api/)

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