CodeQL packs are used to create, share, depend on, and run CodeQL queries and libraries. You can publish your own CodeQL packs and download packs created by others. CodeQL packs contain queries, library files, query suites, and metadata.
There are two types of CodeQL packs: query packs and library packs.
- Query packs are designed to be run. When a query pack is published, the bundle includes all the transitive dependencies and pre-compiled representations of each query, in addition to the query sources. This ensures consistent and efficient execution of the queries in the pack.
- Library packs are designed to be used by query packs (or other library packs) and do not contain queries themselves. The libraries are not compiled separately.
You can use the package management commands in the CodeQL CLI to create CodeQL packs, add dependencies to packs, and install or update dependencies. For more information, see ":ref:`Creating and working with CodeQL packs <creating-and-working-with-codeql-packs>`." You can also publish and download CodeQL packs using the CodeQL CLI. For more information, see ":doc:`Publishing and using CodeQL packs <publishing-and-using-codeql-packs>`."
The standard CodeQL packages for all supported languages are published in the GitHub Container registry. The CodeQL repository contains source files for the standard CodeQL packs for all supported languages.
A CodeQL pack must contain a file called qlpack.yml in its root directory. In the qlpack.yml file, the name: field must have a value that follows the format of <scope>/<pack>, where <scope> is the GitHub organization or user account that the pack will be published to and <pack> is the name of the pack. Additionally, query packs and library packs with CodeQL tests contain a codeql-pack.lock.yml file that contains the resolved dependencies of the pack. This file is generated during a call to the codeql pack install command, is not meant to be edited by hand, and should be added to your version control system.
The other files and directories within the pack should be logically organized. For example, typically:
- Queries are organized into directories for specific categories.
- Queries for specific products, libraries, and frameworks are organized into their own top-level directories.
When a pack is published for use in analyses, the codeql pack create or codeql pack publish command verifies that the content is complete and also adds some additional pieces of content to it:
- For query packs, a copy of each of the library packs it depends on, in the precise versions it has been developed with. Users of the query pack won't need to download these library packs separately.
- For query packs, precompiled representations of each of the queries. These are faster to execute than it would be to compile the QL source for the query at each analysis.
Most of this data is located in a directory named .codeql in the published pack, but precompiled queries are in files with a .qlx suffix next to the .ql source for each query. When analyzing a database with a query from a published pack, CodeQL will load these files instead of the .ql source. If you need to modify the content of a published pack, be sure to remove all of the .qlx files, since they may prevent modifications in the .ql files from taking effect.
When executing query-related commands, CodeQL first looks in siblings of the installation directory (and their subdirectories) for qlpack.yml files.
Then it checks the package cache for CodeQL packs which have been downloaded. This means that when you are developing queries locally, the local packages
in the installation directory override packages of the same name in the package cache, so that you can test your local changes.
The metadata in each qlpack.yml file tells
CodeQL how to compile any queries in the pack, what libraries the pack depends on, and where to
find query suite definitions.
The contents of the CodeQL pack (queries or libraries used in CodeQL analysis) is included in the same directory as qlpack.yml, or its subdirectories.
The directory containing the qlpack.yml file serves as the root directory for the content of the CodeQL pack. That is, for all .ql and .qll files in the pack, CodeQL will resolve all import statements relative to the directory containing the qlpack.yml file at the pack's root.
The following properties are supported in qlpack.yml files.
codeql-pack.lock.yml files store the versions of the resolved transitive dependencies of a CodeQL pack. This file is created by the codeql pack install command if it does not already exist and should be added to your version control system. The dependencies section of the qlpack.yml file contains version ranges that are compatible with the pack. The codeql-pack.lock.yml file locks the versions to precise dependencies. This ensures that running codeql pack install on this the pack will always retrieve the same versions of dependencies even if newer compatible versions exist.
For example, if a qlpack.yml file contains the following dependencies:
dependencies:
codeql/cpp-all: ^0.1.2
my-user/my-lib: ^0.2.3
other-dependency/from-source: "*"The codeql-pack.lock.yml file will contain something like the following:
dependencies:
codeql/cpp-all:
version: 0.1.4
my-user/my-lib:
version: 0.2.4
my-user/transitive-dependency:
version: 1.2.4The codeql/cpp-all dependency is locked to version 0.1.4. The my-user/my-lib dependency is locked to version 0.2.4. The my-user/transitive-dependency, which is a transitive dependency and is not specified in the qlpack.yml file, is locked to version 1.2.4. The other-dependency/from-source is absent from the lock file since it is resolved from source. This dependency must be available in the same CodeQL workspace as the pack. For more information about CodeQL workspaces and resolving dependencies from source, see ":doc:`About CodeQL Workspaces <about-codeql-workspaces>`."
In most cases, the codeql-pack.lock.yml file is only relevant for query packs since library packs are non-executable and usually do not need their transitive dependencies to be fixed. The exception to this is for library packs that contain tests. In this case, the codeql-pack.lock.yml file is used to ensure that the tests are always run with the same versions of dependencies to avoid spurious failures when there are mismatched dependencies.
When you write custom queries or tests, you should save them in custom CodeQL packs. For simplicity, try to organize each pack logically. For more information, see "CodeQL pack structure." Save files for queries and tests in separate packs and, where possible, organize custom packs into specific folders for each target language. This is particuarly useful if you intend to publish your CodeQL packs so they can be shared with others or used in GitHub Code scanning.
A custom CodeQL pack containing custom C++ libraries, with no queries or tests, may have a qlpack.yml file containing:
name: my-github-user/my-custom-libraries
version: 1.2.3
library: true
dependencies:
codeql/cpp-all: ^0.1.2where codeql/cpp-all is the name of the CodeQL pack for C/C++ analysis included in the CodeQL repository. The version range ^0.1.2 indicates that this pack is compatible with all versions of codeql/cpp-all that are greater than or equal to 0.1.2 and less than 0.2.0. Any CodeQL library file (a file with a .qll extension) defined in this pack will be available to queries defined in any query pack that includes this pack in its dependencies block.
The library property indicates that this pack is a library pack and does not contain any queries.
A custom CodeQL pack containing custom C++ queries and libraries may have a qlpack.yml file containing:
name: my-github-user/my-custom-queries
version: 1.2.3
dependencies:
codeql/cpp-all: ^0.1.2
my-github-user/my-custom-libraries: ^1.2.3
suites: my-custom-suiteswhere codeql/cpp-all is the name of the CodeQL pack for C/C++ analysis included in the CodeQL repository. The version range ^0.1.2 indicates that this pack is compatible with all versions of codeql/cpp-all that are greater than or equal to 0.1.2 and less than 0.2.0. my-github-user/my-custom-libraries is the name of a CodeQL pack containing custom CodeQL libraries for C++. Any CodeQL library file (a file with a .qll extension) defined in this pack will be available to queries in the my-github-user/my-custom-queries pack.
The suites property indicates a directory where "well-known" query suites can be found. These suites can be used on the command line by referring to their name only, rather than their full path. For more information about query suites, see ":doc:`Creating CodeQL query suites <creating-codeql-query-suites>`."
For custom CodeQL packs containing test files, you also need to include an
extractor property so that the test run command knows how to create test
databases. You may also wish to specify the tests property.
For more information about running tests, see ":doc:`Testing custom queries <testing-custom-queries>`."
Each of the languages in the CodeQL repository has four main CodeQL packs:
- Core library pack for the language, with the :ref:`database schema <codeql-database-schema>`
used by the language, and CodeQL libraries, and queries at
<language>/ql/lib - Core query pack for the language that includes the default queries for the language, along
with their query suites at
<language>/ql/src - Tests for the core language libraries and queries at
<language>/ql/test - Example queries for the language at
<language>/ql/examples
Here is an example qlpack.yml file for the C/C++ analysis libraries
core language pack:
name: codeql/cpp-all
version: x.y.z-dev
dbscheme: semmlecode.cpp.dbscheme
library: true
upgrades: upgradesSome extra notes on the following properties:
library: Indicates that this is a library pack with no executable queries. It is only meant to be used as a dependency for other packs.dbschemeandupgrades: These properties are internal to the CodeQL CLI and should only be defined in the core QL pack for a language.
Here is an example qlpack.yml file for C/C++ analysis queries
core query pack:
name: codeql/cpp-queries
version: x.y.z-dev
dependencies:
codeql/cpp-all: "*"
codeql/suite-helpers: "*"
suites: codeql-suites
defaultSuiteFile: codeql-suites/cpp-code-scanning.qlsSome extra notes on the following properties:
dependencies: This query pack depends oncodeql/cpp-allandcodeql/suite-helpers. Since these dependencies are resolved from source, it does not matter what version of the CodeQL pack they are compatible with. For more information about resolving dependencies from source, see ":ref:`Source Dependencies <source-dependencies>`."suites: Indicates the directory containing "well-known" query suites.defaultSuiteFile: The name of the default query suite file that is used when no query suite is specified.
Here is an example qlpack.yml file for C/C++ analysis tests
core test pack:
name: codeql/cpp-tests
dependencies:
codeql/cpp-all: "*"
codeql/cpp-queries: "*"
extractor: cpp
tests: .Some extra notes on the following properties:
dependencies: This pack depends on the core CodeQL query and library packs for C++.extractor: This specifies that all the tests will use the same C++ extractor to create the database for the tests.tests: This specifies the location of the tests. In this case, the tests are in the root folder (and all sub-folders) of the pack.version: There is noversionproperty for the tests pack. This prevents test packs from accidentally being published.