Developing on Ubuntu

Git

To download the latest version of Plaso you’ll need to install the git tools:

sudo apt-get install git

Checkout the Plaso source from the git repo:

git clone https://github.com/log2timeline/plaso.git

Dependencies

Install the dependencies, using either:

• A virtualenv

• The prepackaged dependencies.

Check if you have all the dependencies installed and have the right minimum versions:

python utils/check_dependencies.py

Note that some dependencies are actively under development and can be frequently updated, therefore we recommend checking the status of the dependencies regularly.

Updating your environment.

If you are using a github fork your origin is pointing to your fork and not the main Plaso git repository. When you run git remote -v you might see something like:

origin	https://github.com/Onager/plaso (fetch)
origin	https://github.com/Onager/plaso (push)

Add a git remote called ‘upstream’ that you can use to sync your fork:

git remote add upstream https://github.com/log2timeline/plaso.git
git pull --rebase upstream main

We provide packaged versions of the dependencies via the l2tbinaries project. However it is possible that the dependencies are not fully up to date therefore we also provide a build script as part of l2tdevtools project to do unattended bulk builds.

Development tools

If you intend to do development on Plaso you’ll also need to install some development tools:

• PyLint

• Python Mock

PyLint

Currently plaso development uses PyLint version 2.6.x.

Python Mock

To install Python Mock run:

sudo apt-get install python-mock