Development with the Python Package¶

With the new Python package developing and testing code now works slightly different than it used to be. As one will first have to Install Cuckoo before being able to use it in the first place, a simple modify-and-test development sequence doesn’t work out-of-the-box as it used to do.

Following we outline how to develop and test new features while using the Cuckoo Package.

Initialize a new virtualenv. Note that any virtualenv’s in /tmp won’t survive a reboot and as such a more convenient location may be, e.g., ~/venv/cuckoo-development (i.e., place the cuckoo-development virtualenv in a generic ~/venv/ directory for all your virtualenv’s).
```
$ virtualenv /tmp/cuckoo-development
```
Activate the virtualenv. This has to be done every time you start a new shell session (unless you put the command in ~/.bashrc or similar, of course).
```
$ . /tmp/cuckoo-development/bin/activate
```
In order to create a Cuckoo distribution package it is required to obtain the matching monitoring binaries from our Community repository for this version of Cuckoo. Fortunately we provide a simple-to-use script to fetch them semi-automatically for you. From the repository root directory one may run as follows to automatically grab the binaries.
```
(cuckoo-development)$ python stuff/monitor.py
```
Install Cuckoo in development mode, in which files from the current directory (a git clone’d Cuckoo repository on the package branch) will be used during execution.
```
(cuckoo-development)$ python setup.py sdist develop
```

You will now be ready to modify and test files. Note that the code files are located in the cuckoo/ directory of the Git repository and the fact that, even though you will be testing a development version of the repository, all the rules from the Cuckoo Working Directory and Cuckoo Working Directory Usage are still in-place.

Happy development! Please reach out to us if you require additional help to get up-and-running with the latest development tricks.