Gource Visualization of Ubuntu Touch Core Apps Development

TLDR: I made a cool version control visualization of all the Ubuntu Touch Core Apps.

The video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAmKAgRS0tw

* Warning: abrasive techno music
* To be watched in HD, preferably at maximum volume

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Making Gource visualizations of complex software projects is awesome. I love seeing a VCS commit log come to life as blooming trees and swarming workers. Normally, I do a visualization video of a single repository. But in this case, I used a bash script to create a visualization of multiple source code repositories. I wanted to see the progress of the entire stack of Ubuntu Touch Core Apps (17 projects). Ubuntu Touch Core Apps is an umbrella project for all [17] of the core apps that are available in Ubuntu on mobile devices

The Ubuntu Touch Core Apps:

• Dropping Letters
• Evernote Online Accounts plugin
• QtDeclarative bindings for the Grilo media scanner
• Stock Ticker App
• Sudoku App
• Ubuntu Calculator App
• Ubuntu Calendar App
• Ubuntu Clock App
• Ubuntu Document Viewer App
• Ubuntu E-mail App
• Ubuntu Facebook App
• Ubuntu File Manager App
• Ubuntu Music App
• Ubuntu Phone Commons
• Ubuntu RSS Feed Reader App
• Ubuntu Terminal App
• Ubuntu Weather App

Making the visualization:

Assuming you have a bunch of source code repositories already branched/cloned locally, here is a general version of the script to generate visualization videos of multiple projects/repositories: https://gist.github.com/cgoldberg/7488521

	#!/usr/bin/env bash
	# Generates gource video out of multiple repositories.
	# First, get a local branch/clone of each repository.
	# Then, pass the repositories as command line arguments.
	#
	# Example:
	# $ gource-multiple-repositories.sh /path/to/repo1 /path/to/repo2
	outfile="gource.mp4"
	resolution="1920x1080"
	i=0
	for repo in $*; do
	# generate a gource custom log file for each repo
	logfile="$(mktemp /tmp/gource.XXXXXX)"
	gource --output-custom-log "${logfile}" ${repo}
	# make each repo appear on a separate branch by adding
	# an extra parent directory to the path of the files in each project.
	sed -i -E "s#(.+)\|#\1|/${repo}#" ${logfile}
	logs[$i]=$logfile
	let i=$i+1
	done
	combined_log="$(mktemp /tmp/gource.XXXXXX)"
	cat ${logs[@]} | sort -n > $combined_log
	rm ${logs[@]}
	echo "Committers:"
	cat $combined_log | awk -F\| {'print $2'} | sort | uniq
	echo "======================"
	time gource $combined_log \
	-s 0.4 \
	-$resolution \
	--auto-skip-seconds 1 \
	--multi-sampling \
	--highlight-users \
	--highlight-dirs \
	--file-extensions \
	--file-idle-time 0 \
	--max-files 0 \
	--hide mouse,progress \
	--key \
	--stop-at-end \
	--output-ppm-stream - \
	--output-framerate 30 \
	| avconv -y -r 30 -f image2pipe -vcodec ppm -i - -b 8192K $outfile
	rm $combined_log

view raw gource-multiple-repositories.sh hosted with ❤ by GitHub

The script I used to create the Ubuntu Touch Core Apps video: https://gist.github.com/cgoldberg/7516510

	#!/usr/bin/env bash
	# Generate gource video out of bzr repositories for Ubuntu Touch Core Apps.
	#
	# Corey Goldberg 2013
	#
	# Usage:
	# gource-ubuntu-core-apps.sh /path/to/repo1 /path/to/repo2
	#
	# Example - generate video for all Ubuntu Touch Core Apps:
	# $ ./gource-ubuntu-core-apps.sh \
	# account-plugin-evernote \
	# dropping-letters \
	# music-app \
	# reminders-app \
	# stock-ticker-mobile-app \
	# sudoku-app ubuntu-calculator-app \
	# ubuntu-calendar-app \
	# ubuntu-clock-app \
	# ubuntu-docviewer-app \
	# ubuntu-emailclient-app \
	# ubuntu-facebook-app \
	# ubuntu-filemanager-app \
	# ubuntu-phone-commons \
	# ubuntu-rssreader-app \
	# ubuntu-terminal-app \
	# ubuntu-weather-app
	outfile="gource.mp4"
	resolution="1920x1080"
	# get a bzr branch of each project
	for repo in $*; do
	branch_command="bzr branch lp:"$repo
	echo $branch_command
	$branch_command
	done
	i=0
	for repo in $*; do
	# generate a gource custom log file for each repo
	logfile="$(mktemp /tmp/gource.XXXXXX)"
	gource --output-custom-log "${logfile}" $repo
	# make each repo appear on a separate branch by adding
	# an extra parent directory to the path of the files in each project.
	sed -i -E "s#(.+)\|#\1|/${repo}#" ${logfile}
	logs[$i]=$logfile
	let i=$i+1
	done
	# generate the combined log
	combined_log="$(mktemp /tmp/gource.XXXXXX)"
	cat ${logs[@]} | sort -n > $combined_log
	rm ${logs[@]}
	# remove the branch directories after creating log
	for repo in $*; do
	rm -rf $repo
	done
	# print the committers found
	echo "Committers:"
	cat $combined_log | awk -F\| {'print $2'} | sort | uniq
	echo "======================"
	# run gource, piping output to avconv for video rendering
	time gource $combined_log \
	-s 0.2 \
	-$resolution \
	--logo ubuntu_logo.png \
	--title "Ubuntu Touch Core Apps" \
	--auto-skip-seconds 1 \
	--multi-sampling \
	--highlight-users \
	--file-extensions \
	--highlight-dirs \
	--file-idle-time 0 \
	--max-files 0 \
	--hide mouse,progress \
	--key \
	--stop-at-end \
	--output-ppm-stream - \
	--output-framerate 30 \
	--background-colour 000000 \
	--default-user-image user_icon.png \
	--colour-images \
	--font-size 28 \
	| avconv -y -r 30 -f image2pipe -vcodec ppm -i - -b 8192K $outfile
	# remove the log when done
	rm $combined_log

view raw gource-ubuntu-core-apps.sh hosted with ❤ by GitHub