static analysis - How can I analyze Python code to identify problematic areas?

Question

I have a large source repository split across multiple projects. I would like to produce a report about the health of the source code, identifying problem areas that need to be addressed.

Specifically, I'd like to call out routines with a high cyclomatic complexity, identify repetition, and perhaps run some lint-like static analysis to spot suspicious (and thus likely erroneous) constructs.

How might I go about constructing such a report?

Answer 1

For measuring cyclomatic complexity, there's a nice tool available at traceback.org. The page also gives a good overview of how to interpret the results.

+1 for pylint. It is great at verifying adherence to coding standards (be it PEP8 or your own organization's variant), which can in the end help to reduce cyclomatic complexity.