Correctly classifying PL/SQL source code on GitHub

GitHub provides an engine that classifies source code that takes into account various factors, so may not always get it right. When it comes to relational database development, a common file extension would be .sql. However, with many different relational databases, it can be hard to determine which is the correct RDBMS the code relates to.

A case in point is a repository I came across, has the following classifications:




However, I happen to know in this scenario all source code directly relates to an Oracle database and such I believe all should be classified as PL/SQL.

So, how can we solve this dilemma for accurate reporting?

The engine for determining the language is under the package linguist. Within that repository there is a section Override which explains how you can override the chosen language very easily.

As it explains, create a file in the root of your repository if you don't already have one, .gitattributes, and specify the linguist-language property to that of any file extensions that are being miscategorised.

So, within that file, to clasify all sql files as PL/SQL code, create a line that looks like this:

*.sql linguist-language=PLSQL


After this change, this repository will start reporting the correct language:



Not only is this good for showing useful file stats within the repository, but the project will now have that source type as the primary language - so if I'm searching for some code, I could specify the language - and my project will be returned (before, it was classified as TSQL so wasn't being returned in this search)






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