Sourcetrail, a tool intended to simplify source code navigation, is now available as free, open source software.
With the open sourcing, Sourcetrail developer Coati Software thus abandons its commercial license model. Positioned as a cross-platform source code explorer, Sourcetrail is tool to help developers be productive with unfamiliar source code. The goal is to answer all questions about source code.
Static analysis is done on C, C++, Java, and Python code to index source files. Developers can then use Sourcetrail to navigate the codebase within a UI that combines code display and graph visualization. After creating a project, Sourcetrail will index source files to become aware of classes, functions, and types within a codebase. Indexing is done offline. Afterward, only changed files need to be refreshed.
Sourcetrail will continue to be updated every quarter. Coati will continue to fulfill customer support obligations for commercial customers. Coati expressed hope that those who had paid for a license do not regret having done so, saying the funding was of great value. But there were just not enough paid customers to adequately compensate the company for its work.
Not every developer saw the value of the tool, which made it hard to sell. The tool also has had scalabilty issues, although it can handle projects with multiple millions of lines of code. Coati now seeks contributions via Patreon to fund maintenance and support of Sourcetrail.
Where to download Sourcetrail
You can download Sourcetrail from GitHub. It is available under the GNU General Public License.