Fix Flake8 Code Quality Violations Causing CI Pipeline Failures

Problem Description

The flake8 code quality job in our CI pipeline is consistently failing with exit code 1, indicating multiple code quality violations across the Python codebase. This is blocking our DevSecOps pipeline and preventing proper code quality assessment.

Current Status

  • Job: flake8 (Job ID: 11335182050)
  • Status: Failed (allowed to fail)
  • Command: flake8 --format gl-codeclimate --exclude .venv --output-file gl-code-quality-report.json
  • Impact: Code quality report is empty, pipeline shows warnings

Issues Identified

1. Duplicate Function Definitions 🔴 HIGH PRIORITY

File: test/test_route.py

def test_home_page():
    """This is a placeholder test that we will cause to fail."""
    assert 1 == 0

# Later in the same file:
def test_home_page(client):
    """Duplicate test for home page content."""
    rv = client.get('/')

Error: F811 - redefinition of unused 'test_home_page'

2. Bare Exception Handling 🔴 HIGH PRIORITY

File: fuzz.py

try:
    print(buf)
except:  # E722 - do not use bare 'except'
    print("An exception occurred")

3. Blank Line Violations 🟡 MEDIUM PRIORITY

Files: app.py, SubComponentA/api_validator.py, SubComponentB/data_processor.py, SubComponentC/security_scanner.py

  • E302: Expected 2 blank lines before function definition
  • E303: Too many blank lines
  • E305: Expected 2 blank lines after class or function definition

4. Import Organization Issues 🟡 MEDIUM PRIORITY

Files: Multiple Python files

  • E401: Multiple imports on one line
  • F401: Unused imports
  • Import order violations

5. Line Length Violations 🟡 MEDIUM PRIORITY

Files: Multiple Python files

  • E501: Line too long (>79 characters)
  • Long docstrings and comments exceeding default limit

6. Whitespace Issues 🟢 LOW PRIORITY

Files: Multiple Python files

  • W291: Trailing whitespace
  • W293: Blank line contains whitespace

Proposed Solutions

Option 1: Fix All Violations (Recommended)

  1. Rename duplicate test function in test/test_route.py
  2. Specify exception types in fuzz.py
  3. Add proper blank line spacing around functions and classes
  4. Organize imports according to PEP 8 standards
  5. Break long lines or use line continuation
  6. Remove trailing whitespace

Option 2: Configure Flake8 (Alternative)

Create a .flake8 configuration file with more lenient settings:

[flake8]
max-line-length = 120
ignore = E302,E303,W291,W293
exclude = .venv,__pycache__

Files Requiring Fixes

  • test/test_route.py - Fix duplicate function definition
  • fuzz.py - Fix bare except clause
  • app.py - Format fixes (blank lines, imports, line length)
  • SubComponentA/api_validator.py - Format fixes
  • SubComponentB/data_processor.py - Format fixes
  • SubComponentC/security_scanner.py - Format fixes

Acceptance Criteria

  • Flake8 job passes without errors (exit code 0)
  • gl-code-quality-report.json contains valid quality metrics
  • All Python files follow PEP 8 standards
  • No duplicate function definitions
  • Proper exception handling (no bare except clauses)
  • Consistent code formatting across the project

Priority

High - This is blocking our CI pipeline and preventing proper code quality assessment in our DevSecOps workflow.

Labels

  • bug
  • code-quality
  • ci-cd
  • python
  • flake8

Additional Context

This is part of our DevSecOps demonstration project where code quality is a critical component of the security pipeline. The flake8 job is currently marked as "allowed to fail" but should be passing to demonstrate proper DevSecOps practices.