How do you vet open source software if you don't know code well? (lemmy.cafe)

submitted 5 days ago by cm0002@lemmy.cafe to c/opensource@programming.dev

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There are oodles of neat and singular programs on github and similar. Curious what steps people take to vet for malware before downloading and trying stuff, especially if you’re not very familiar with the coding language it’s written in.

OQB @reallykindasorta@slrpnk.net

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[-] mesamunefire@piefed.social 2 points 4 days ago

I usually start with whatever the main.cpp, main.py, ect..... you can tell a lot about software by how easy or hard it is to read and dependencies.

this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2026

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