feat: add Periphery target to project - WPB-20878 #3726

OlivellaO · 2025-10-13T09:47:39Z

WPB-20878 [iOS] Periphery integration with Xcode

PROPOSAL

This PR adds a new target for Periphery tool to be run so we can get a report on Xcode (and as extra on a text file) of unused code that we can delete.

This is a short description of each file:

run-from-xcode.sh -> This is the script that will execute "periphery scan" command. It will check if Periphery v3 is install on the machine and if not install it using homebrew.
unused-code.txt -> File generated when running the script on Xcode. Created using "tee" terminal command
unused-code-parser.py -> Script in Phyton to create Markdown files from unused-code.txt. It will group the warnings by file and create a different file for each project.

This is a screenshot of the new target added to Wire-iOS project:

Testing Periphery

Checkout branch
Open Xcode
Select Periphery target and click "play" button

When build is done warning will show up on warnings tab.

Captura de pantalla 2025-10-13 a las 11 24 59

Testing Parsing script

There is no automatic execution of the parser. You can run it locally if you need to generate the reports.

Open terminal
Ideally go to periphery folder in Wire-iOS project folder (wire-ios/periphery)
Execute script with ./unused-code-parser.py <path_to_log_file>
Script will clean all previous Markdown files and parse the log file to create updated ones.
After the script is finish you should see all reports on "wire-ios/periphery/reports"

Checklist

Title contains a reference JIRA issue number like [WPB-XXX].
Description is filled and free of optional paragraphs.
Adds/updates automated tests.

UI accessibility checklist

If your PR includes UI changes, please utilize this checklist:

Make sure you use the API for UI elements that support large fonts.
All colors are taken from WireDesign.ColorTheme or constructed using WireDesign.BaseColorPalette.
New UI elements have Accessibility strings for VoiceOver.

github-actions · 2025-10-13T10:02:50Z

Test Results

1 876 tests 1 849 ✅ 2m 9s ⏱️
299 suites 27 💤
1 files 0 ❌

Results for commit be17823.

♻️ This comment has been updated with latest results.

OlivellaO · 2025-10-13T10:09:19Z

If you want to ask why Python for the script it just because its fast parsing big files. I've tried Kotlin at first but it makes things harder and it's slower.

caldrian · 2025-10-13T11:34:56Z

periphery/run-from-xcode.sh

+
+export PATH="$PATH:/opt/homebrew/bin"
+
+echo "Ensuring Periphery v3+ is installed..."


question/suggestion: Wouldn't it be better to depend on periphery being installed instead of silently executing an installation?

Good point. I had in mind that if at some point we want to automate this we will need to make sure that periphery is installed.

@SyamalaHari suggested we could add Periphery as dependency on Wire-iOS using SPM as describe in this article: https://medium.com/@ashokatonline/periphery-the-code-optimization-tool-every-developer-needs-1e43ce81ac88
Maybe we could do that and remove the installation and version checks from the script, what do you think?

caldrian · 2025-10-13T11:36:42Z

periphery/run-from-xcode.sh

+# To know what each param does check https://github.com/peripheryapp/periphery?tab=readme-ov-file#analysis
+periphery scan \
+--project wire-ios-mono.xcworkspace \
+--schemes "Wire-iOS" \


I think we need to build a few more schemes. Wire-iOS doesn't cover all code, if I'm not mistaken.

Using Periphery v3 with this configuration covers a lot of the code. Probably not all of it but i think as a first approach should be fine and we have something to start working on.

I was also concern that adding more schemes might report more "false positive" when scanning (the tool is not perfect), but it could be the oposite too.

I can test adding more schemes here and compare the output with the actual one. Do you have any suggestions about what schemes should we add to cover all the code?

OlivellaO · 2025-10-13T15:36:38Z

@WilhelmOks Noticed that run-from-xcode.sh is working on Xcode 16.4 but sometimes not on the last Xcode 26. I still don't know the reason.

samwyndham

So I'm a bit torn about adding Periphery to the project.

I really like periphery as a tool but don't really know how to make best use of it. For example we currently see that it identifies about 6000 issues. But these contain quite a lot of false positives/negatives as far as I know. For example:

WireAuthentication/Sources/WireAuthentication/Components/RootComponent.swift:134:10: warning: Function 'reloginViaEmailFactory(email:)' is unused

I believe this is used but it is being used via an any protocol, not via the concrete class. If we didn't make such heavy use of existential any I guess this tool would prove more useful.

If we do find a good use for it I would consider ignoring files that are fairly recent (within 3 months for example) to avoid flagging WIP work

WilhelmOks · 2025-10-15T10:39:07Z

I changed the Python script to a Swift script to remove the dependency on Python. Swift should be available on any mac environment by default.

OlivellaO · 2025-10-15T11:17:52Z

So I'm a bit torn about adding Periphery to the project.

I really like periphery as a tool but don't really know how to make best use of it. For example we currently see that it identifies about 6000 issues. But these contain quite a lot of false positives/negatives as far as I know. For example:

WireAuthentication/Sources/WireAuthentication/Components/RootComponent.swift:134:10: warning: Function 'reloginViaEmailFactory(email:)' is unused

I believe this is used but it is being used via an any protocol, not via the concrete class. If we didn't make such heavy use of existential any I guess this tool would prove more useful.

If we do find a good use for it I would consider ignoring files that are fairly recent (within 3 months for example) to avoid flagging WIP work

Yeah, using any doesn't help identify unused code and will lead to some false positives/negatives. I don't have an strong opinion on this, i will say try to avoid any if possible.

For WIP code it's normal (and good) that you get some warnings and it makes you be aware if you're missing an implementation or not using a param you've added before, so i think it will help. Periphery also offers some annotations to @supress the warning for some specific code you're working on if it's really necessary.

WilhelmOks · 2025-10-15T13:27:06Z

periphery/unused-code-parser.swift

@@ -0,0 +1,248 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env swift


This header is required for the swift script but it's marked as an error by the github actions.
Can we disable the check somehow or add an exception or suppress rule?

@WilhelmOks you should add the header:

// // Wire // Copyright (C) 2025 Wire Swiss GmbH // // This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify // it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by // the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or // (at your option) any later version. // // This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, // but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of // MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the // GNU General Public License for more details. // // You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License // along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/. //

as it is part of the project

github-actions · 2025-11-24T00:40:03Z

This PR is stale because it has been open 30 days with no activity. Please update it or close it in case is not relevant anymore.

OlivellaO requested a review from netbe October 13, 2025 09:47

github-actions bot assigned OlivellaO Oct 13, 2025

OlivellaO requested review from SyamalaHari, WilhelmOks, johnxnguyen and samwyndham October 13, 2025 09:48

caldrian self-requested a review October 13, 2025 10:51

caldrian reviewed Oct 13, 2025

View reviewed changes

OlivellaO added 3 commits October 14, 2025 14:30

periphery xcode integration

fc1c795

add check for periphery v3 to run script

e6679d0

Added additional parser for unused code report

3e7618d

OlivellaO force-pushed the feature/periphery branch from 7664ccf to 3e7618d Compare October 14, 2025 12:31

samwyndham reviewed Oct 15, 2025

View reviewed changes

changed markdown reports generator from python script to swift script

4d3b17f

WilhelmOks added 3 commits October 15, 2025 14:40

removed trailing whitepace, changed comments to blockComments

0e5d65e

formatting

9f62b59

formatting

48f582d

WilhelmOks reviewed Oct 15, 2025

View reviewed changes

added wire header in swift script

be17823

github-actions bot added the stale label Nov 24, 2025


		export PATH="$PATH:/opt/homebrew/bin"

		echo "Ensuring Periphery v3+ is installed..."

feat: add Periphery target to project - WPB-20878 #3726

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PROPOSAL

Testing Periphery

Testing Parsing script

Checklist

UI accessibility checklist

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Test Results

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