LSP2GXL

A tool that converts Language Server Protocol (LSP) information collected for a given project into a hierarchical graph in Graph eXchange Language (GXL) format.

This tool is based on a master's thesis by Falko Galperin, and was further evaluated as part of a paper by Galperin, Michel, and Koschke, published to ICSME 2025 (link will be added here once it is published). The code contains parts from the SEE project, such as the graph definition, in slightly modified form (to work outside of Unity in a "pure" C#/.NET environment).

Build

With .NET 9.0 (or later) installed, you can run dotnet publish -c Release to create a build of the application. It should then be accessible at bin/Release/net9.0/LSP2GXL, though the path may vary per platform. You can also use dotnet run directly (putting any parameters after a --), but this will run in Debug mode by default.

Usage

Assuming you have a project at ~/sample-rs that you want to analyze with the Rust Analyzer—and the project only has one source folder of interest at src—you could use the following invocation of LSP2GXL to create a GXL file at output.gxl:

$ LSP2GXL ~/sample-rs -o output.gxl -s ~/sample-rs/src -l rust-analyzer

Run the tool with the -h/--help parameter to get an overview of all possible options:

$ LSP2GXL --help
Description:
  A tool that transforms LSP project information into a GXL file.

Usage:
  LSP2GXL <project> [options]

Arguments:
  <project>  Path to the root of the project that shall be analyzed.

Options:
  -o, --output <output>                                The output GXL file to write to. If not given, the output graph will be discarded.
  --overwrite                                          Whether to overwrite the output file if it already exists.
  -l, --lsp-server <lsp-server> (REQUIRED)             The LSP server to use.
  -x, --lsp-server-executable <lsp-server-executable>  The path to the executable of the LSP server. Note that the given server must match the configured language server.
  --log-lsp                                            Whether to log the raw LSP input and output to a temporary file at /tmp/.
  -s, --source-path <source-path>                      The path to a directory (under the project root) whose contents shall be analyzed. If this is not given, we will query the whole project root.
  -e, --exclude-source-path <exclude-source-path>      The path to a directory (under the project root) whose contents shall NOT be analyzed.
  --timeout <timeout>                                  The maximum time in seconds to wait for the LSP server to respond to any given query. [default: 10]
  --edge-type <edge-type>                              LSP edge type to include in the import. [default: TypeDefinition, Implementation, Reference, Call, Extend]
  --self-references                                    Whether to allow self-references in the generated graph.
  --parent-references                                  Whether to allow references from an element to its direct parent in the generated graph.
  --node-type <node-type>                              LSP node type to include in the import. [default: All]
  --diagnostic-level <diagnostic-level>                LSP diagnostic level to include in the import. [default: All]
  --unoptimized-edges                                  Whether to disable the optimized (kd-tree based) edge connection algorithm.
  -p, --performance-output <performance-output>        The output file to write CSV performance information to. Must not exist yet. [default: performance.csv]
  --version                                            Show version information
  -?, -h, --help                                       Show help and usage information

Note

Aborting a program run with Ctrl+C might not take effect immediately, especially during the edge creation phase.