Github API cannot tell the number of Python files in a public repo - github-api

Question

When I try to get the number of python files in a public github repo using the following query:
https://api.github.com/search/code?q=*%20extension:py%20repo:VismithaMona/codedeploytest2
I got the response:
{ "total_count": 0, "incomplete_results": false, "items": [] }
However, that repo has at least 2 py files, as you may find from the following link
https://github.com/VismithaMona/codedeploytest2
Then why Github API not working here? Is it because the repo is too old?
I tried searching for related questions using Google, but no similar questions were ever asked.

Answer 1

This is explained by an announcement on the Github blog from December 2020:
Starting today, GitHub Code Search will only index repositories that have had recent activity within the last year. Recent activity for a repository means that it has had a commit or has shown up in a search result. If the repository does not have any activity for an entire year, the repository will be purged from the Code Search index. This change will enable the most relevant content for developers to surface in the code search index as well as keeping code search queries fast for all customers.
So you don't find results because the repository has not been updated recently enough.
However, the API endpoint https://api.github.com/repos/VismithaMona/codedeploytest2/contents/ is still available. This lists the files and folders starting in the root folder of the repository. Small excerpt of the json response, with various files and properties removed:
[
{
"name": "scripts",
"url": "https://api.github.com/repos/VismithaMona/codedeploytest2/contents/scripts?ref=master",
"type": "dir",
},
{
"name": "templates",
"url": "https://api.github.com/repos/VismithaMona/codedeploytest2/contents/templates?ref=master",
"type": "dir",
},
{
"name": "test_app.py",
"type": "file",
},
{
"name": "web.py",
"type": "file",
}
]
Using this response you can count the number of .py files in the root folder. If you also want to search in subfolders then you can write a small recursive function to also access the provided urls, for example https://api.github.com/repos/VismithaMona/codedeploytest2/contents/scripts?ref=master for the scripts subfolder.
For example in Python:
import requests
def checkfiles(url, extension):
print(f"check {url}")
files_found = 0
response = requests.request("GET", url)
if response.status_code == 200:
contents = response.json()
for item in contents:
if item['type'] == 'file' and item['name'][-len(extension):] == extension:
files_found += 1
print(f"found: {item['name']}")
if item['type'] == 'dir':
# recursive call here
files_found += checkfiles(item['url'], extension)
return(files_found)
total_files = checkfiles("https://api.github.com/repos/VismithaMona/codedeploytest2/contents", "py")
print("number of files with extension .py:", total_files)
Output:
check https://api.github.com/repos/VismithaMona/codedeploytest2/contents
check https://api.github.com/repos/VismithaMona/codedeploytest2/contents/scripts?ref=master
found: stop_flask.py
check https://api.github.com/repos/VismithaMona/codedeploytest2/contents/templates?ref=master
found: test_app.py
found: web.py
number of files with extension .py: 3