Make Unix/Linux path handling OS-independent for Windows compatibility

[subhash-0000]

This PR makes the Unix/Linux path handling OS-independent to ensure Nettacker works equally well on both Windows and Unix-like operating systems.

I've requested assignment for issue #933 and have completed the implementation with full testing on Windows.

Changes Made
Refactored path operations in 5 core files to use OS-independent methods:

Fixed graph discovery, language loading, and module loading in arg_parser
Fixed language discovery in messages module
Fixed file download headers in API engine
Added UTF-8 encoding to YAML file operations in template module for Windows compatibility
Added clarifying comment in common utils to distinguish URL parsing from file path operations
All changes replace hardcoded forward slash operations with pathlib properties and os.path functions.

Testing Performed
Tested comprehensively on Windows 10 with Python 3.10.0:

Scan Engine: All 117 modules discovered and loaded successfully
API: File download headers working correctly with Windows paths
WebUI: Language discovery (23 languages) and graph discovery (2 graphs) working
Module Loading: All YAML files parsed without encoding errors
Path Handling: Windows backslash paths working correctly
Database: SQLite connection and operations working
All changes are cross-platform and fully backwards compatible with Unix/Linux systems.

Fixes #933

Type of change
Bugfix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
Checklist
I've followed the contributing guidelines
I've run make pre-commit, it didn't generate any changes
I've run make test, all tests passed locally

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Summary by CodeRabbit

• Refactor

  • Improved internal path and file-name handling across core modules for more consistent cross-platform behavior.
  • Streamlined language and module metadata extraction.

• Documentation

  • Added and clarified docstrings and descriptive comments throughout the codebase.

• Bug Fixes

  • Ensured template files are read using UTF-8 to prevent character encoding issues.

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Walkthrough

Replaced string-based path manipulations with platform-agnostic pathlib/os.path calls, added UTF-8 file encoding and a few docstrings/comments, and a minor whitespace change. No public interfaces or control flow changes; behavior preserved.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
API filename extraction nettacker/api/engine.py	Use os.path.basename(filename) for Content-Disposition filename instead of filename.split("/")[-1]; added a blank line after a multiprocessing loop (no functional change).
Argument, graph and module path parsing nettacker/core/arg_parser.py	Replace string-splitting with pathlib.Path properties: derive graph name from parent.name, use Path.stem for language/module names, and get module category from parent.name.
Language name extraction nettacker/core/messages.py	Use Path.stem to obtain language identifiers from locale file paths instead of manual string parsing.
Template file handling and docs nettacker/core/template.py	Open YAML files with encoding="utf-8" and add docstrings to open() and format(); loading/formatting logic unchanged.
Clarifying docstring/comment nettacker/core/utils/common.py	Added a descriptive docstring to re_address_repeaters_key_name clarifying slash-delimited key behavior; no signature change.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~10 minutes

• Verify Path-based extractions match previous behavior for edge cases (filenames without extensions, names with multiple dots, Windows backslashes).
• Confirm Content-Disposition filename quoting/escaping is still correct.
• Ensure YAML files load correctly with explicit utf-8 encoding.

Pre-merge checks and finishing touches

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 72.73% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%.	You can run @coderabbitai generate docstrings to improve docstring coverage.

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and specifically describes the main objective of the PR: making Unix/Linux path handling OS-independent for Windows compatibility, which directly aligns with the core changes.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description is detailed and directly related to the changeset, explaining the path handling refactoring across five core files, testing performed on Windows, and how changes ensure cross-platform compatibility.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The PR fulfills the linked issue #933 requirements by replacing Unix/Linux-style path operations with OS-independent methods across all affected modules (arg_parser, messages, engine, template, common.py), and testing confirms functionality on both Windows and Unix-like systems.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	All changes are scoped to OS-independent path handling refactoring across five core files. Minor additions like docstrings and blank lines are supporting changes; no unrelated functionality modifications detected.

✨ Finishing touches

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 4ba29e7 and d1e8544.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• nettacker/core/utils/common.py (2 hunks)

🧰 Additional context used

📓 Path-based instructions (3)

**/*.py

📄 CodeRabbit inference engine (AGENTS.md)

**/*.py: Use 4-space indents in Python code
Limit lines to 99 characters (ruff/ruff-format/isort profile=black)
Module and file names should use lower_snake_case
Function and variable names should use lower_snake_case
Class names should use PascalCase
Constants should use UPPER_SNAKE_CASE
Keep functions small and add type hints where practical

Files:

• nettacker/core/utils/common.py

nettacker/**/*.py

📄 CodeRabbit inference engine (AGENTS.md)

Add docstrings for public APIs in the nettacker package

Files:

• nettacker/core/utils/common.py

nettacker/core/**

📄 CodeRabbit inference engine (AGENTS.md)

Place core libraries under nettacker/core/

Files:

• nettacker/core/utils/common.py

🔇 Additional comments (1)

nettacker/core/utils/common.py (1)

168-183: Excellent clarification in the docstring.

The docstring clearly documents that "/" is used as a key delimiter for nested dictionary access, not as a file path separator. This distinction is important for the PR's cross-platform objectives and prevents confusion when reviewing path-handling code.

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[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR successfully refactors path handling operations across 5 core files to use OS-independent methods, ensuring Nettacker works correctly on both Windows and Unix-like operating systems. The changes replace hardcoded forward slash string operations with proper pathlib properties and os.path functions, which automatically handle platform-specific path separators.

Key Changes:

• Replaced string .split("/") operations with pathlib properties (.stem, .parent.name) for extracting file path components
• Added UTF-8 encoding to YAML file operations for Windows compatibility
• Replaced string splitting with os.path.basename() for filename extraction

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
nettacker/core/utils/common.py	Added clarifying comment to distinguish URL key delimiter from file path separator
nettacker/core/template.py	Added UTF-8 encoding parameter when opening YAML module files to handle non-ASCII characters on Windows
nettacker/core/messages.py	Replaced string splitting with language.stem to extract language names from file paths
nettacker/core/arg_parser.py	Replaced string splitting with pathlib properties (.stem, .parent.name) in three locations: graph discovery, language loading, and module loading
nettacker/api/engine.py	Replaced string splitting with os.path.basename() for extracting filename in file download headers

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[subhash-0000]

@coderabbitai generate docstrings

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✅ Actions performed

Initiated docstring generation; will generate only if new commits exist.

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Note

Docstrings generation - SUCCESS
Generated docstrings for this pull request at #1174

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Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

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[subhash-0000]

Hi maintainers

This PR fixes Windows path compatibility issues by replacing Unix-specific path operations with OS-independent methods (os.path.basename(), .stem, .parent.name).

Changes:

• Replaced split("/") with proper pathlib/os.path methods
• Added docstrings per CodeRabbit review
• All formatting fixes applied

The CI workflow is awaiting approval to run. Could a maintainer please approve the workflow? Thanks!

Fixes #1039

[deekshithaby]

Hi @subhash-0000,

I tested PR #1173 locally on macOS. The path-handling changes work as expected, module resolution and the updated directory structure behave correctly.

The only failures I encountered were due to Python 3.12 removing ssl.wrap_socket,which affects the test suite but isn’t related to your changes.

To address this and make the test suite compatible with Python 3.12+, I opened a separate test-only compatibility PR here:
#1180

With that shim applied, all 214 tests pass locally, and PR #1173 runs cleanly.

Happy to test anything else if needed!

[subhash-0000]

@deekshithaby
Thank you so much for testing this locally

Great to hear the path-handling changes work correctly on macOS and that module resolution is functioning as expected. I appreciate you opening #1180 to address the Python 3.12 SSL compatibility issue separately - that's very helpful!

Looking forward to getting this merged once the maintainers approve the workflow and review the changes. Thanks again for your thorough testing!

[subhash-0000]

Friendly ping @arkid15r @securestep9

This PR has been tested by @deekshithaby on macOS and is ready for review. The workflow is awaiting approval to run CI checks.

Thanks for your time!