Can you explain what you're doing to get this error message? Which command are you running? If you've written a qlpack.yml file yourself, what does it contain?

qlpack.yaml content:

name: python-qlpack
version: 0.9.2
libraryPathDependencies:
  - codeql-python

I was just trying to start using CodeQL, so i setup an example for a python codebase so i can get a glance of it. Here's the codql code im using:

import python

from python import FunctionCall, Str

where
  exists(FunctionCall call |
    call.getFunction().hasQualifiedName("exec") and
    call.getArgument(0) instanceof Str
  )
select call

That sounds like you either haven't downloaded the CodeQL library code you depend on (from https://github.com/github/codeql) or haven's put it in a place where the codeql binary can find it. There are several ways to do that:

1. Put the github/codeql checkout as a sibling directory to the one you've unpacked the CodeQL CLI in.
2. If you're using the CodeQL CLI, point it to your github/codeql checkout with the --search-path or --additional-packs options.
3. Let both your query source and github/codeql be subdirectories of a directory containing a workspace definition file
4. If you're using the Visual Studio Code extension, clone https://github.com/github/vscode-codeql-starter which pulls in the library as a Git submodule.

After the you get the library found, you'll find that there is some trouble with your query source:

from python import FunctionCall, Str

This is bad syntax and not needed. The initial import python in itself makes all the names of the Python analysis library available at the top level.

select call

won't work because select is outside the scope of exists(FunctionCall call | ...). This is what the from keyword is actually for; you're supposed to write

from FunctionCall call
where <condition here>
select call

However, as far as I can see the Python QL library doesn't actually define classes named FunctionCall or Str, so there'll be more problems there. You probably want the Call and StrConst classes instead. (You may have seen FunctionCall in example queries for, say, Java, but the names and structure of the language model differs according to which language you're analysing).

For some working examples of Python queries, see e.g. https://codeql.github.com/docs/codeql-language-guides/codeql-library-for-python/ and the QL library reference at https://codeql.github.com/codeql-standard-libraries/python/index.html

That sounds like you either haven't downloaded the CodeQL library code you depend on (from https://github.com/github/codeql) or haven's put it in a place where the codeql binary can find it. There are several ways to do that:

1. Put the github/codeql checkout as a sibling directory to the one you've unpacked the CodeQL CLI in.
2. If you're using the CodeQL CLI, point it to your github/codeql checkout with the --search-path or --additional-packs options.
3. Let both your query source and github/codeql be subdirectories of a directory containing a workspace definition file
4. If you're using the Visual Studio Code extension, clone https://github.com/github/vscode-codeql-starter which pulls in the library as a Git submodule.

After the you get the library found, you'll find that there is some trouble with your query source:

from python import FunctionCall, Str

This is bad syntax and not needed. The initial import python in itself makes all the names of the Python analysis library available at the top level.

select call

won't work because select is outside the scope of exists(FunctionCall call | ...). This is what the from keyword is actually for; you're supposed to write

from FunctionCall call
where <condition here>
select call

However, as far as I can see the Python QL library doesn't actually define classes named FunctionCall or Str, so there'll be more problems there. You probably want the Call and StrConst classes instead. (You may have seen FunctionCall in example queries for, say, Java, but the names and structure of the language model differs according to which language you're analysing).

For some working examples of Python queries, see e.g. https://codeql.github.com/docs/codeql-language-guides/codeql-library-for-python/ and the QL library reference at https://codeql.github.com/codeql-standard-libraries/python/index.html

Hey, I meet same question now. And I more like use the fourth way: Use vscode-plugin.

I write a query which will work well when I use vscode-codeql-starter. But it run too slow because the database is so large. So I decide run this query in command(powshell), instead of vscode-codeql-starter. Because I could use the "--threads" optioins. Seems If I set it to 0, all core will be used. So I guess it will make my query run faster. And I failed.

So, Is there a way could make me still use Vscode-codeql-starter, and I still could set the "--threads" options in vscode?