Coccinelle (French word for ladybug) is a tool to match and transform the source code of programs written in the programming languageC. Coccinelle was initially used to aid the evolution of Linux; with support for changes to library application programming interfaces (APIs) such as renaming a function, adding a function argument which value is somehow context-dependent, and reorganizing a data structure. The tool is freely available under an open source license.
The source code to be matched and/or replaced is specified using a pattern that is very similar to C (the Semantic Patch Language).[1][2]
Support is provided by IRILL and funding for the development of Coccinelle has been provided by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France), the Danish Research Council for Technology and Production Sciences and INRIA.