brakeman

Brakeman is a term with multiple meanings in different fields. In rail transportation, a brakeman is a railroad worker responsible for applying and releasing handbrakes on railcars during switching and securing trains, as well as inspecting brake equipment and assisting with coupling and uncoupling operations. Traditionally, brakemen rode on the outside of cars or the end of trains to ensure brakes were set and to signal movements to the locomotive crew; with the introduction of continuous air-brake systems, some duties were redistributed to conductors and yard workers. In modern operations in many regions, the role is less common as a distinct job title, having been absorbed into other roles or automated in parts of the process, but the term may still appear in historical contexts or in certain short-term or yard assignments.

Brakeman is also the name of an open-source static analysis tool for Ruby on Rails that scans Rails applications for security vulnerabilities. It analyzes the source code and configuration, identifying risks such as mass assignment issues, cross-site scripting, SQL injection, and cross-site request forgery; it does not execute the application. Brakeman runs as a command-line tool, installed via a Ruby gem, and can produce reports in text, HTML, or JSON. It is designed to integrate into development workflows and CI pipelines, supporting multiple Rails versions and actively maintained by the community.