WARNING: license-scanner has moved to: https://github.com/CycloneDX/license-scanner

The newer CycloneDX version is maintained by OWASP CycloneDX maintainers (including IBM). This old IBM version is no longer maintained. This repository will not be updated. The repository will be kept available in read-only mode.

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license-scanner

license-scanner scans files for licenses and legal terms. It can be used to identify text matching licenses and license exceptions from the SPDX License List. license_scanner can also be configured to identify additional legal terms, keywords, aliases, and non-SPDX licenses.

As a library, written in Go, license-scanner is designed to be integrated into your software supply chain pipelines. In addition, license-scanner may be used as a command-line utility.

Getting started

The license scanner is available as a CLI and as a go module. Importing the scanner as go module is a recommended way to integrate it in your own tools.

Compatability

• Building from source requires Go 1.18 or newer
• CycloneDX output is based on v1.4
• SPDX template matching has been tested with SPDX license template versions 3.17 and 3.18

Installing as a CLI

Install the license-scanner CLI executable in your go environment by building from source with go install:

go install github.com/IBM/license-scanner@latest

Installing for developers

For developers, git clone the repo and build the source code with go build:

Clone the repo:

git clone https://github.com/IBM/license-scanner.git

The commands that follow are to be run from your cloned repo root directory:

cd license-scanner

Build the source code:

go build ./...

Run the CLI from source code in your cloned repo (with local changes):

go run . --help

Optionally, install a license-scanner executable from your cloned repo (with local changes) :

go install

NOTE: For documentation purposes, the CLI examples assume the use of the license-scanner executable, but typically developers will instead use go run . (or go run ./main.go) in place of license-scanner.

Installing as a Module

Using the license-scanner API is simple. First, use go get to install the latest version of the library.

go get -u github.com/IBM/license-scanner@latest

Next, import the scanner API into your application:

import "github.com/IBM/license-scanner/api/scanner"

CLI usage

To get more information about command-line usage directly from your executable, run license-scanner --help. When you run with the --debug flag, the latest usage in markdown format will also be updated in cmd/license-scanner.md

Usage:
  license-scanner [flags]


Flags:
  -g, --acceptable          Flag acceptable
      --addAll string       Add the licenses from SPDX unzipped release
      --configName string   Base name for config file (default "config")
      --configPath string   Path to any config files
  -c, --copyrights          Flag copyrights
      --custom string       Custom templates to use (default "default")
  -d, --debug               Enable debug logging
      --dir string          A directory in which to identify licenses
  -f, --file string         A file in which to identify licenses
  -x, --hash                Output file hash
  -h, --help                help for license-scanner
  -k, --keywords            Flag keywords
  -l, --license string      Display match debugging for the given license
      --list                List the license templates to be used
  -n, --normalized          Flag normalized
  -q, --quiet               Set logging to quiet
      --spdx string         SPDX templates to use (default "default")

Example CLI usage

Example usage to scan LICENSE.txt, but only print the license IDs and positions of license matches:

license-scanner --quiet -f LICENSE.txt

Example usage to print license IDs, copyrights, and blocks found in file LICENSE.txt:

license-scanner -c -f LICENSE.txt

Example scan of a license file with output shown:

$ curl -o ASYNC_LICENSE https://raw.githubusercontent.com/caolan/async/master/LICENSE

$ license-scanner -f ASYNC_LICENSE
[INFO] Looking for all licences

FOUND LICENSE MATCHES:
        License ID:     MIT
                begins:     0   ends:  1061
                begins:    40   ends:   600
                begins:   602   ends:  1061

[INFO] [MIT] :: Copyright (c) 2010-2018 Caolan McMahon

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
THE SOFTWARE.

Library usage

Example library usage

Initialize the ScanSpecs with LicenseText to scan the license text against the set of SPDX licenses and get the CycloneDX LicenseChoice. The CycloneDX LicenseChoice includes SPDX License ID, SPDX License Expression, and License name.

scanSpecs := scanner.ScanSpecs{
	Specs: []scanner.ScanSpec{
		{
			Name:        "async",
			LicenseText: asyncLicenseText,
		},
		{
			Name:        "helmet",
			LicenseText: helmetLicenseText,
		},
	},
}

Call the ScanLicenseText:

results, err := scanSpecs.ScanLicenseText()
if err != nil {
	// report error and return
	return err
}

The ScanLicenseText returns ScanResult which contains the original specifications along with original license text, normalized license text, the digest (Md5, Sha256, and Sha512) of the normalized text, and CycloneDX LicenseChoice schema.

For example:

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"io/ioutil"
	"log"
	"net/http"
	"os"

	"github.com/IBM/license-scanner/api/scanner"
)

func GetLicense(urls map[string]string) {
	for n, u := range urls {
		// Create a blank file
		file, err := os.Create(n)
		defer file.Close()
		if err != nil {
			log.Fatal(err)
		}

		// initiate HTTP client with the specified URL
		client := http.Client{
			CheckRedirect: func(r *http.Request, via []*http.Request) error {
				r.URL.Opaque = r.URL.Path
				return nil
			},
		}

		// Copy content in a file
		resp, err := client.Get(u)
		defer resp.Body.Close()
		if err != nil {
			log.Fatal(err)
		}

		_, err = io.Copy(file, resp.Body)
		if err != nil {
			log.Fatal(err)
		}
	}
}

func main() {
	sampleLicenses := map[string]string{
		"async":     "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/caolan/async/master/LICENSE",
		"urllib3":   "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/urllib3/urllib3/main/LICENSE.txt",
		"cobra":     "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spf13/cobra/main/LICENSE.txt",
		"golang-go": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/golang/go/master/LICENSE",
	}

	GetLicense(sampleLicenses)

	var scanSpecs scanner.ScanSpecs

	for n, u := range sampleLicenses {
		text, _ := ioutil.ReadFile(n)
		scanSpecs.Specs = append(scanSpecs.Specs, scanner.ScanSpec{
			Name:        n,
			Location:    u,
			LicenseText: string(text),
		})
	}

	results, _ := scanSpecs.ScanLicenseText()
	for _, result := range results {
		fmt.Printf("License IDs for %s: ", result.Spec.Name)
		for _, r := range result.CycloneDXLicenses {
			fmt.Printf("%s\n", r.License.ID)
		}
	}
}

License IDs for async: MIT
License IDs for urllib3: MIT
License IDs for cobra: Apache-2.0
License IDs for golang-go: BSD-3-Clause

Scan Results

The license-scanner returns a list of identified licenses in CycloneDX LicenseChoice schema which holds a License or an Expression. The main goal of a license-scanner is to return a list of SPDX License IDs in the License struct:

type License struct {
	ID   string
	Name string
	Text *AttachedText
	URL  string
}

The ID here represents the SPDX ID in case of a license is identified against a known SPDX licenses. In case of a no match, ID is left empty string but Name is set to NOASSERTION to signify that this particular license text was compared against the known licenses but did not match any.

Here is an example of a go-yaml package with Apache-2.0 and MIT licenses:

      "licenses": [
        {
          "license": {
            "id": "Apache-2.0",
            "text": {
              "contentType": "text/plain",
              "encoding": "base64",
              "content": "..."
            },
            "url": "https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.txt"
          }
        },
        {
          "license": {
            "id": "MIT",
            "text": {
              "contentType": "text/plain",
              "encoding": "base64",
              "content": "..."
            },
            "url": "https://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php"
          }
        }
      ]

Setting flags with the API

Optional flags maybe used with the API to locate the config file and control runtime options. These are the same flags that are used in CLI Usage, but instead of using command-line flags, they are set and passed using the API as shown below.

package main

import (
	"github.com/IBM/license-scanner/api/scanner"
	"github.com/IBM/license-scanner/configurer"
)

func main() {
	// To override default flags, start with a new default flag set.
	flagSet := configurer.NewDefaultFlags()
	// Override flags where necessary using Set(flag, value)
	flagSet.Set("spdx", "my3.17")
	// Setup your scanner.ScanSpecs as shown earlier.
	scanSpecs := scanner.ScanSpecs{ /* ...see earlier example... */ }
	// Use WithFlags() to set the non-default flags for a scan
	result, err := scanSpecs.WithFlags(flagSet).ScanLicenseText()
}

Optional Configuration

Refer to configurer/README.md for advanced configuration options.

CLI modes

Help mode

When you add --help or -h to any license_scanner command it will produce help output and no other action will be performed.

Name	Shorthand	Type	Default	Usage
--help	-h	Boolean	false	Print usage help

In help mode, all other flags are ignored.

Scan mode

When running license_scanner --file <input_file> the input file is scanned for license matches. When running license_scanner --dir <input_dir> the input directory is recursively scanned for license matches.

Name	Shorthand	Type	Usage
--file	-f	string	A file in which to identify licenses
--dir		string	A directory in which to identify licenses

The following optional runtime flags may be used to modify and enhance the behavior:

• Resource flags: --spdx, --custom
• Output logging flags: --quiet, --debug
• Config file location flags: --configPath, --configName
• Output enhancer flags: --acceptable, --copyrights, --hash, --keywords, --normalized, --license

Import mode

When running license_scanner --addAll <input_dir> the input directory is used to validate, prepare, and import SPDX licenses.

Name	Type	Usage
-addAll	string	Add the licenses from SPDX unzipped release

The following runtime flags may be used to modify the behavior:

• Resource flags (import destination): --spdx
• Config file location (used to locate resources): --configPath, --configName

List mode

When running license_scanner --list a listing of the SPDX and custom license templates will be output.

Name	Usage
--list	List the license templates to be used

Since you may have multiple locations for resources and multiple SPDX and custom folders under each of those resources, use the following flags to generate non-default listings:

• Resource flags: --spdx, --custom
• Config file location (used to locate resources): --configPath, --configName

Example license library listing: resources/LIST.md

Runtime flags

Resource flags

license-scanner uses configurable resources to identify licenses and legal terms. By default, SPDX licenses and license exceptions are configured under resources/spdx/default. This directory is provided in the repo for out-of-the-box functionality.

In addition, default examples used to recognize additional legal terms and extend SPDX license matching are provided under resources/custom/default.

Resource flags can be used in scan mode to run scans with alternative resources. The --spdx flag is also in import mode as described in Importing SPDX license templates.

Name	Default	Usage
--spdx	default	Suppress all logging
--custom	default	Enable debug logging

Output logging flags

Logging flags control the amount of output. --quiet takes priority over --debug and other enhancer flags that rely on printed output.

Name	Shorthand	Default	Usage
--quiet	-q	false	Suppress all logging
--debug	-d	false	Enable debug logging

Output enhancer flags

Output enhancers create additional output details for a license scan. The enhanced output uses logging, so these should not be used with the --quiet flag. All enhancer flags are Boolean except for --license. --license requires a string identifying the license template to use for the diff.

Name	Shorthand	Default	Usage
--acceptable	-g	false	Flag acceptable pattern matches
--copyrights	-c	false	Flag copyrights
--hash	-x	false	Output the normalized license file hashcode
--keywords	-k	false	Flag keywords
--normalized	-n	false	Output the normalized license text
--license	-l		Output normalized diff of input and license

Config file location flags

When a license-scanner command is executed or a ScanLicenseText() call is made via the API, license-scanner will look for a config file to initialize runtime options.

By default, license-scanner will look for the config file in:

1. The directory containing the executable
2. The project root (for development and tests)

You can use the --configPath <path> flag to read your the config file from an alternate location. You can also override the "config" part of the file name by setting the --configName <base>.

For example, --configPath /tmp/test_dir --configName configTest would allow you to test using /tmp/test_dir/configTest.json.

The default config file is named config.<ext> (e.g. config.json). Viper provides the ability to read config files in a variety of formats, such as TOML or YAML instead of JSON. Use the file extension to indicate the format and refer to Viper for supported languages. For license-scanner, JSON is presumed for testing and documentation.

Name	Shorthand	Default	Usage
--configName		config	Base name for config file
--configPath		executable's dir or project root	Path to any config files

Refer to configurer/README.md for advanced configuration options.

Running the tests

Unit Tests

Each package has many unit tests in *_test.go which can be executed using go test:

 go test ./... -tags=unit
?       github.com/IBM/license-scanner    [no test files]
ok      github.com/IBM/license-scanner/api/scanner        3.009s
ok      github.com/IBM/license-scanner/cmd        8.646s
?       github.com/IBM/license-scanner/debugger   [no test files]
ok      github.com/IBM/license-scanner/identifier 20.923s
ok      github.com/IBM/license-scanner/licenses   7.151s
?       github.com/IBM/license-scanner/logging    [no test files]
ok      github.com/IBM/license-scanner/normalizer 0.161s
ok      github.com/IBM/license-scanner/resources  0.278s

Importing SPDX license templates

license-scanner includes a default current release of SPDX license templates already imported. You would only use this import process if you want to download and work with an alternate version (e.g. newer or older than the one that is currently included).

license-scanner will copy, preprocess, and validate files from an SPDX license list release. These files include templates, metadata, and license text.

Imported SPDX templates will be automatically copied into your resources directory using the following directory naming convention:

• resources/spdx/<versionDir>
  • where <versionDir> is set by the --spdx <versionDir> command-line flag

Steps

1. Download the SPDX license list assets (zip file or tar.gz) from https://github.com/spdx/license-list-data/releases
2. Unzip the file. This will create the <dir> that you will import from (below).
3. Ensure that the destination directory named resources/spdx/<versionDir> is not in use.
4. Run the license-scanner --addAll <dir> --spdx <versionDir> command. For example:

   license-scanner --addAll ~/Downloads/license-list-data-3.17 --spdx my3.17

5. The new templates, json, testdata, and generated precheck files will all be put in the resources/spdx/my3.17 directory.