License compliance tool. Detect license names and types for Python PyPI packages. Identify license types for given license names obtained by third-party tools. Great coverage of free/libre and open source licenses of all types: public domain, permissive, copyleft.
Supported formats:
- Python: packages or
requirements.txt(detect license name and license type) - Clojure: EDN files generated by lein-licenses (detect license type)
- JavaScript: CSV files generated by license-checker (detect license type)
- iOS: Apple Plist files generated by CocoaPods Acknowledgements plugin (detect license type)
- Android: JSON files generated by Gradle License Plugin (detect license type)
- Other: CSV files with package name and license name columns (detect license type).
You can install pip-license-checker either by pulling a Docker
image, builing from the source code or plugging-in GitHub Action to
your CI pipeline.
There are two options for getting a docker image:
- Pulling an official image from Docker Hub
docker pull pilosus/pip-license-checker
Use specific version tag (it's matching version of the tool in the repo) or just latest.
- Building a docker image yourself
git clone https://github.com/pilosus/pip-license-checker.git
cd pip-license-checker
docker build -t pilosus/pip-license-checker .-
Install Leiningen
-
Get the source code
git clone https://github.com/pilosus/pip-license-checker.git
cd pip-license-checkerIt's enough to start using the tool with lein. But you can
optionally compile a standalone jar-file too:
- (Optional) Compile uberjar file
lein uberjar
cd target/uberjar
java -jar pip-license-checker-[version]-standalone.jar [args] [options]If your project is hosted by GitHub, try the GitHub
Action based
on pip-license-checker.
docker run -it --rm pilosus/pip-license-checker \
java -jar app.jar 'aiostream==0.4.3' 'pygit2' 'aiohttp>3.7.1'In case of checking files (e.g. with --requirements or --external
tool's options) mount a host directory containing the files with
docker's -v option:
docker run -v `pwd`:/volume \
-e GITHUB_TOKEN=your-gh-token \
-it --rm pilosus/pip-license-checker \
java -jar app.jar --exclude 'pylint.*' \
--requirements '/volume/requirements.txt' \
--external '/volume/licenses.csv' \
--fail StrongCopyleft \
--fails-only \
--verboseExamples below assume you are using lein tool. If you'd like to use
standalone jar file, just substitute lein run with java -jar pip-license-checker-[version]-standalone.jar.
### see usage message
lein run
### check a single package
lein run piny==0.6.0
lein run aiostream
### include pre-release and development versions
lein run --pre aiohttp
### scan all packages in requirements file
lein run --requirements resources/requirements.txt
aiohttp:3.7.2 Apache Software License Permissive
piny:0.6.0 MIT License Permissive
aiostream:0.4.3 GPLv3 StrongCopyleft
mo-collections:4.30.21121 Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL 2.0) WeakCopyleft
aiocache:0.11.1 BSD 3-Clause "New" or "Revised" License Permissive
aiokafka:0.6.0 Apache Software License Permissive
aiopg:122.3.5 Error Error
telegram-bot-framework:3.15.2 GNU Affero General Public License v3 or later (AGPLv3+) NetworkCopyleft
aio-throttle:1.6.2 MIT License Permissive
workflow-tools:0.6.0 Apache Software License Permissive
Synx:0.0.3 Other/Proprietary License Other
### scan packages matching regex pattern
### e.g. all lines except containing "aio.*" packages
lein run --requirements resources/requirements.txt --exclude 'aio.*'
piny:0.6 MIT License Permissive
workflow-tools:0.5.0 Apache Software License Permissive
Synx Other/Proprietary License OtherRun application with lein run or use --help option with standalone
jar for more details.
lein run
pip-license-checker - license compliance tool to identify dependencies license names and types.
Usage:
pip-license-checker [options]... [package]...
Description:
package List of Python package names in format `name[specifier][version]`
-v, --verbose 0 Verbosity level: error (-v), info (-vv), debug (-vvv)
-r, --requirements REQUIREMENTS_FILE [] Python pip requirement file name
-x, --external FILE_NAME [] File containing package names and license names
--external-format FILE_FORMAT csv External file format: csv, cocoapods, gradle
--external-options OPTS_EDN_STRING {:skip-header true, :skip-footer true} String of options map in EDN format
--report-format FORMAT stdout Report format: stdout, json, json-pretty, csv
--formatter PRINTF_FMT %-35s %-55s %-20s %-40s Printf-style formatter string for stdout report formatting
-f, --fail LICENSE_TYPE #{} Return non-zero exit code if license type is found
-e, --exclude REGEX PCRE to exclude packages with matching names
--exclude-license REGEX PCRE to exclude packages with matching license names
--[no-]pre false Include pre-release and development versions. By default, use only stable versions
--[no-]totals false Print totals for license types
--[no-]with-totals nil [deprecated '0.41.0'] Print totals for license types
--[no-]totals-only false Print only totals for license types
--[no-]headers false Print report headers
--[no-]table-headers nil [deprecated '0.41.0'] Print table headers
--[no-]fails-only false Print only packages of license types specified with --fail flags
--[no-]parallel true Run requests in parallel
--[no-]exit true Exit program, used for CLI mode
--rate-limits REQUESTS/MILLISECONDS {:requests 120, :millis 60000} Rate limit requests to public APIs
--github-token TOKEN nil GitHub OAuth Token to increase rate-limits. Defaults to GITHUB_TOKEN env
-h, --help Print this help message
Examples:
pip-license-checker django
pip-license-checker aiohttp==3.7.2 piny==0.6.0 django
pip-license-checker --pre 'aiohttp<4'
pip-license-checker --totals --headers --requirements resources/requirements.txt
pip-license-checker --totals-only -r file1.txt -r file2.txt -r file3.txt
pip-license-checker -r resources/requirements.txt django aiohttp==3.7.1 --exclude 'aio.*'
pip-license-checker -r resources/requirements.txt --rate-limits 10/1000
pip-license-checker -r resources/requirements.github.txt --github-token your-token
pip-license-checker -x resources/external.csv --exclude-license '(?i).*(?:mit|bsd).*'
pip-license-checker -x resources/external.csv --external-options '{:skip-header false}'
pip-license-checker -x resources/external.cocoapods --external-format cocoapods'
pip-license-checker -x resources/external.edn --external-format edn --formatter '%-70s %-60s %-35s %-40s'
pip-license-checker -r resources/requirements.txt --report-format 'json-pretty' --totals --headers -vvvThe following valid license types are available (to be used with --fail option):
NetworkCopyleft(GNU Affero GPL and the like)StrongCopyleft(GNU GPL and the like)WeakCopyleft(file-based or module-based copyleft like MPL or EPL)Copyleft(includes all of above)Permissive(BSD-style licenses)Other(EULA, licenses not detected by the tool)Error(no license name found or provided)
The tool supports multiple file formats containing package names and
license name. External file format can be specified with the
--external-format option.
Options specific to the file format can be specified with the
--external-options as a string in EDN format.
A CSV file generated by
license-checker or
any other third-party tool.
At least two columns need to be present in the file: package name and license name.
Default --external-options are the following:
{:skip-header true :package-column-index 0 :license-column-index 1}
skip-header [boolean]: skip the first line in a CSV file because it's a header linepackage-column-index [integer]: index of the column with a package name (zero-based indexing)license-column-index [integer]: index of the column with a license name (zero-based indexing)
An EDN file generated by lein-licenses, a Clojure's leiningen plugin for detecting licenses for the project's dependencies.
Default --external-options are the following:
{:fully-qualified-names true}
{:fully-qualified-names [boolean]}: iftrueuse fully-qualified dependency names, e.g.org.clojars.vrs/pip-license-checker:0.30.0. Otherwise try to strip a Clojars's group or a Maven's groupId part, e.g.pip-license-checker:0.30.0. Default value istrue.
A propery list (plist) file generated by CocoaPods Acknowledgements plugin.
See available options in the documentation.
A JSON file generated by Gradle License Plugin.
See available options in the documentation.
The following valid external file options are available (to be used
with --external-options option) for the external formats:
csv:'{:skip-header [boolean]}'-- skip the first (header) line of thecsvfile or not.cocoapods: see the documentation.gradle: see the documentation
Q1. Does the tool consider the Python package's version? What if a package changes its license over time?
The tool resolves the version for Python packages just pip package
manager does. It also checks the license only for the resolved version
of the package.
pip-license-checker checks only explicitly defined dependencies,
without
transitive
ones. The easiest way to check all dependencies is to get them by
the pip as the list and then run the tool with that list:
pip freeze > requirements-all.txt
lein run -r requirements-all.txtPEP508 indeed allows specifying extra packages to be installed for the package as well as markers describing the rules when the dependency should be used:
requests[security];python_version<"3.9"
The tool ignores both extras and markers. Use the recipe for the Q2 if you need extras/markers to have an effect on the final list of dependencies to be checked.
pip-license-checker is provided on an "as-is" basis and makes no
warranties regarding any information provided through it, and
disclaims liability for damages resulting from using it. Using
pip-license-checker does not constitute legal advice nor does it
create an attorney-client relationship.
Copyright © 2020-2023 Vitaly Samigullin
This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License 2.0 which is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-2.0.
This Source Code may also be made available under the following Secondary Licenses when the conditions for such availability set forth in the Eclipse Public License, v. 2.0 are satisfied: GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version, with the GNU Classpath Exception which is available at https://www.gnu.org/software/classpath/license.html.
SPDX-License-Identifier: EPL-2.0 OR GPL-2.0 WITH Classpath-exception-2.0