license-tool

A tool to validate license header, or modify license of target file.

Please manually verify the programmatic fixes before commit to your repository.

Install

Install From Github Source Code

git clone https://github.com/jackjia-ibm/license-tool
cd license-tool
npm install
npm link

Install From npm Registry

This tool is published to npmjs.com.

npm install -g license-tool

Please note: you need to make sure your registry is npmjs.com.

Usage

Help Information

Usage: license-tool [options] <folder|file>

Options:
  --version         Show version number                                [boolean]
  -L, --standalone  license file stays in root folder
                                            [default: "licenses/standalone.txt"]
  -H, --header      license attached to file header
                                                [default: "licenses/header.txt"]
  -X, --exclude     exclude extra files/folders pattern
  -Y, --years       each file license start year
  -f, --fix         if let the tool fixes the license errors
                                                      [boolean] [default: false]
  -v, --verbose     show more processing details      [boolean] [default: false]
  -h, --help        Show help                                          [boolean]

Configure License Files

Update the default license files located in licenses folder, or you can specify command line options of --header and/or --standaline.

My License Header Requires Year Range

There is special macro {year} you can put in header license file. The macro will be replaced with the correct license year range when parsing that file.

For example, if the file has existing license Copyright abc company 2016. Then if current year is 2018, then the {years} will be parsed to 2016, 2018, and expected license will be Copyright abc company 2016, 2018.

Exclude More Files/Folders

By default, if the folder has .gitignore, the tool will pick up and exclude all files/folders defined there.

Otherwise, you can specify -X or --exclude option to define how you want to exclude. You can combine multiple patterns with ; separated. For example, -X index.js;node_modules/**/*.

For how to define pattern, you can follow glob.

My Files Doesn't Have Accurate License Start Year

You can define license start year for each file.

• You can define in the command line by separating each file with comma. For example, license-tool . -Y path/to/my/file1.js:2010,path/to/my/file2.js:2011.
• You can put all definitions in a file. In the file, each file stays in one line, and follow with : and year. An example file:

path/to/my/file1.js:2010
path/to/my/file2.js:2011

Then you can use command license-tool . -Y /path/to/your/definition/file.

Check License Verification Result In Your Pipeline

def licenseErrors = sh(script: "license-tool . -H /path/to/my/header.txt -L /path/to/my/standalone.txt | grep 'should be fixed'", returnStdout: true)

Known Issues

• Inline comments is not supported because it may involve more complicated semantic check on the source code. For example, these comments won't be recognized:

  let v1 = '1';  /* won't be recognized */
  let v2 = '2';  // won't be recognized

• The parser may wrongly recognize comments within multiple-lines string because it doesn't do semantic check.