Open Source Licenses

Quickly and easily license your projects with licenses from the Open Source Initiative.

This project is not directly affiliated with Open Source Initiative; it consumes data from the public API and license repository. See the following for more information:

• https://opensource.org
• https://api.opensource.org
• https://github.com/OpenSourceOrg/licenses

Installation

Global CLI

# Global CLI
npm install --global oslicense

# Module
npm install oslicense

Usage (CLI)

oslicense [<args>] [<license-id>]

Automatically generates a license file ('LICENSE.md') or outputs license text for a given OSI license ID. If a package.json file with a license property is present, that license ID will be used. package.json lookup will start with the current working directory, checking all parent directories until a package.json file is found.

The <license-id> argument (case-sensitive) must match one of the license IDs returned using the --list flag.

The generated license file may have placeholders for license holder names, dates, etc. that will need to be replaced manually.

CLI Arguments

-h, --help

Shows CLI help text.

-v, --version

Shows the package version number.

-l, --list

Lists all available OSI licenses and license IDs.

License-ID-01:
    License 01 Name

License-ID-02:
    License 02 Name

...

-o, --output <path>

Specifies an alternate output file name and/or directory for the generated license file. Relative paths are relative to the current working directory.

If <path> is a directory, then the license file will be created with the default file name in the directory.

-s, --stdout

Prints license text to stdout instead of generating a license file. If specified, the --output flag will be ignored.

Usage (Module)

const osl = require("oslicense");

(async () => {
    try {
        // Get object containing all available OSI licenses, keyed by license ID
        console.log(await osl.getLicenses());
        
        // Get license metadata for a specific license ID
        console.log(await osl.getLicenseData("MIT"));
        
        // Get license text for a specific license ID or license object from
        // getLicenseData()
        console.log(await osl.getLicenseText("MIT"));
        
        // Gets the 'license' property value from the nearest package.json file
        // relative to the current working directory
        console.log(osl.getNearestLicense());
    }
    catch (e) {
        console.error(e);
    }
})();

For more detailed usage information, refer to the documentation in oslicense.js