license-checker

Validate and fix license headers in source files. Year ranges are supported: if license header refers to copyright year as 2021, it will be converted to 2021-2022 if run with --fix option in year 2022. If license header is completely missed from the file, it will be added with copyright year 2022. Use --start-year 2021 option to override this behaivor and use copyright year range 2021-2022 for files, which had completely missed license header before.

Files which are in unrecognized format are reported, but this does not affect final score. Files in recognized format are checked and this affects final score, printed as last line (if run without --fix option).

Quick Start

Run this to verify license headers in all recognized files in current directory:

$ docker run -it --rm -v $(pwd):/github/workspace artifactory.algol60.net/csm-docker/stable/license-checker

Run this to fix license headers in all recognized files in current directory:

$ docker run -it --rm -v $(pwd):/github/workspace artifactory.algol60.net/csm-docker/stable/license-checker --fix

Run this to fix license headers in all recognized files in current directory, pushing start of copyright year range back to year 2021:

$ docker run -it --rm -v $(pwd):/github/workspace artifactory.algol60.net/csm-docker/stable/license-checker --fix --start-year 2021

Run this to fix license headers in specific files, pushing start of copyright year range back to year 2021:

$ docker run -it --rm -v $(pwd):/github/workspace artifactory.algol60.net/csm-docker/stable/license-checker --fix --start-year 2021 path/to/file1 path/to/file2

Alternatively, if you don't want to run docker, you can run license-checker Python script. You will need standard Python3 distro, plus PyYAML module installed. Clone license-checker repo. If run without parameters, license-checker script will perform read-only checking in current directory.

$ git clone https://github.com/Cray-HPE/license-checker.git
$ cd /path/to/my-repo
$ /path/to/license_check.py
...
$ /path/to/license_check.py --fix
...

Customizations

Customizations are available through .license_check.yaml file, placed into top level scan directory (which defaults to current directory). For full list and explanation of all customizable fields, please refer to main configuration file. Settings, defined in .license_check.yaml, are merged on top of defaults: dicts are updated, lists are getting overwritten.

Most notable settings, which may require customization, are:

1. file_types. This section sets relationship between filename pattern and content type. This section is defined as dict, so if you need to ovewrite existing definition, or add new one, just add it to .license_check.yaml:

   file_types:
       "*.htm": html
   

2. add_exclude. Use this section in .license_check.yaml to add new entries to exclusion list (preserving default entries):

   add_exclude:
       - "ignore_this.*"
   

   Patterns in exclusion list must follow Python fnmatch module syntax. File and directory names are normalized relative to top level scan directory (i.e. ./dist/ becomes dist), and then matched against exclusion pattern. Directories, matching exclusion pattern, are not descended into. I.e., use dist to exclude dist folder, located in scan root. Use another entry */dist to exclude all folders, named dist, located deeper in file tree.

Integration with GitHub Workflows

Add the following to a file named .github/workflows/license-check.yaml:

name: license-check

on:
  push:
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: License Check
        uses: docker://<your_container_registry>/license-checker:latest
        shell: sh

This example will perform license header validation on all files in the repo, when code is pushed to GitHub (push) or workflow started manually (workflow_dispatch). You may need adjust ru conditions, runner labels, or provide container registry credentials via container section.

Alternatively, you may install License Checker as a validation check on PR submission. In this case, it makes sense to run validation only on files which were actually changed within the PR. There's a shorthand composite action define din action.yaml file in this repo. In this mode, use the following workflow template:

name: Check Licenses

on:
  pull_request:

jobs:
  license-check:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: Cray-HPE/license-checker@main