List of Licensing Tools
Background
This page is a listing of open source tools for programmers that can be used for creating, manipulating, and evaluating licensing information.
License manipulation tools
These are scripts that allow a user to manipulate the license headers in a given source code file or files.
Development environment plugins
Plugins for development environments that help developers manipulate licensing information within those environments - e.g., build tools and IDEs.
RCS Plugins
Wanted!
License analysis tools
These are tools that, given a codebase, will analyze the codebase to see what licenses are present.
- ninka
- fossology
- Debian's licensecheck, part of the devscripts package
- Mozilla's relic and clic tools (note: task-specific code; possible rough edges)
Tools not directly related to source code
These should probably live elsewhere (this page should be focused on tools for programmers/tools directly related to source code analysis), but OK to put them here for now.
License choosers
(Q:what does “open source” mean in the “sites” classification below? Is it about the site itself? If yes, it's hard to judge. If no, the distinction below seems wrong already…
A: yes, if the site is open source. Is it better as a single list with project location, if one exists? Rewritten below… I'd think it's useful for readers who are interested in the difference, and who may want to contribute to one.)
The following is a list of license choosers sites. If the project to build the chooser is open source itself, we indicate in parenthesis where you can find the code.
- choosealicense.com (Source code link: github)
- John Cowan's license selector wizard
- EU Joinup
- OSS Watch
- TLDR Legal
- Creative Commons wizard
License documentation tools
- License Database
- Open Source Compendium Advisor - OSCAd (AGPLv3 with open development at OSCAd)
- CIPPIC License Information Tool - CLIPOL (BSD 2-clause with open development at clip)