Background

This page is a list of open source tools that can be used for creating, manipulating, and evaluating licensing information. The list has been created by OSI community members, but OSI does not endorse any particular tool on the list. 

To discuss this page, please drop an email to the license-discuss mailing list.

License manipulation tools

These are scripts that allow a user to manipulate the license headers in a given source code file or files.

• copyright-header
• headache

Development environment plugins

Plugins for development environments that help developers manipulate licensing information within those environments - e.g., build tools and IDEs.

• Maven plugin
• Eclipse plugin

Revision Control System Plugins

If you're aware of revision control system plugins that manage licensing information (e.g., automatically add license headers; reject commits that lack license headers; etc.) please add them here.

License analysis tools

These are tools that, given source code, will analyze the source code 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 documentation tools

The following is a list of license documentation sites. If the project to build the tool is open source itself, we indicate in parenthesis where you can find the code.

• License Database - LicenseDB (Apache 2.0 with open development at licensedb)
• Open Source Compliance Advisor - OSCAd (AGPLv3 with open development at OSCAd)
• CIPPIC License Information Tool - CLIPOL (BSD 2-clause with open development at clip)

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
• CIPPIC Licensing Information Project for Open Licences (Source code link: github)