Dump the software license list of Python packages installed with pip.
- Description
- Installation
- Usage
- Command-Line Options
- Option: from
- Option: with-system
- Option: with-authors
- Option: with-urls
- Option: with-description
- Option: with-license-file
- Option: ignore-packages
- Option: order
- Option: format
- Option: summary
- Option: output-file
- Option: filter-strings
- Option: filter-code-page
- Option: fail-on
- Option: allow-only
- More Information
- Dockerfile
- About UnicodeEncodeError
- License
- Uninstallation
- Contributing
pip-licenses is a CLI tool for checking the software license of installed Python packages with pip.
Implemented with the idea inspired by composer licenses command in Composer (a.k.a PHP package management tool).
https://getcomposer.org/doc/03-cli.md#licenses
Install it via PyPI using pip command.
# Install or Upgrade to newest available version
$ pip install -U pip-licensesNote: If you are still using Python 2.7, install version less than 2.0. No new features will be provided for version 1.x.
$ pip install 'pip-licenses<2.0'Execute the command with your venv (or virtualenv) environment.
# Install packages in your venv environment
(venv) $ pip install Django pip-licenses
# Check the licenses with your venv environment
(venv) $ pip-licenses
Name Version License
Django 2.0.2 BSD
pytz 2017.3 MITBy default, this tool finds the license from Trove Classifiers or package Metadata. Some Python packages declare their license only in Trove Classifiers.
(See also): Set license to MIT in setup.py by alisianoi ・ Pull Request #1058 ・ pypa/setuptools, PEP 314#License
For example, even if you check with the pip show command, the license is displayed as UNKNOWN.
(venv) $ pip show setuptools
Name: setuptools
Version: 38.5.0
Summary: Easily download, build, install, upgrade, and uninstall Python packages
Home-page: https://github.com/pypa/setuptools
Author: Python Packaging Authority
Author-email: [email protected]
License: UNKNOWNThe mixed mode (--from=mixed) of this tool works well and looks for licenses.
(venv) $ pip-licenses --from=mixed --with-system | grep setuptools
setuptools 38.5.0 MIT LicenseIn mixed mode, it first tries to look for licenses in the Trove Classifiers. When not found in the Trove Classifiers, the license declared in Metadata is displayed.
If you want to looks only in metadata, use --from=meta. If you want to looks only in Trove Classifiers, use --from=classifier.
Note: If neither can find license information, please check with the with-authors and with-urls options and contact the software author.
- The
mkeyword is prepared as alias ofmeta. - The
ckeyword is prepared as alias ofclassifier. - The
mixkeyword is prepared as alias ofmixed.- Default behavior in this tool
By default, system packages such as pip and setuptools are ignored.
If you want to output all including system package, use the --with-system option.
(venv) $ pip-licenses --with-system
Name Version License
Django 2.0.2 BSD
PTable 0.9.2 BSD (3 clause)
pip 9.0.1 MIT
pip-licenses 1.0.0 MIT License
pytz 2017.3 MIT
setuptools 38.5.0 UNKNOWNWhen executed with the --with-authors option, output with author of the package.
(venv) $ pip-licenses --with-authors
Name Version License Author
Django 2.0.2 BSD Django Software Foundation
pytz 2017.3 MIT Stuart BishopFor packages without Metadata, the license is output as UNKNOWN. To get more package information, use the --with-urls option.
(venv) $ pip-licenses --with-urls
Name Version License URL
Django 2.0.2 BSD https://www.djangoproject.com/
pytz 2017.3 MIT http://pythonhosted.org/pytzWhen executed with the --with-description option, output with short description of the package.
(venv) $ pip-licenses --with-description
Name Version License Description
Django 2.0.2 BSD A high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.
pytz 2017.3 MIT World timezone definitions, modern and historicalWhen executed with the --with-license-file option, output the location of the package's license file on disk and the full contents of that file. Due to the length of these fields, this option is best paired with --format=json.
If you also want to output the file NOTICE distributed under Apache License etc., specify the --with-notice-file option additionally.
Note: If you want to keep the license file path secret, specify --no-license-path option together.
When executed with the --ignore-packages option, ignore the package specified by argument from list output.
(venv) $ pip-licenses --ignore-packages django
Name Version License
pytz 2017.3 MITPackage names of arguments can be separated by spaces.
(venv) $ pip-licenses --with-system --ignore-packages django pip pip-licenses
Name Version License
PTable 0.9.2 BSD (3 clause)
pytz 2017.3 MIT
setuptools 38.5.0 UNKNOWNBy default, it is ordered by package name.
If you give arguments to the --order option, you can output in other sorted order.
(venv) $ pip-licenses --order=licenseBy default, it is output to the plain format.
When executed with the --format=markdown option, you can output list in markdown format. The m md keyword is prepared as alias of markdown.
(venv) $ pip-licenses --format=markdown
| Name | Version | License |
|--------|---------|---------|
| Django | 2.0.2 | BSD |
| pytz | 2017.3 | MIT |When inserted in a markdown document, it is rendered as follows:
| Name | Version | License |
|---|---|---|
| Django | 2.0.2 | BSD |
| pytz | 2017.3 | MIT |
When executed with the --format=rst option, you can output list in "Grid tables" of reStructuredText format. The r rest keyword is prepared as alias of rst.
(venv) $ pip-licenses --format=rst
+--------+---------+---------+
| Name | Version | License |
+--------+---------+---------+
| Django | 2.0.2 | BSD |
+--------+---------+---------+
| pytz | 2017.3 | MIT |
+--------+---------+---------+When executed with the --format=confluence option, you can output list in Confluence (or JIRA) Wiki markup format. The c keyword is prepared as alias of confluence.
(venv) $ pip-licenses --format=confluence
| Name | Version | License |
| Django | 2.0.2 | BSD |
| pytz | 2017.3 | MIT |When executed with the --format=html option, you can output list in HTML table format. The h keyword is prepared as alias of html.
(venv) $ pip-licenses --format=html
<table>
<tr>
<th>Name</th>
<th>Version</th>
<th>License</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Django</td>
<td>2.0.2</td>
<td>BSD</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>pytz</td>
<td>2017.3</td>
<td>MIT</td>
</tr>
</table>When executed with the --format=json option, you can output list in JSON format easily allowing post-processing. The j keyword is prepared as alias of json.
[
{
"Author": "Django Software Foundation",
"License": "BSD",
"Name": "Django",
"URL": "https://www.djangoproject.com/",
"Version": "2.0.2"
},
{
"Author": "Stuart Bishop",
"License": "MIT",
"Name": "pytz",
"URL": "http://pythonhosted.org/pytz",
"Version": "2017.3"
}
]
When executed with the --format=json-license-finder option, you can output list in JSON format that is identical to LicenseFinder. The jlf keyword is prepared as alias of jlf.
This makes pip-licenses a drop-in replacement for LicenseFinder.
[
{
"licenses": ["BSD"],
"name": "Django",
"version": "2.0.2"
},
{
"licenses": ["MIT"],
"name": "pytz",
"version": "2017.3"
}
]
When executed with the --format=csv option, you can output list in quoted CSV format. Useful when you want to copy/paste the output to an Excel sheet.
(venv) $ pip-licenses --format=csv
"Name","Version","License"
"Django","2.0.2","BSD"
"pytz","2017.3","MIT"When executed with the --format=plain-vertical option, you can output a simple plain vertical output that is similar to Angular CLI's
--extractLicenses flag. This format minimizes rightward drift.
(venv) $ pip-licenses --format=plain-vertical --with-license-file --no-license-path
pytest
5.3.4
MIT license
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright (c) 2004-2020 Holger Krekel and others
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of
this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in
the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to
use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies
of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do
so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.When executed with the --summary option, you can output a summary of each license.
(venv) $ pip-licenses --summary --from=classifier --with-system
Count License
2 BSD License
4 MIT LicenseNote: When using this option, only --order=count or --order=license has an effect for the --order option. And using --with-authors and --with-urls will be ignored.
When executed with the --output-file option, write the result to the path specified by the argument.
(venv) $ pip-licenses --format=rst --output-file=/tmp/output.rst
created path: /tmp/output.rst
Some package data contains Unicode characters which might cause problems for certain output formats (in particular ReST tables). If this filter is enabled, all characters which cannot be encoded with a given code page (see --filter-code-page) will be removed from any input strings (e.g. package name, description).
If the input strings are filtered (see --filter-strings), you can specify the applied code page (default latin-1). A list of all available code pages can be found codecs module document.
Fail (exit with code 1) on the first occurrence of the licenses of the semicolon-separated list
(venv) $ pip-licenses --fail-on="MIT License;BSD License"
Fail (exit with code 1) on the first occurrence of the licenses not in the semicolon-separated list
(venv) $ pip-licenses --allow-only="MIT License;BSD License"
Other, please make sure to execute the --help option.
You can check the package license used by your app in the isolated Docker environment.
# Clone this repository to local
$ git clone https://github.com/raimon49/pip-licenses.git
$ cd pip-licenses
# Create your app's requirements.txt file
# Other ways, pip freeze > docker/requirements.txt
$ echo "Flask" > docker/requirements.txt
# Build docker image
$ docker build . -t myapp-licenses
# Check the package license in container
$ docker run --rm myapp-licenses
Name Version License
Click 7.0 BSD License
Flask 1.0.2 BSD License
Jinja2 2.10 BSD License
MarkupSafe 1.1.1 BSD License
Werkzeug 0.15.2 BSD License
itsdangerous 1.1.0 BSD License
# Check with options
$ docker run --rm myapp-licenses --summary
Count License
4 BSD
2 BSD-3-Clause
# When you need help
$ docker run --rm myapp-licenses --helpNote: This Docker image can not check package licenses with C and C ++ Extensions. It only works with pure Python package dependencies.
If you want to resolve build environment issues, try adding build-base packages and more.
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ WORKDIR ${APPDIR}
COPY ./docker/requirements.txt ${APPDIR}
+RUN set -ex && apk add --no-cache --update --virtual .py-deps \
+ build-base
RUN python3 -m venv ${APPDIR}/myapp \
&& source ${APPDIR}/myapp/bin/activateIf a UnicodeEncodeError occurs, check your environment variables LANG and LC_TYPE.
Often occurs in isolated environments such as Docker and tox.
See useful reports:
- PTable by Luke Maurits and maintainer of fork version Kane Blueriver under the BSD-3-Clause License
- Note: Alternatively, it works fine with the PrettyTable package. (See also): Allow using prettytable #52
pip-licenses has been implemented in the policy to minimize the dependence on external package.
Uninstall package and dependent package with pip command.
$ pip uninstall pip-licenses PTable