pip-licenses

Dump the software license list of Python packages installed with pip.

Table of Contents

• Description
• Installation
• Usage
• Command-Line Options
  • Option: from
    • Deprecated from-classifier
  • Option: with-system
  • Option: with-authors
  • Option: with-urls
  • Option: with-description
  • Option: with-license-file
  • Option: ignore-packages
  • Option: order
  • Option: format
    • Markdown
    • reST
    • Confluence
    • HTML
    • JSON
    • CSV
    • Deprecated options
  • Option: summary
  • More Information
• Dockerfile
• License
  • Dependencies
• Uninstallation
• Contributing

Description

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

Installation

Install it via PyPI using pip command.

# Install or Upgrade to newest available version
$ pip install -U pip-licenses

Usage

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   MIT

Command-Line Options

Option: from

By default, this tool finds the license from package Metadata (--from=meta). However, depending on the type of package, it does not declare a license only in the 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: UNKNOWN

If you want to refer to the license declared in the Classifiers, use the --from=classifier option.

(venv) $ pip-licenses --from=classifier --with-system | grep setuptools
 setuptools    38.5.0   MIT License

If you want to find a license from whichever, mixed mode (--from=mixed) is available in pip-licenses version 1.14.0 or later.

In mixed mode, it first tries to look for licenses in the Classifiers. When not found in the Classifiers, the license declared in Metadata is displayed.

Note: If neither can find license information, please check with the with-authors and with-urls options and contact the software author.

• The m keyword is prepared as alias of meta.
• The c keyword is prepared as alias of classifier.
• The mix keyword is prepared as alias of mixed.

Deprecated from-classifier

from-classifier option will be deprecated in version 2.0.0. Please migrate to --from option.

Option: with-system

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   UNKNOWN

Option: with-authors

When 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 Bishop

Option: with-urls

For 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/pytz

Option: with-description

When 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 historical

Option: with-license-file

When 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.

Option: ignore-packages

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   MIT

Package 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   UNKNOWN

Option: order

By 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=license

Option: format

By default, it is output to the plain format.

Markdown

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

reST

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     |
+--------+---------+---------+

Confluence

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     |

HTML

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>

JSON

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"
  }
]

CSV

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"

Deprecated options

The following options will be deprecated in version 2.0.0. Please migrate to --format option.

• --format-markdown
• --format-rst
• --format-confluence
• --format-html
• --format-json

Option: summary

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 License

Note: 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.

More Information

Other, please make sure to execute the --help option.

Dockerfile

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 --help

Note: 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/activate

License

MIT License

Dependencies

• PTable by Luke Maurits and maintainer of fork version Kane Blueriver under the BSD-3-Clause License

pip-licenses has been implemented in the policy to minimize the dependence on external package.

Uninstallation

Uninstall package and dependent package with pip command.

$ pip uninstall pip-licenses PTable

Contributing

See contribution guidelines.