License Gradle Plugin

This plugin will scan and adapt your source files to include a provided header, e.g. a LICENSE file. By default it will scan every source set and report warnings. It will also create format tasks, which will properly format and apply the specified header. A bulk of the logic comes from the maven-license-plugin.

This plugin will also report on the licenses of your dependencies.

Applying the plugin

From v0.11.0 onwards the license-gradle-plugin will be published to http://bintray.com and will be available through the Gradle plugin exchange. This means that there are a few different usage scenarios listed below.

Gradle 2.1 and above

In your build.gradle file add:

plugins {
    id "com.github.hierynomus.license" version "0.15.0"
}

Gradle 1.x/2.0, latest license-gradle-plugin

In your build.gradle file add:

buildscript {
  repositories {
    maven {
      url "https://plugins.gradle.org/m2/"
    }
  }
  dependencies {
    classpath "gradle.plugin.com.hierynomus.gradle.plugins:license-gradle-plugin:0.15.0"
  }
}

apply plugin: "com.github.hierynomus.license"

Gradle 1.x/2.0, gradle-license-plugin 0.10.0 (and earlier)

In your build.gradle file add:

    buildscript {
        repositories {
            mavenCentral()
        }

        dependencies {
            classpath 'nl.javadude.gradle.plugins:license-gradle-plugin:0.10.0'
        }
    }

    apply plugin: 'license'

Source file license application

com.github.hierynomus.license-base Plugin

plugins {
  id "com.github.hierynomus.license-base" version"0.15.0"
}

This plugin contains two types of tasks to each source set available in your project: one for checking for consistency and one to apply the header, e.g.

licenseMain (LicenseCheck) : checks for header consistency in the main source set
licenseFormatMain (LicenseFormat) : applies the license found in the header file in files missing the header
licenseTest (LicenseCheck) : checks for header consistency in the test source set
licenseFormatTest (LicenseFormat) : applies the license found in the header file in files missing the header in the test source set
etc.

Furthermore this task exposes the license extension to the project, allowing you to finetune the configuration of the plugin.

com.github.hierynomus.license Plugin

plugins {
  id "com.github.hierynomus.license" version"0.15.0"
}

This plugin will apply the following plugins:

com.github.hierynomus.license-base
com.github.hierynomus.license-report

Furthermore it will create the following tasks:

licenseCheck: This task depends on all the available LicenseCheck tasks in the project
licenseFormat: This task depends on all the available LicenseFormat tasks in the project

Also it will add the licenseCheck task to the check lifecycle task dependencies, so that during a regular build any missing headers are flagged.

Tasks

LicenseCheck

This task checks all the configured source files to validate whether the correct header has been applied. It can be configured using the following properties, most of which can also be set on the extension to configure them for all tasks.

header	Specify location of header to use in comparisons, default to project.file('LICENSE')
headerURI	Specify location of header as a URI, see section below on Header Locations for examples
ignoreFailures	Prevent tasks from stopping the build, defaults to false
dryRun	Show what would happen if the task was run, defaults to false but also inherits from `--dryRun`
skipExistingHeaders	Skip over files that have some header already, which might not be the one specified in the header parameter, defaults to false
useDefaultMappings	Use a long list of standard mapping, defaults to true. See http://code.mycila.com/license-maven-plugin/#supported-comment-types for the complete list
strictCheck	Be extra strict in the formatting of existing headers, defaults to false
mapping(String ext, String style)	Adds a mapping between a file extension and a style type
mapping(Map<String,String> mappings)	Adds mappings between file extensions and style types
mapping(Closure)	Adds mappings between file extensions and a style types, see example below
exclude(String pattern)	Add an ANT style pattern to exclude files from license absence reporting and license application
excludes(Collection<String> patterns)	Add ANT style patterns to exclude files from license absence reporting and license application
include(String pattern)	Add an ANT style pattern to include files into license absence reporting and license application
includes(Collection<String> patterns)	Add ANT style patterns to include files into license absence reporting and license application

LicenseFormat

This task formats all the configured source files to add a header to them if no header has been applied yet. It can be configured using the following properties, most of which can also be set on the extension to configure them for all tasks.

header	Specify location of header to use in comparisons, default to project.file('LICENSE')
headerURI	Specify location of header as a URI, see section below on Header Locations for examples
ignoreFailures	Prevent tasks from stopping the build, defaults to false
dryRun	Show what would happen if the task was run, defaults to false but also inherits from `--dryRun`
skipExistingHeaders	Skip over files that have some header already, which might not be the one specified in the header parameter, defaults to false
useDefaultMappings	Use a long list of standard mapping, defaults to true. See http://code.mycila.com/license-maven-plugin/#supported-comment-types for the complete list
strictCheck	Be extra strict in the formatting of existing headers, defaults to false
mapping(String ext, String style)	Adds a mapping between a file extension and a style type
mapping(Map<String,String> mappings)	Adds mappings between file extensions and style types
mapping(Closure)	Adds mappings between file extensions and a style types, see example below
exclude(String pattern)	Add an ANT style pattern to exclude files from license absence reporting and license application
excludes(Collection<String> patterns)	Add ANT style patterns to exclude files from license absence reporting and license application
include(String pattern)	Add an ANT style pattern to include files into license absence reporting and license application
includes(Collection<String> patterns)	Add ANT style patterns to include files into license absence reporting and license application

License Extension

A license extension is added to the project, which can be used to configure all LicenseCheck and LicenseFormat tasks. E.g.

license {
    header rootProject.file('codequality/HEADER')
    strictCheck true
}

Here is a general overview of the options:

header	Specify location of header to use in comparisons, default to `project.file('LICENSE')`
headerURI	Specify location of header as a URI.
ignoreFailures	Prevent tasks from stopping the build, defaults to false
dryRun	Show what would happen if the task was run, defaults to false but also inherits from `--dryRun`
skipExistingHeaders	Skip over files that have some header already, which might not be the one specified in the header parameter, defaults to false
useDefaultMappings	Use a long list of standard mapping, defaults to true. See http://code.mycila.com/license-maven-plugin/#supported-comment-types for the complete list
strictCheck	Be extra strict in the formatting of existing headers, defaults to false
mapping(String ext, String style)	Adds a mapping between a file extension and a style type
mapping(Map<String,String> mappings)	Adds mappings between file extensions and style types
mapping(Closure)	Adds mappings between file extensions and a style types, see example below
exclude(String pattern)	Add an ANT style pattern to exclude files from license absence reporting and license application
excludes(Collection<String> patterns)	Add ANT style patterns to exclude files from license absence reporting and license application
include(String pattern)	Add an ANT style pattern to include files into license absence reporting and license application
includes(Collection<String> patterns)	Add ANT style patterns to include files into license absence reporting and license application
headerDefinition(HeaderDefinitionBuilder headerDefinition)	Add a custom header definition that will be added to the defaults.
headerDefinitions(Closure)	Add a custom header definition that will be added to the defaults.

File Types

Supported by default: java, groovy, js, css, xml, dtd, xsd, html, htm, xsl, fml, apt, properties, sh, txt, bat, cmd, sql, jsp, ftl, xhtml, vm, jspx, gsp, json. Complete list can be found in the parent project at http://code.mycila.com/license-maven-plugin/#supported-comment-types.

Usage and Configuration

Header Locations

The plugin can load a reference license file from the local file system with the header property.

    license { header = file('LGPL.txt') }

To load a license from a URI directly it can be headerURI property.

    license { headerURI = new URI("https://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.txt") }

The problem with that approach is that we’re requiring a network call to run the task. Another option is to load the license from the classpath. This is most commonly seen from a plugin which is configuring this plugin. First you’d bundle a LICENSE.TXT file into the src/main/resources/META-INF directory. Then you’d configure this plugin like the below code.

    license { headerURI = myPlugin.class.getResource("/META-INF/LICENSE.TXT").toURI() }

In regards to the header, tasks can be configured individually or in bulk also,

    licenseFormatMain.header = file('APL.txt')
    // or
    tasks.withType(License) { header = file('LGPL.txt') }

Recognizing other file types.

An extensive list of formats and mappings are available by default, see the SupportedFormats link above. Occasionally a project might need to add a mapping to a unknown file type to an existing comment style.

license {
    mapping {
        javascript='JAVADOC_STYLE'
    }
}
// or
license.mapping 'javascript' 'JAVADOC_STYLE'
// or
license.mapping('javascript', 'JAVADOC_STYLE')
// or directly on the task
licenseMain.mapping 'javascript' 'JAVADOC_STYLE'

Defining new comment types is not currently supported, but file a bug and it can be added.

Variable substitution

Variables in the format ${} format will be substituted, as long as their values are provided in the extension or the task.

    Copyright (C) ${year} ${name} <${email}>

Will be completed with this extension block, the key is adding them via extra properties:

license {
    ext.year = Calendar.getInstance().get(Calendar.YEAR)
    ext.name = 'Company'
    ext.email = 'support@company.com'
}
// or
licenseMain.ext.year = 2012

Creating custom header definitions

When the default header definitions can not be used for your specific project, we support the ability to define custom header definitions.

Adding a new header definition is done through the license extension. These header definitions can then be assigned to the necessary file types by mapping them to their extensions.

license {
    headerDefinitions {
        custom_definition {
          firstLine = "//"
          endLine   = "//"
          firstLineDetectionPattern = "//"
          lastLineDetectionPattern  = "//"
          allowBlankLines = false
          skipLinePattern = "//"
          isMultiline = false
        }
    }
}

Include/Exclude files from license absence reporting and license application

By default all files in the sourceSets configured are required to carry a license. Just like with Gradle SourceSet you can use include/exclude patterns to control this behaviour.

The semantics are:

no includes or excludes: All files in the sourceSets will be included
excludes provided: All files except those matching the exclude patterns are included
includes provided: Only the files matching the include patterns are included
both includes and excludes provided: All files matching the include patterns, except those matching the exclude patterns are included.

For instance:

license {
    exclude "**/*.properties"
    excludes(["**/*.txt", "**/*.conf"])
}

This will exclude all .properties, .txt and *.conf files.

license {
    include "**/*.groovy"
    includes(["**/*.java", "**/*.properties"])
}

This will include only all .groovy, .java and *.properties files.

license {
    include "**/*.java"
    exclude "**/*Test.java"
}

This will include all *.java files, except the *Test.java files.

Running on a non-java project

By default, applying the plugin will generate license tasks for all source sets defined by the java plugin. You can also run the license task on an arbitrary file tree, if you don’t have the java plugin, or your files are outside a java source tree.

task licenseFormatSql(type: com.hierynomus.gradle.license.tasks.LicenseFormat) {
    source = fileTree(dir: "source").include("**/*.sql")
}
licenseFormat.dependsOn licenseFormatSql

Dependency License Reporting

Next to checking for and applying license headers to your source files, this plugin also supports reporting on the licenses that your dependencies are licensed under.

com.github.hierynomus.license-report

plugins {
  id "com.github.hierynomus.license-report" version"0.15.0"
}

This plugin will add a task to manage the downloading and reporting of licenses of your dependencies.

downloadLicenses : generates reports on your runtime dependencies

License Reporting

The downloadLicenses task has a set of properties, most can be set in the extension:

includeProjectDependencies	true if you want to include the transitive dependencies of your project dependencies
ignoreFatalParseErrors	true if you want to ignore fatal errors when parsing POMs of transitive dependencies
licenses	a pre-defined mapping of a dependency to a license; useful if the external repositories do not have license information available
aliases	a mapping between licenses; useful to consolidate the various POM definitions of different spelled/named licenses
excludeDependencies	a List of dependencies that are to be excluded from reporting
dependencyConfiguration	Gradle dependency configuration to report on (defaults to "runtime").

A 'license()' method is made available by the License Extension that takes two Strings, the first is the license name, the second is the URL to the license.

downloadLicenses {
    ext.apacheTwo = license('Apache License, Version 2.0', 'http://opensource.org/licenses/Apache-2.0')
    ext.bsd = license('BSD License', 'http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php')

    includeProjectDependencies = true
    licenses = [
        (group('com.myproject.foo')) : license('My Company License'),
        'org.apache.james:apache-mime4j:0.6' : apacheTwo,
        'org.some-bsd:project:1.0' : bsd
    ]

    aliases = [
        (apacheTwo) : ['The Apache Software License, Version 2.0', 'Apache 2', 'Apache License Version 2.0', 'Apache License, Version 2.0', 'Apache License 2.0', license('Apache License', 'http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0')],
        (bsd) : ['BSD', license('New BSD License', 'http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php')]
    ]

    excludeDependencies = [
        'com.some-other-project.bar:foobar:1.0'
    ]

    dependencyConfiguration = 'compile'
}

Changelog

v0.15.0 (2018-11-22)

Correctly published the split-up plugins (I hope..)

v0.14.0 (2017-??-??) -→ See Upgrade Notes!

Upgraded to com.mycila:license-maven-plugin:3.0
Split up plugin into smaller parts (license-base, license-report, license)
Merged #134: Fixed build on Gradle 3.4.+
Merged #132: Added custom header definitions
Fixed #127: Made reporting target directory lazy
Merged #112: Added JSON license reporting

v0.13.1 (2016-06-07)

Merged #109: Fixed compatibility with older Android plugins === v0.13.0 (2016-06-06)
Upgraded Gradle build version to 2.13
Upgraded Android Tools version to 2.0+
Merged #106: Added boolean parameter to ignore broken poms while searching for licenses

v0.12.1 (2015-10-26)

Merged #87: Fix downloadLicenses fails with module notation '::' is invalid

v0.12.0 (2015-10-07)

Merged #56: Added Android support
Merged #72: Fix SAX parser to ignore namespaces
Merged #82: Also now works for Android LibraryPlugin
Merged #83: Fix for Android plugin detection
Merged #84: Support for unified license reports in multi-module builds (Fixes #40 and #50)
Fixed #48: Added '.gradle' as standard extension
Fixed #70: Added '.yaml' and '.yml' as standard extension
Fixed #85: Removed source dependency on (optional) Android plugin.

v0.11.0

Added support for uploading to bintray (Fixes #46 and #47)
Upgraded to Gradle 2.0

v0.10.0

Fixed build to enforce Java6 only for local builds, not on BuildHive
Added exclude / excludes to extension (Fixes #39)
Added include / includes to extension (Fixes #45)

v0.9.0

Fixed build to force Java6 (Fixes #35)
Added example test for #38

v0.8.0

Merged pull-requests #31, #33, #42

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README.adoc

README.adoc

License Gradle Plugin

Applying the plugin

Gradle 2.1 and above

Gradle 1.x/2.0, latest license-gradle-plugin

Gradle 1.x/2.0, gradle-license-plugin 0.10.0 (and earlier)

Source file license application

com.github.hierynomus.license-base Plugin

com.github.hierynomus.license Plugin

Tasks

LicenseCheck

LicenseFormat

License Extension

File Types

Usage and Configuration

Header Locations

Recognizing other file types.

Variable substitution

Creating custom header definitions

Include/Exclude files from license absence reporting and license application

Running on a non-java project

Dependency License Reporting

com.github.hierynomus.license-report

License Reporting

Changelog

v0.15.0 (2018-11-22)

v0.14.0 (2017-??-??) -→ See Upgrade Notes!

v0.13.1 (2016-06-07)

v0.12.1 (2015-10-26)

v0.12.0 (2015-10-07)

v0.11.0

v0.10.0

v0.9.0

v0.8.0

Files

README.adoc

Latest commit

History

README.adoc

File metadata and controls

License Gradle Plugin

Applying the plugin

Gradle 2.1 and above

Gradle 1.x/2.0, latest license-gradle-plugin

Gradle 1.x/2.0, gradle-license-plugin 0.10.0 (and earlier)

Source file license application

com.github.hierynomus.license-base Plugin

com.github.hierynomus.license Plugin

Tasks

LicenseCheck

LicenseFormat

License Extension

File Types

Usage and Configuration

Header Locations

Recognizing other file types.

Variable substitution

Creating custom header definitions

Include/Exclude files from license absence reporting and license application

Running on a non-java project

Dependency License Reporting

com.github.hierynomus.license-report

License Reporting

Changelog

v0.15.0 (2018-11-22)

v0.14.0 (2017-??-??) -→ See Upgrade Notes!

v0.13.1 (2016-06-07)

v0.12.1 (2015-10-26)

v0.12.0 (2015-10-07)

v0.11.0

v0.10.0

v0.9.0

v0.8.0