Install ScanCode from source

You can download the source code of the ScanCode and build it locally. This approach is recommended in the following scenarios:

  • You are contributing to the development of ScanCode, adding new patches, or running tests.

  • You need to test or run a specific version, checkpoint, or branch from the version control system.

Download ScanCode source code

Run the following once you have Git installed

git clone https://github.com/aboutcode-org/scancode-toolkit.git
cd scancode-toolkit

Configure the build

ScanCode utilizes a configuration script to create an isolated virtual environment and install the necessary package dependencies.

On Linux/Mac:

  1. Open a terminal

  2. Navigate to the clone directory using cd

  3. Run ./configure

  4. Activate the virtual environment using source venv/bin/activate

On Windows:

  1. Open a command prompt

  2. Navigate to the clone directory using cd

  3. Run configure

  4. Activate the virtual environment: venv\Scripts\activate

Verify installation

To verify that ScanCode has been installed correctly, it is recommended to run the help command.

   scancode --help

No errors? Congratulations! You are good to go to :ref:`running-a-scan`.

Note

For use in development, run instead configure --dev. If your encounter issues while configuring a previous version, use configure --clean to clean and reset your enviroment. After that, run configure again.