ScanCode reindex licenses CLI

ScanCode maintains a license index to search for and detect licenses. When ScanCode is configured for the first time, a license index is built and used in every scan thereafter. The scancode-reindex-licenses command rebuilds the license index.

Usage: scancode-reindex-licenses [OPTIONS]

Quick Reference

--all-languages

[EXPERIMENTAL] Rebuild the license index including texts all languages (and not only English) and exit.

--only-builtin

Rebuild the license index excluding any additional license directory or additional license plugins which were added previously, i.e. with only builtin scancode license and rules.

--additional-directory DIR

Include this directory with additional custom licenses and license rules in the license detection index.

--load-dump

Load all license and rules from their respective files and then dump them back to those same files.

-h, --help

Shows the options and explanations.

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--additional-directory option

The --additional-directory option allows the user to include additional directories of licenses to use in license detection.

This command only needs to be run once for each set of additional directories, in all subsequent runs of ScanCode with the same directories all the licenses in the directories will be cached and used in License detection. But reindexing removes these directories, if they aren’t reintroduced as additional directories.

The directory structure should look something like this

additional_license_directory/
├── licenses/
│   ├── example-installed-1.LICENSE
│   └── example-installed-1.yaml
├── rules/
│   ├── example-installed-1.RULE
│   └── example-installed-1.yaml

Example

scancode-reindex-licenses --additional-directory tests/licensedcode/data/additional_licenses/additional_dir/

You can also include multiple directories like so

scancode-reindex-licenses --additional-directory /home/user/external_licenses/external1 --additional-directory /home/user/external_licenses/external2

If you want to continue running scans with /home/user/external_licenses/external1 and /home/user/external_licenses/external2, you can simply run scans after the command above reindexing with those directories and they will be included.

scancode -l --license-text --json-pp output.json samples

However, if you wanted to run a scan with a new set of directories, such as home/user/external_licenses/external1 and home/user/external_licenses/external3, you would need to reindex the license index with those directories as parameters:

scancode --additional-directory /home/user/external_licenses/external1 --additional-directory /home/user/external_licenses/external3

Note

Adding licenses/rules from an additional directory is not permanent. Another reindexing without the additional directory option would just use the builtin ScanCode licenses and rules, and will not have these additional licenses/rules anymore.

Note

You can also install external licenses through a plugin for better reproducibility and distribution of those license/rules for use in conjunction with scancode-toolkit licenses. See How to install external licenses to use in license dectection

--only-builtin option

Rebuild the license index excluding any additional license directory or additional license plugins which were added previously, i.e. with only builtin scancode license and rules.

This is applicable when there are additional license plugins installed already and you want to reindex the licenses without these licenses from the additional plugins.

Note

Running the --only-builtin command won’t get rid of the installed license plugins, it would just reindex without the licenses from these plugins for once. Another reindex afterwards without this option would bring back the licenses from the plugins again in the index.

--all-languages option

Rebuild the license index including texts all languages (and not only English) and exit. This is an EXPERIMENTAL option.

--load-dump option

Load all licenses and rules from their respective files and then dump them to their respective files. This is done to make small formatting changes across all licenses and rules, to be consistent across them.