Reference

about

Syntax

about [OPTIONS] [COMMANDS]

Options

--version        Show the version and exit.
-h, --help       Show this message and exit.

Commands

attrib              Generate an attribution document from
                    JSON/CSV/XLSX/.ABOUT files.
check               Validate that the format of .ABOUT files is correct and
                    report errors and warnings.
collect-redist-src  Collect redistributable sources.
gen                 Generate .ABOUT files from an inventory as
                    CSV/JSON/XLSX.
gen-license         Fetch and save all the licenses in the
                    license_expression field to a directory.
inventory           Collect the inventory of .ABOUT files to a CSV/JSON/XLSX
                    file.
transform           Transform a CSV/JSON/XLSX by applying renamings, filters
                    and checks.

attrib

Syntax

about attrib [OPTIONS] LOCATION OUTPUT

INPUT: Path to a file (.ABOUT/.csv/.json/.xlsx), directory or .zip archive containing .ABOUT files.

OUTPUT: Path where to write the attribution document.

Options

--api_url URL                URL to DejaCode License Library.
--api_key KEY                API Key for the  DejaCode License Library
--min-license-score INTEGER  Attribute components that have license score
                            higher than or equal to the defined --min-
                            license-score.
--scancode                   Indicate the input JSON file is from
                            scancode_toolkit.
--reference DIR              Path to a directory with reference files where
                            "license_file" and/or "notice_file" located.
--template FILE              Path to an optional custom attribution template
                            to generate the attribution document. If not
                            provided the default built-in template is used.
--vartext <key>=<value>      Add variable text as key=value for use in a
                            custom attribution template.
--worksheet name             The worksheet name from the INPUT. (Default:
                            the "active" worksheet)
-q, --quiet                  Do not print error or warning messages.
--verbose                    Show all error and warning messages.
-h, --help                   Show this message and exit.

Purpose

Generate an attribution file which contains license information from the INPUT along with the license text.

Assume the following:

'/home/about_files/' contains all the ABOUT files [INPUT]
'/home/project/inventory.csv' is a BOM inventory [INPUT]
'/home/project/scancode-detection.json' is a detection output from scancode-toolkit[INPUT]
'/home/project/licenses/' contains all the license/notice file references
'/home/attribution/attribution.html' is the user's output path [OUTPUT]

$ about attrib /home/about_files/ /home/attribution/attribution.html
or
$ about attrib /home/project/inventory.csv /home/attribution/attribution.html --reference /home/project/licenses/
or
$ about attrib --scancode /home/project/scancode-detection.json /home/attribution/attribution.html

Details

--api_url URL --api_key

    This option let user to define where to get the license information such as
    from DJE. If these options are not set, the tool will get the license
    information from ScanCode LicenseDB by default

$ about attrib --api_url <URL> --api_key <KEY> INPUT OUTPUT

--min-license-score

    This option is a filter to collect license information where the license score
    in the scancode toolkit detection is greater than or equal to the defined
    --min-license-score. This option is specifically design for scancode's input
    and therefore --scancode is required

$ about attrib --scancode --min-license-score 85 /home/project/scancode-detection.json OUTPUT

--reference

    This option is to define the reference directory where the 'license_file'
    or 'notice_file' are stored

$ about attrib --reference /home/project/licenses/ /home/project/inventory.csv OUTPUT

--template

    This option allows you to use your own template for attribution generation.
    For instance, if you have a custom template located at:
    /home/custom_template/template.html

$ about attrib --template /home/custom_template/template.html INPUT OUTPUT

--vartext

    This option allow you to pass variable texts to the attribution template

$ about attrib --vartext "title=Attribution Notice" --vartext "header=Product 101" LOCATION OUTPUT

    Users can use the following in the template to get the vartext:
    {{ vartext['title'] }}
    {{ vartext['header'] }}

--worksheet

    This option identify the worksheet name from the XLSX input to work with.
    If no worksheet is defined, the "active" worksheet will be used

$ about attrib --worksheet BOM /home/project/audit.xlsx OUTPUT

--verbose

    This option tells the tool to show all errors found.
    The default behavior will only show 'CRITICAL', 'ERROR', and 'WARNING'

The following data are passed to jinja2 and, therefore, can be used for a custom template:

about object: the about objects
common_licenses: a common license keys list in licenses.py
licenses_list: a license object list contains all the licenses found in about objects. It contains the following attribute: key, name, filename, url, text

check

Syntax

about check [OPTIONS] LOCATION

LOCATION: Path to an ABOUT file or a directory with ABOUT files.

Options

--license              Validate the license_expression value in the input.
--djc api_url api_key  Validate license_expression from a DejaCode License
                       Library API URL using the API KEY.
--log FILE             Path to a file to save the error messages if any.
--verbose              Show all error and warning messages.
-h, --help             Show this message and exit.

Purpose

Validating ABOUT files at LOCATION.

Details

--license
    Validate the license_expression value in the input.

    If this option is not flagged, only the basic syntax is checked.
    No validation of the license_expression value.

 $ about check --license /home/project/about_files/

---djc

    Validate license_expression from a DejaCode License.

    This option requires 2 parameters:
        api_url - URL to the DJE License Library.
        api_key - Hash key to authenticate yourself in the API.

    In addition, the input needs to have the 'license_expression' field.
    (Please contact nexB to get the api_* value for this feature)

$ about check --license --djc 'api_url' 'api_key' /home/project/about_files/

--log

    This option save the error log to the defined location

$ about check --log /home/project/error.log /home/project/about_files/

--verbose

    This option tells the tool to show all errors found.
    The default behavior will only show 'CRITICAL', 'ERROR', and 'WARNING'

$ about check --verbose /home/project/about_files/

Special Notes

If no –djc option is set, the tool will default to check license_expression from ScanCode LicenseDB.

collect_redist_src

Syntax

about collect_redist_src [OPTIONS] LOCATION OUTPUT

LOCATION: Path to a directory containing sources that need to be copied
(and containing ABOUT files if `inventory` is not provided)

OUTPUT: Path to a directory or a zip file where sources will be copied to.

Options

--from-inventory FILE  Path to an inventory CSV/JSON/XLSX file as the base
                        list for files/directories that need to be copied
                        which have the 'redistribute' flagged.
--with-structures      Copy sources with directory structure.
--zip                  Zip the copied sources to the output location.
-q, --quiet            Do not print error or warning messages.
--verbose              Show all error and warning messages.
-h, --help             Show this message and exit.

Purpose

Collect sources that have ‘redistribute’ flagged as ‘True’ in .ABOUT files or inventory to the output location.

Details

--from-inventory

    Provide an inventory CSV/JSON file with the 'redistribute' field filled as
    the indication of which files/sources need to be copied.

$ about collect_redist_src --from-inventory 'path to the inventory' LOCATION OUTPUT

--with-structures

    Copy the file(s) along with its parent directories

    For instance, assuming we want to copy the following file:
    /project/work/hello/foo.c

    OUTPUT: /output/

$ about collect_redist_src --with-structure /project/ /output/

    OUTPUT: /output/work/hello/foo.c

$ about collect_redist_src /project/ /output/

    OUTPUT: /output/foo.c

--zip

    Zip the copied sources to the output location

$ about collect_redist_src --zip /project/ /output/output.zip

--verbose

    This option tells the tool to show all errors found.
    The default behavior will only show 'CRITICAL', 'ERROR', and 'WARNING'

gen

Syntax

about gen [OPTIONS] LOCATION OUTPUT

LOCATION: Path to a JSON/CSV/XLSX inventory file.
OUTPUT: Path to a directory where ABOUT files are generated.

Options

--android                       Generate MODULE_LICENSE_XXX (XXX will be
                                replaced by license key) and NOTICE as the
                                same design as from Android.
--fetch-license                 Fetch license data and text files from the
                                ScanCode LicenseDB.
--fetch-license-djc api_url api_key
                                Fetch license data and text files from a
                                DejaCode License Library API URL using the
                                API KEY.
--reference DIR                 Path to a directory with reference license
                                data and text files.
--worksheet name                The worksheet name from the INPUT. (Default:
                                the "active" worksheet)
-q, --quiet                     Do not print error or warning messages.
--verbose                       Show all error and warning messages.
-h, --help                      Show this message and exit.

Purpose

Given a CSV/JSON/XLSX inventory, generate ABOUT files in the output location.

Details

--android

    Create an empty file named `MODULE_LICENSE_XXX` where `XXX` is the license
    key and create a NOTICE file which these two files follow the design from
    Android Open Source Project.

    The input **must** have the license key information as this is needed to
    create the empty MODULE_LICENSE_XXX

$ about gen --android LOCATION OUTPUT

--fetch-license

    Fetch licenses text and create <license>.LICENSE side-by-side
    with the generated .ABOUT file using the data fetched from the the ScanCode LicenseDB.

    The input needs to have the 'license_expression' field.

$ about gen --fetch-license LOCATION OUTPUT

--fetch-license-djc

    Fetch licenses text from a DejaCode API, and create <license>.LICENSE side-by-side
    with the generated .ABOUT file using the data fetched from the DejaCode License Library.

    This option requires 2 parameters:
        api_url - URL to the DJE License Library.
        api_key - Hash key to authenticate yourself in the API.

    In addition, the input needs to have the 'license_expression' field.
    (Please contact nexB to get the api_* value for this feature)

$ about gen --fetch-license-djc 'api_url' 'api_key' LOCATION OUTPUT

--reference

    Copy the reference files such as 'license_files' and 'notice_files' to the
    generated location from the specified directory.

    For instance,
    the specified directory, /home/licenses_notices/, contains all the licenses and notices:
    /home/licenses_notices/apache2.LICENSE
    /home/licenses_notices/jquery.js.NOTICE

$ about gen --reference /home/licenses_notices/ LOCATION OUTPUT

--worksheet

    This option identify the worksheet name from the XLSX input to work with.
    If no worksheet is defined, the "active" worksheet will be used

$ about gen --worksheet BOM LOCATION OUTPUT

--verbose

    This option tells the tool to show all errors found.
    The default behavior will only show 'CRITICAL', 'ERROR', and 'WARNING'

Special Notes

If the input contains values for license_file, the tool will attempt to associate the license_file with the corresponding license_key.

sample.csv

about_resource	name	license_expression	license_file
/project/test.c	test.c \| mit AND custom		custom.txt

If the user does not utilize the –fetch-license option, the input will contain two license keys and one license file. In this scenario, the tool cannot determine which license key the license file is referencing. As a result, the license_file will be saved separately.

i.e.

about_resource: test.c
name: test.c
license_expression: mit AND custom
licenses:
  - key: mit
    name: mit
  - key: custom
    name: custom
  - file: custom.txt

On the other hand, if the user generates ABOUT files using the –fetch-license option, the MIT license will be retrieved. This will result in having one license key and one license file. In such cases, the tool will consider it a successful match.

i.e.

about_resource: test.c
name: test.c
license_expression: mit AND custom
licenses:
  - key: mit
    name: MIT License
    file: mit.LICENSE
    url: https://scancode-licensedb.aboutcode.org/mit.LICENSE
    spdx_license_key: MIT
  - key: custom
    name: custom
    file: custom.txt

gen_license

Syntax

about gen_license [OPTIONS] LOCATION OUTPUT

LOCATION: Path to a JSON/CSV/XLSX/.ABOUT file(s)
OUTPUT: Path to a directory where license files are saved.

Options

--djc api_url api_key  Fetch licenses from a DejaCode License Library.
--scancode             Indicate the input JSON file is from
                        scancode_toolkit.
--worksheet name       The worksheet name from the INPUT. (Default: the
                        "active" worksheet)
--verbose              Show all error and warning messages.
-h, --help             Show this message and exit.

Purpose

Fetch licenses (Default: ScanCode LicenseDB) in the license_expression field and save to the output location.

Details

--djc

    Fetch licenses text from a DejaCode API, and create <license>.LICENSE to the
    OUTPUT Location using the data fetched from the DejaCode License Library.

    This option requires 2 parameters:
        api_url - URL to the DJE License Library.
        api_key - Hash key to authenticate yourself in the API.

    In addition, the input needs to have the 'license_expression' field.
    (Please contact nexB to get the api_* value for this feature)

$ about gen_license --djc 'api_url' 'api_key' LOCATION OUTPUT

--scancode

    Indicates the JSON input is from scancode toolkit license detection

$ about gen_license --scancode /home/project/scancode-license-detection.json OUTPUT

--worksheet

    This option identify the worksheet name from the XLSX input to work with.
    If no worksheet is defined, the "active" worksheet will be used

$ about gen_license --worksheet BOM /home/project/bom-v0.10.xlsx OUTPUT

--verbose

    This option tells the tool to show all errors found.
    The default behavior will only show 'CRITICAL', 'ERROR', and 'WARNING'

Special Notes

If no –djc option is set, the tool will default to fetch licenses from ScanCode LicenseDB.

inventory

Syntax

about inventory [OPTIONS] LOCATION OUTPUT

LOCATION: Path to an ABOUT file or a directory with ABOUT files.
OUTPUT: Path to the CSV/JSON/XLSX inventory file to create.

Options

-f, --format [json|csv|excel]   Set OUTPUT file format.  [default: csv]
-q, --quiet                     Do not print any error/warning.
--verbose                       Show all the errors and warning.
-h, --help                      Show this message and exit.

Purpose

Create a JSON/CSV/XLSX inventory of components from ABOUT files.

Details

-f, --format [json|csv|excel]

    Set OUTPUT file format.  [default: csv]

$ about inventory -f json LOCATION OUTPUT

--verbose

    This option tells the tool to show all errors found.
    The default behavior will only show 'CRITICAL', 'ERROR', and 'WARNING'

Special Notes

Multiple licenses support format

The multiple licenses support format for CSV files are separated by line break

about_resource	name	license_key	license_name	license_file
test.tar.xz	test	apache-2.0 mit	Apache 2.0 MIT License	apache-2.0.LICENSE mit.LICENSE

The multiple licenses support format for ABOUT files are by “grouping” with the keyword “licenses”

about_resource: test.tar.xz
name: test
licenses:
    -   key: apache 2.0
        name: Apache 2.0
        file: apache-2.0.LICENSE
    -   key: mit
        name: MIT License
        file: mit.LICENSE

Multiple license_file support

To support multiple license file for a license, the correct format is to separate by comma

about_resource	name	license_key	license_name	license_file
test.tar.xz	test	gpl-2.0 mit	GPL 2.0 MIT License	COPYING, COPYINGv2 mit.LICENSE

about_resource: test.tar.xz
name: test
licenses:
    -   key: gpl-2.0
        name: gpl-2.0
        file: COPYING, COPYING.v2
    -   key: mit
        name: mit
        file: mit.LICENSE

Note that if license_name is not provided, the license key will be used as the license name.

transform

Syntax

about transform [OPTIONS] LOCATION OUTPUT

LOCATION: Path to a CSV/JSON/XLSX file.
OUTPUT: Path to CSV/JSON/XLSX inventory file to create.

Options

-c, --configuration FILE  Path to an optional YAML configuration file. See
                            --help-format for format help.
--worksheet name          The worksheet name from the INPUT. (Default: the
                            "active" worksheet)
--help-format             Show configuration file format help and exit.
-q, --quiet               Do not print error or warning messages.
--verbose                 Show all error and warning messages.
-h, --help                Show this message and exit.

Purpose

Transform the CSV/JSON/XLSX file at LOCATION by applying renamings, filters and checks and then write a new CSV/JSON/Excel to OUTPUT.

Details

-c, --configuration

    Path to an optional YAML configuration file. See--help-format for format help.

$ about transform -c 'path to the YAML configuration file' LOCATION OUTPUT

--worksheet

    This option identify the worksheet name from the XLSX input to work with.
    If no worksheet is defined, the "active" worksheet will be used

$ about transform -c 'path to the YAML configuration file' --worksheet BOM /project/bom-v.20.xlsx OUTPUT

--help-format

    Show configuration file format help and exit.
    This option will print out examples of the the YAML configuration file.

    Keys configuration are: `field_renamings`, `required_fields` and `field_filters`

$ about transform --help-format

--verbose

    This option tells the tool to show all errors found.
    The default behavior will only show 'CRITICAL', 'ERROR', and 'WARNING'

–help-format

A transform configuration file is used to describe which transformations and
validations to apply to a source CSV file. This is a simple text file using YAML
format, using the same format as an .ABOUT file.

The attributes that can be set in a configuration file are:

* field_renamings:
An optional map of source CSV or JSON field name to target CSV/JSON new field name that
is used to rename CSV fields.

For instance with this configuration the fields "Directory/Location" will be
renamed to "about_resource" and "foo" to "bar":
    field_renamings:
        about_resource : 'Directory/Location'
        bar : foo

The renaming is always applied first before other transforms and checks. All
other field names referenced below are these that exist AFTER the renamings
have been applied to the existing field names.

* required_fields:
An optional list of required field names that must have a value, beyond the
standard fields names. If a source CSV/JSON does not have such a field or a row is
missing a value for a required field, an error is reported.

For instance with this configuration an error will be reported if the fields
"name" and "version" are missing or if any row does not have a value set for
these fields:
    required_fields:
        - name
        - version

* field_filters:
An optional list of field names that should be kept in the transformed CSV/JSON. If
this list is provided, all the fields from the source CSV/JSON that should be kept
in the target CSV/JSON must be listed regardless of  either standard or required
fields. If this list is not provided, all source CSV/JSON fields are kept in the
transformed target CSV/JSON.

For instance with this configuration the target CSV/JSON will only contains the "name"
and "version" fields and no other field:
    field_filters:
        - name
        - version

* exclude_fields:
An optional list of field names that should be excluded in the transformed CSV/JSON. If
this list is provided, all the fields from the source CSV/JSON that should be excluded
in the target CSV/JSON must be listed. Excluding standard or required fields will cause
an error. If this list is not provided, all source CSV/JSON fields are kept in the
transformed target CSV/JSON.

For instance with this configuration the target CSV/JSON will not contain the "type"
and "temp" fields:
    exclude_fields:
        - type
        - temp

Example

fields renaming

conf.txt

field_renamings:
    about_resource : 'Directory / Filename'
    name : Component
    version: 'Confirmed Version'
    license_expression: 'Confirmed License Expression'

input.csv

Directory / Filename	Component	Confirmed Version	Confirmed License Expression
/project/sample/	sample	v 1.2.3	apache-2.0

Command

about transform -c conf.txt input.csv output.csv

The result output will look like the following:

output.csv

about_resource	name	version	license_expression
/project/sample/	sample	v 1.2.3	apache-2.0

Special Notes

When using the field_filters configuration, all the standard required columns (about_resource and name) and the user defined required_fields need to be included.

Notes

The AboutCode Toolkit version 10.0.0 will work with input from Scancode Toolkit version 32.0.0 or later. If you are using an earlier version of Scancode Toolkit, specifically version 31 or older, it will only be compatible with prior versions of AboutCode Toolkit.

Configure proxy

The requests library is used since AboutCode Toolkit version 10.1.0. To do the http request, users can set the standard environment variables http_proxy, https_proxy, no_proxy, all_proxy with the export statement

i.e.

$ export HTTP_PROXY="http://10.10.1.10:3128"
$ export HTTPS_PROXY="http://10.10.1.10:1080"
$ export ALL_PROXY="socks5://10.10.1.10:3434"

See https://requests.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user/advanced/#proxies for references