Generate License File

A CLI and code library to generate a text file containing all of the licenses for your production third-party dependencies.

Installation and Usage (CLI)

npm install generate-license-file --save-dev

npx generate-license-file --input package.json --output third-party-licenses.txt --overwrite

Argument	Description
--input	Absolute or relative path to the package.json for the project. The file must be named package.json.
--output	Absolute or relative path for the generated output file.
--overwrite	(optional) Allows the CLI to overwrite existing output files. If this option is not provided and the output file already exists, you will be prompted to confirm.
--eol	(optional) Specify the line endings used in the output file. Accepted values are crlf or lf. If no value is provided your system default will be used.
--ci	(optional) Stops the CLI from prompting the user for inputs and instead exits with a non-zero exit code.
--no-spinner	(optional) Disable the CLI spinner while the output file is being generated.
--config	(optional) Specify the path to a generate-license-file config file at a non-standard location.
--version	(optional) Print the installed generate-license-file version.

If either the --input or --output are omitted the CLI will prompt you for their values.

For a full description of the CLI arguments and their usages please see the relevant docs page.

Installation and Usage (Library API)

npm install generate-license-file --save-dev

TypeScript

import { generateLicenseFile, getLicenseFileText, getProjectLicenses } from "generate-license-file";

// Generate the license file and write it to disk.
await generateLicenseFile("./package.json", "./third-party-licenses.txt");

// Generate the license file content and return it as a string.
const licenseFileText: string = await getLicenseFileText("./package.json");

// Get an array of objects each containing the details of an
// identified license and the dependencies it pertains to.
const licenses: ILicense[] = await getProjectLicenses("./package.json");

For a full description of the library API and example usages please see the relevant docs page.

Advanced Configuration

Advanced configuration of the generated output can be done using a configuration file. In addition to the basic CLI arguments, a configuration file allows you to specify appendices, exclusions, and replacements.

Config files can be called either .glf or .generatelicensefile and can be customised using the following options:

• File name can optionally end with rc
• Can be in a ./.config directory (no longer needs the . prefix on the file name)
• Have the following file extensions: .json, jsonc, .json5, .yaml, .yml, .js, .cjs

E.g. .glf.json, .glfrc.yml, .generatelicensefile.jsonc, .config/glf.js, and more.

{
  // Default config - can be passed in via config and/or CLI
  "inputs": ["./package.json"],
  "output": "./third-party-licenses.txt",
  "lineEnding": "lf",

  // Paths to any file's whose content will be appended to the end of the generated file.
  "append": ["./additional-content.txt"],

  // Substitute the given packages license with the content in the respective file.
  "replace": {
    "[email protected]": "./bespoke-license.txt",
    "another-replaced-package": "./bespoke-license-2.txt"
  },

  // Exclude any packages from the output.
  "exclude": ["your-package", "[email protected]", "/.*prettier.*/i"],
  
  // Omit the version number in the output file
  "omitVersions": false
}

If you want to call your config file something else then you can pass it to the CLI via the --config argument:

npx generate-license-file --config ./my-config.json

Contributing and Building From Source

generate-license-file is a Bun + Turborepo monorepo. Common commands are aliased in the root package.json.

Each package under packages/ contains a README with further information. The main library and CLI is under packages/generate-license-file.

# cwd: repo root

bun install

bun run lint   # Biome

bun run test  # unit tests (Vitest)

bun run test:e2e  # e2e tests

bun run build  # builds all packages to packages/<name>/dist/

License

generate-license-file is licensed under the ISC License.