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https://github.com/fsfe/reuse-tool

reuse is a tool for compliance with the REUSE recommendations.
https://github.com/fsfe/reuse-tool

analyzer copyright free-software fsfe licensing linter python reuse sbom spdx

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reuse is a tool for compliance with the REUSE recommendations.

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README 

        



# reuse



[![The latest version of reuse can be found on PyPI.](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/reuse.svg)](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/reuse)

[![Information on what versions of Python reuse supports can be found on PyPI.](https://img.shields.io/pypi/pyversions/reuse.svg)](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/reuse)

[![REUSE status](https://api.reuse.software/badge/github.com/fsfe/reuse-tool)](https://api.reuse.software/info/github.com/fsfe/reuse-tool)

[![standard-readme compliant](https://img.shields.io/badge/readme%20style-standard-brightgreen.svg)](https://github.com/RichardLitt/standard-readme)

[![Packaging status](https://repology.org/badge/tiny-repos/reuse.svg?header=in%20distro%20repos)](https://repology.org/project/reuse/versions)

[![Translation status](https://hosted.weblate.org/widgets/fsfe/-/reuse-tool/svg-badge.svg)](https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/fsfe/reuse-tool/)



reuse is a tool for compliance with the [REUSE](https://reuse.software/)

recommendations.



- Documentation:  and 

- Source code: 

- PyPI: 

- REUSE: 3.2

- Python: 3.8+



## Table of contents



- [Background](#background)

- [Install](#install)

- [Usage](#usage)

- [Maintainers](#maintainers)

- [Contributing](#contributing)

- [Licensing](#licensing)



## Background



Copyright and licensing is difficult, especially when reusing software from

different projects that are released under various different licenses.

[REUSE](https://reuse.software) was started by the

[Free Software Foundation Europe](https://fsfe.org) (FSFE) to provide a set of

recommendations to make licensing your Free Software projects easier. Not only

do these recommendations make it easier for you to declare the licenses under

which your works are released, but they also make it easier for a computer to

understand how your project is licensed.



As a short summary, the recommendations are threefold:



1. Choose and provide licenses

2. Add copyright and licensing information to each file

3. Confirm REUSE compliance



You are recommended to read [our tutorial](https://reuse.software/tutorial) for

a step-by-step guide through these three steps. The

[FAQ](https://reuse.software/faq) covers basic questions about licensing,

copyright, and more complex use cases. Advanced users and integrators will find

the [full specification](https://reuse.software/spec) helpful.



This tool exists to facilitate the developer in complying with the above

recommendations.



There are [other tools](https://reuse.software/comparison) that have a lot more

features and functionality surrounding the analysis and inspection of copyright

and licenses in software projects. The REUSE helper tool, on the other hand, is

solely designed to be a simple tool to assist in compliance with the REUSE

recommendations.



## Install



### Installation via package manager (Recommended)



There are packages available for easy install on many operating systems. You are

welcome to help us package this tool for more distributions!



An automatically generated list can be found at

[repology.org](https://repology.org/project/reuse/versions), without any

guarantee for completeness.



### Install and run via pipx (Recommended)



The following one-liner both installs and runs this tool from

[PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/reuse/) via

[pipx](https://pypa.github.io/pipx/):



```bash

pipx run reuse lint

```



pipx automatically isolates reuse into its own Python virtualenv, which means

that it won't interfere with other Python packages, and other Python packages

won't interfere with it.



If you want to be able to use reuse without prepending it with `pipx run` every

time, install it globally like so:



```bash

pipx install reuse

```



reuse will then be available in `~/.local/bin`, which must be added to your

`$PATH`.



After this, make sure that `~/.local/bin` is in your `$PATH`. On Windows, the

required path for your environment may look like

`%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python39\Scripts`, depending on the Python

version you have installed.



To upgrade reuse, run this command:



```bash

pipx upgrade reuse

```



For full functionality, the following pieces of software are recommended:



- Git

- Mercurial 4.3+

- Pijul

- Jujutsu



### Installation via pip



To install reuse into `~/.local/bin`, run:



```bash

pip3 install --user reuse

```



Subsequently, make sure that `~/.local/bin` is in your `$PATH` like described in

the previous section.



To upgrade reuse, run this command:



```bash

pip3 install --user --upgrade reuse

```



### Installation from source



You can also install this tool from the source code, but we recommend the

methods above for easier and more stable updates. Please make sure the

requirements for the installation via pip are present on your machine.



```bash

pip install .

```



## Usage



First, read the [REUSE tutorial](https://reuse.software/tutorial/). In a

nutshell:



1. Put your licenses in the `LICENSES/` directory.

2. Add a comment header to each file that says

   `SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later`, and

   `SPDX-FileCopyrightText: $YEAR $NAME`. You can be flexible with the format,

   just make sure that the line starts with `SPDX-FileCopyrightText:`.

3. Verify your work using this tool.



Example of header:



```

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2017 Free Software Foundation Europe e.V. 

#

# SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-SA-4.0

```



### CLI



To check against the recommendations, use `reuse lint`:



```

~/Projects/reuse-tool $ reuse lint

[...]



Congratulations! Your project is compliant with version 3.2 of the REUSE Specification :-)

```



This tool can do various more things, detailed in the documentation. Here a

short summary:



- `annotate` --- Add copyright and/or licensing information to the header of a

  file.

- `download` --- Download the specified license into the `LICENSES/` directory.

- `init` --- Set up the project for REUSE compliance.

- `lint` --- Verify the project for REUSE compliance.

- `spdx` --- Generate an SPDX Document of all files in the project.

- `supported-licenses` --- Prints all licenses supported by REUSE.



### Example demo



In this screencast, we are going to follow the

[tutorial](https://reuse.software/tutorial), making the

[REUSE example repository](https://github.com/fsfe/reuse-example/) compliant.



![Demo of some basic REUSE tool commands](https://download.fsfe.org/videos/reuse/screencasts/reuse-tool.gif)



### Run in Docker



The `fsfe/reuse` Docker image is available on

[Docker Hub](https://hub.docker.com/r/fsfe/reuse). With it, you can easily

include REUSE in CI/CD processes. This way, you can check for REUSE compliance

for each build. In our [resources for developers](https://reuse.software/dev/)

you can learn how to integrate the REUSE tool in Drone, Travis, GitHub, or

GitLab CI.



You can run the helper tool simply by providing the command you want to run

(e.g., `lint`, `spdx`). The image's working directory is `/data` by default. So

if you want to lint a project that is in your current working directory, you can

mount it on the container's `/data` directory, and tell the tool to lint. That

looks a little like this:



```bash

docker run --rm --volume $(pwd):/data fsfe/reuse lint

```



You can also provide additional arguments, like so:



```bash

docker run --rm --volume $(pwd):/data fsfe/reuse --include-submodules spdx -o out.spdx

```



The available tags are:



- `latest` --- the most recent release of reuse.

- `{major}` --- the latest major release.

- `{major}.{minor}` --- the latest minor release.

- `{major}.{minor}.{patch}` --- a precise release.



You can add `-debian` to any of the tags to get a Debian-based instead of an

Alpine-based image, which is larger, but may be better suited for license

compliance.



### Run as pre-commit hook



You can automatically run `reuse lint` on every commit as a pre-commit hook for

Git. This uses [pre-commit](https://pre-commit.com/). Once you

[have it installed](https://pre-commit.com/#install), add this to the

`.pre-commit-config.yaml` in your repository:



```yaml

repos:

  - repo: https://github.com/fsfe/reuse-tool

    rev: v3.0.2

    hooks:

      - id: reuse

```



Then run `pre-commit install`. Now, every time you commit, `reuse lint` is run

in the background, and will prevent your commit from going through if there was

an error.



## Maintainers



- Carmen Bianca Bakker 



### Former maintainers



- Max Mehl 

- Linus Sehn 



## Contributing



If you're interested in contributing to the reuse project, there are several

ways to get involved. Development of the project takes place on GitHub at

. There, you can submit bug reports, feature

requests, and pull requests. Even and especially when in doubt, feel free to

open an issue with a question. Contributions of all types are welcome, and the

development team is happy to provide guidance and support for new contributors.



You should exercise some caution when opening a pull request to make changes

which were not (yet) acknowledged by the team as pertinent. Such pull requests

may be closed, leading to disappointment. To avoid this, please open an issue

first.



Additionally, the  mailing list is available for

discussion and support related to the project.



You can find the full contribution guidelines at

.



## Licensing



This work is licensed under multiple licences. Because keeping this section

up-to-date is challenging, here is a brief summary as of April 2024:



- All original source code is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later.

- All documentation is licensed under CC-BY-SA-4.0.

- Some configuration and data files are licensed under CC0-1.0.

- Some code borrowed from

  [spdx/tools-python](https://github.com/spdx/tools-python) is licensed under

  Apache-2.0.



For more accurate information, check the individual files.