License Scanning with ScanCode Toolkit

When to use

Prerequisites

• ScanCode installed (

  pip install scancode-toolkit

  )
• Verify:

  scancode --version

Instructions

1. Identify the target — Determine the source directory to scan.
2. Run the scan:
   bash

   scancode -l -c --json-pp scancode-results.json <target-path>

   • License only:

     scancode -l --json-pp results.json <path>

   • Copyright only:

     scancode -c --json-pp results.json <path>

   • With package info:

     scancode -l -c -p --json-pp results.json <path>

   • Parallel processing:

     scancode -l -c -n 4 --json-pp results.json <path>

3. Parse the results — Read JSON output and present findings:

| # | File | License | Score | Category | Copyright |
|---|------|---------|-------|----------|-----------|

1. Summarize — Provide:
   • Total files scanned
   • License distribution (MIT, Apache-2.0, GPL, etc.)
   • Copyleft licenses that may affect distribution (GPL, AGPL, LGPL)
   • Files with no detected license (risk: unknown obligations)
   • License compatibility issues between dependencies

License Categories