NAME

       scan-copyrights - Scan source file and print lines for debian/copyright files

SYNOPSIS

         # in source package directory
         scan-copyrights > debian/copyright.new
         meld debian/copyright{,.new}

DESCRIPTION

       This commands use "licensecheck" command to scan license and copyright information from source files. The
       output of licensecheck is parsed to generate the Files information of "debian/copyright" files according
       to Debian specifications <https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/>

Tweaking results

       Results can be tweaked either by:

       •   Changing  the  list  of  files to scan or ignore. (By default, licensecheck will decide which file to
           scan or not.) See "Selecting or ignoring files to scan" in Dpkg::Copyright::Scanner

       •   Specifying information for individual files or directories, such as copyright values, or to skip this
           file. See "Filling the blanks" in Dpkg::Copyright::Scanner.

       •   Tweaking the copyright entries created by grouping and coaslescing information. See "Tweak  copyright
           entries" in Dpkg::Copyright.

BUGS

   Reliability
       Extracting  license  and  copyright  data  from  unstructured  comments is not reliable.  User must check
       manually the files when no copyright info is found or when the license is unknown.

       The required changes can be stored in "debian/fill.copyright.blanks.yml" so that  future  runs  of  scan-
       copyrights  will  be  more  accurate.   Please  see  "Filling the blanks" in Dpkg::Copyright::Scanner for
       instructions to write this file.

   Extracting information from Cargo.toml
       Copyright and information is extracted from  "Cargo.toml"  files,  but  Cargo  workspace  information  is
       ignored.  The  command  "cargo  metadata" cannot be used as it produces information for packages, whereas
       "debian/copyright" expects information for files.

   Corrupted package.json or toml files
       Some packages contain test file with  invalid  "package.json"  or  "Cargo.toml"  files.  "scan-copyright"
       cannot  deal with them and you must tell "scan-copyright" to skip these files. See "Selecting or ignoring
       files to scan" in Dpkg::Copyright::Scanner for details.

Examples

       In pan source directory:

        $ scan-copyright
        no info for ./uulib/fptools.h, check manually this file
        no info for ./uulib/fptools.c, check manually this file
        no info for ./uulib/uustring.h, check manually this file
        no info for ./uulib/crc32.h, check manually this file
        no info for ./pan/data/defgroup.h, check manually this file
        no info for ./pan/general/time-elapsed.h, check manually this file
        [ snip ]
        Files: *
        Copyright: 1994-2001, by Frank Pilhofer.
        License: GPL-2+

        Files: pan/*
        Copyright: 2002-2006, Charles Kerr <charles@rebelbase.com>
        License: GPL-2

        Files: pan/data/cert-store.cc
        Copyright: 2011, Heinrich Muller <henmull@src.gnome.org>
          2002-2006, Charles Kerr <charles@rebelbase.com>
        License: GPL-2

        Files: pan/data/cert-store.h
        Copyright: 2002-2006, Charles Kerr <charles@rebelbase.com>
          2011, Heinrich Muller <henmull@src.gnome.org>
        License: GPL-2
        [ snip ]

SUPPORT

       For support, please contact the author.

SEE ALSO

       licensecheck, "licensecheck2dep5" from "cdbs" package

AUTHOR

       Dominique Dumont <dod@debian.org>

perl v5.40.1                                       2025-04-10                                SCAN-COPYRIGHTS(1p)