OSLA — Open-source Licence Agreements

OSLA is a command-line tool for generating LICENSE files from a local, offline database of license texts. It supports a variety of popular open-source licenses—including non-software licenses—and provides features such as placeholder replacement, interactive configuration, alias resolution, and formatted output.

Features

• Generate LICENSE Files:
  Easily create a LICENSE file for a specified license, with automatic placeholder replacements (e.g. <YEAR>, <COPYRIGHT HOLDER>).

• Configuration Management:
  Reads user configuration from ~/.config/OSLA/osla.conf (auto-creates the file with sensible defaults if missing).

• Global and Local Operation:

  • Global Install: Installs the binary to /usr/local/bin, license data to /usr/local/share/osla, and defaults the configuration to ~/.config/OSLA/osla.conf.
  • Local Development: Use the provided Makefile target (local-env) to export the OSLA_DATADIR variable for testing without a global install.

• Additional Options:

  • List available licenses.
  • Display formatted license descriptions.
  • Search licenses by keyword.
  • Support for aliases (customizable in the source code).

Project Structure

osla/
├── src/                     # C source code
│   ├── config.c & config.h  # Configuration file handling
│   ├── license.c & license.h# License file loading and placeholder replacement
│   ├── io.c & io.h          # Input/output functions (file reading, error reporting)
│   ├── main.c               # Main program entry point
│   ├── paths.h              # Data directory path management (OSLA_DATADIR)
│   └── version.h            # Contains the version string
├── licenses/                # Directory containing all license text files (*.txt)
├── descriptions/            # Directory containing formatted license descriptions (*.desc)
├── config/                  # Example configuration file (osla.conf.example)
├── Makefile                 # Build, install, and environment setup targets
└── README.md                # This file

Usage

Basic Invocation

Generate a LICENSE file for a specified license (by short name, e.g., mit):

osla mit

This creates a file named LICENSE in the current directory with the full text of the specified license (with <YEAR> and <COPYRIGHT HOLDER> placeholders replaced).

Options

• -h, --help
  Show help and usage information.

• -v, --version
  Print the OSLA version.

• -d, --default
  Use the default license from the configuration file.

• -l, --list
  List all available licenses along with any aliases.

• -D, --description <license>
  Show a formatted description for the specified license.

• --debug
  Enable debug output for detailed execution steps.

• --stdout
  Output the generated license to stdout instead of writing to a file.

• --search <keyword>
  Search for licenses by a keyword in the license names or descriptions.

Example Commands

• List Licenses:

  osla --list

• Generate a LICENSE File Using the Default License:

  osla --default

• Output License Text to STDOUT:

  osla mit --stdout

• Search for "permissive" Licenses:

  osla --search permissive

Installation

Global Installation

To install OSLA globally (so that it is available from anywhere), run:

make clean all
sudo make install

• Binary: Installed to /usr/local/bin/osla.
• License Data: Installed to /usr/local/share/osla (licenses in the licenses/ directory and descriptions in the descriptions/ directory).
• Configuration: The default configuration file is copied to ~/.config/OSLA/osla.conf.

Local Development

If you prefer to test OSLA in your development directory without a global install, set the environment variable OSLA_DATADIR to the project root. Use the provided local-env target:

source <(make local-env)
./osla --list

This sets OSLA_DATADIR to your current working directory so that OSLA uses your local licenses/ and descriptions/ directories.

Adding New Licenses

To add new licenses:

1. License Text:
   Add a new .txt file to the licenses/ directory. Use <YEAR> and <COPYRIGHT HOLDER> placeholders if you want them auto-replaced.

2. License Description:
   Add a corresponding .desc file to the descriptions/ directory with a brief description of the license.

3. Aliases (Optional):
   If you’d like to add an alias, update the alias mapping in src/license.c.

License

OSLA itself is provided under a permissive license. Refer to the individual license file in the repository if needed.

Contributing

Contributions, bug fixes, and suggestions are welcome. Please feel free to submit pull requests or open issues on the project repository.

Acknowledgments

This project follows the UNIX philosophy of small, modular, and composable tools. This project makes use of online resources to retrieve the license agreements including:

• https://opensource.org/license/bsd-2-clause
• https://opensource.org/license/bsd-3-clause
• https://choosealicense.com/licenses/
• https://choosealicense.com/non-software/