cli/docs/license-compliance.md

License Compliance

GitHub CLI complies with the software licenses of its dependencies. This document explains how license compliance is maintained.

Overview

When a dependency is added or updated, the license information needs to be updated. We use the google/go-licenses tool to:

1. Generate markdown documentation listing all Go dependencies and their licenses
2. Copy license files for dependencies that require redistribution

License Files

The following files contain license information:

• third-party-licenses.darwin.md - License information for macOS dependencies
• third-party-licenses.linux.md - License information for Linux dependencies
• third-party-licenses.windows.md - License information for Windows dependencies
• third-party/ - Directory containing source code and license files that require redistribution

Updating License Information

When dependencies change, you need to update the license information:

1. Update license information for all platforms:

   make licenses
   

2. Commit the changes:

   git add third-party-licenses.*.md third-party/
   git commit -m "Update third-party license information"
   

Checking License Compliance

The CI workflow checks if license information is up to date. To check locally:

make licenses-check

If the check fails, follow the instructions to update the license information.