Documentation

Basic Setup

Below is an example of how to add the plugin to a webpack config:

const LicenseWebpackPlugin = require('license-webpack-plugin').LicenseWebpackPlugin;
 
module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new LicenseWebpackPlugin()
  ]
}; 

Configuration

• **stats** - toggle warnings and errors on/off (default: report warnings and errors)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  stats: {
    warnings: true,
    errors: true
  }
}); 

• **licenseInclusionTest** - filter which licenses get included in the report (default: capture all licenses)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  licenseInclusionTest: (licenseType) => (licenseType === 'MIT')
}); 

Notes: All license identifiers in npm packages are supposed to follow SPDX format. If your requirements are very specific, it is recommended to set up this option using the spdx-satisfies package. The plugin does not provide the spdx-satisfies package, so you must install it separately if you want to use it.

Example using spdx-satisfies:

const satisfies = require('spdx-satisfies');
 
new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  licenseInclusionTest: (licenseType) => satisfies(licenseType, '(ISC OR MIT)')
}); 

• **outputFilename** - customize the license report filename (default: ‘’[name].licenses.txt'`)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  outputFilename: '[name].[hash].licenses.txt'
}); 

• **unacceptableLicenseTest** - error out on unacceptable license (default: disabled)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  unacceptableLicenseTest: (licenseType) => (licenseType === 'GPL')
}); 

• **handleUnacceptableLicense** - do something when an unacceptable license is found (default: disabled)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  unacceptableLicenseTest: (licenseType) => (licenseType === 'GPL'),
  handleUnacceptableLicense: (packageName, licenseType) => {
    // do something here
  }
}); 

• **excludedPackageTest** - exclude packages (default: disabled)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  excludedPackageTest: (packageName) => packageName === 'excluded-package'
}); 

• **perChunkOutput** - control whether or not the license files are generated per chunk or are combined into one file (default: true)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  perChunkOutput: false // combine all license information into one file
}); 

• **addBanner** - write a banner to the top of each js file (default: false)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  addBanner: true
}); 

• **licenseTypeOverrides** - override the license type for specific packages (default: disabled)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  licenseTypeOverrides: {
    foopkg: 'MIT'
  }
}); 

• **licenseTextOverrides** - override the license text for specific packages (default: disabled)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  licenseTextOverrides: {
    foopkg: 'License text for foopkg'
  }
}); 

• **licenseFileOverrides** - override the license filename for specific packages (default: disabled)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  licenseFileOverrides: {
    foopkg: 'The-License.txt'
  }
}); 

Notes: The license filename is resolved relative to the package directory.

• **renderLicenses** - change the format / contents of the generated license file (default: print package name, license type, and license text)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  renderLicenses: (modules) => {
    console.log(modules[0].packageJson, modules[0].licenseId, modules[0].licenseText);
    return JSON.stringify(modules);
  }
}); 

• **renderBanner** - change the format / contents of the banner written to the top of each js file (default: print message indicating license filename)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  addBanner: true, 
  renderBanner: (filename, modules) => {
    console.log(modules);
    return '/*! licenses are at ' + filename + '*/';
  }
}); 

• **handleMissingLicenseText** - do something when license text is missing from a package (default: disabled)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  handleMissingLicenseText: (packageName, licenseType) => {
    console.log('Cannot find license for ' + packageName);
    return 'UNKNOWN';
  }
}); 

Notes: You can return your own license text from this function, but you should prefer using licenseTextOverrides first.

• **licenseTemplateDir** - use fallback license files for when a package is missing a license file (default: disabled)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  licenseTemplateDir: path.resolve(__dirname, 'licenseTemplates')
}); 

Notes: This option specifies a directory containing .txt files containing the license text based on the license type. (e.g. MIT.txt). Templates can be found here.

• **chunkIncludeExcludeTest** - control which chunks gets processed by the plugin (default: all chunks get processed)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  chunkIncludeExcludeTest: {
    exclude: ['foo'],
    include: ['bar']
  }
}); 

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  chunkIncludeExcludeTest: (chunkName) => chunkName.startsWith('abc')
}); 

Notes: If there is a duplicate entry in both the exclude and include array, the duplicated entry will be excluded.

• **modulesDirectories** - limit which directories get scanned for license files (default: disabled)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  modulesDirectories: [
    path.resolve(__dirname, 'node_modules')
  ]
}); 

• **additionalChunkModules** - add additional node modules to a chunk (default: disabled)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  additionalChunkModules: {
    main: [
      {
        name: 'somepkg'
        directory: path.join(__dirname, 'node_modules', 'somepkg')
      }
    ]
  }
}); 

• **additionalModules** - add additional node modules to the scan (default: disabled)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  additionalModules: [
    {
      name: 'somepkg'
      directory: path.join(__dirname, 'node_modules', 'somepkg')
    }
  ]
}); 

• **preferredLicenseTypes** - help the plugin decide which license type to pick in case a package specifies multiple licenses (default: disabled)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  preferredLicenseTypes: ['MIT', 'ISC']
}); 

• **handleLicenseAmbiguity** - do something when the plugin finds ambiguous license types (default: pick first license type)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  handleLicenseAmbiguity: (packageName, licenses) => {
    console.log(packageName);
    console.log(licenses[0].url);
    return licenses[0].type;
  }
}); 

Notes: This function is called whenever a license type could not be determined when a package uses the deprecated licenses field (which is an array of license types) in its package.json. It should return the license type to use. By default, the plugin prints a warning message to the console and chooses the first license type. You should use the preferredLicenseTypes option instead of this one.

• **handleMissingLicenseType** - do something when a package is missing a license type (default: disabled)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  handleMissingLicenseType: (packageName) => {
    console.log(packageName);
    return null;
  }
}); 

Notes: You can return a license type from this function, but it is a better idea to use the licenseTypeOverides option.

• **skipChildCompilers** - do not apply the plugin to child webpack compilers (default: applies to child compilers too)

Example:

new LicenseWebpackPlugin({
  skipChildCompilers: true
});