npm-license-checker

npm-license-checker is a lightweight and easy-to-use command-line tool for checking and displaying the licenses of npm packages. It can read package names from either a text file or directly from your project's package.json.

Features

• List licenses of npm packages
• Support for both local and global packages
• Generate markdown report
• Check for outdated packages with --outdated flag
• Get detailed package information with --detailed flag including:
  • Package metadata (version, description, author)
  • Repository and issue tracking links
  • Dependencies (regular, dev, and peer)
  • Compatibility information
  • And more!

Local Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js v16 or higher
• npm v7 or higher

Setup

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/niawjunior/npm-license-checker.git
   cd npm-license-checker

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Build the project:

   npm run build

Development Commands

• npm run dev - Run the tool in development mode
• npm run build - Compile TypeScript to JavaScript
• npm run lint - Run ESLint
• npm run format - Format code with Prettier

Testing

npm run dev --outdated -o test-output

Installation

You can install npm-license-checker globally using npm:

npm install -g npm-license-checker

Or use it directly with npx:

npx npm-license-checker

Usage

npx npm-license-checker [options]

Options:
  -i, --input <file>    Path to file containing list of packages (one per line)
  -o, --output <dir>    Output directory for the report (default: license-report)
  --outdated            Check for outdated packages
  -d, --detailed        Show detailed information for each package
  -h, --help            Display help

Example Output

Basic Output

# Dependency License Report

## Summary

### License Distribution

- **MIT**: 12 packages
- **Apache-2.0**: 1 package

## Packages with Licenses

- **express**: MIT (4.18.2)
- **chalk**: MIT (5.0.1)
- **lodash**: MIT (4.17.21)

## Missing License Information

No packages with missing license information

## Outdated Dependencies

The following packages have newer versions available:

- **express**: 4.18.2 → 5.0.0 (wanted: 4.18.2)
- **chalk**: 4.1.2 → 5.3.0 (wanted: 4.1.2)

To update, run: `npm update`

## Potential Version Conflicts

- **example-package**: 1.0.0, 2.0.0

> Generated at: 2023-04-01T12:00:00.000Z

Detailed Package Information (with --detailed flag)

When using the --detailed or -d flag, the report will include comprehensive information about each package:

## Detailed Package Information

### [email protected]

**License:** MIT  
**Description:** Fast, unopinionated, minimalist web framework  
**Author:** TJ Holowaychuk <[email protected]>  
**Homepage:** http://expressjs.com/  
**Repository:** git+https://github.com/expressjs/express.git  
**Bugs:** https://github.com/expressjs/express/issues  
**Main File:** lib/express.js  
**TypeScript Types:** @types/express  
**Deprecated:** No  
**Dependencies:**

- accepts: ~1.3.8
- array-flatten: 1.1.1
- ...  
  **Dev Dependencies:**
- after: 0.8.2
- cookie-signature: 1.0.6
- ...  
  **Peer Dependencies:**
- node: >= 0.10.0  
  **Keywords:** express, framework, sinatra, web, rest, restful, router, app, api  
  **NPM Version:** 9.6.6  
  **Node Version Required:** >= 0.10.0

---

### [email protected]

**License:** MIT  
**Description:** Terminal string styling done right  
**Author:** Sindre Sorhus <[email protected]>  
**Homepage:** https://github.com/chalk/chalk#readme  
**Repository:** github:chalk/chalk  
**Bugs:** https://github.com/chalk/chalk/issues  
**Main File:** source/index.js  
**TypeScript Types:** @types/chalk  
**Deprecated:** No  
**Dependencies:**

- ansi-styles: ^5.0.0
- supports-color: ^7.2.0  
  **Dev Dependencies:**
- ava: ^3.15.0
- import-fresh: ^3.2.1
- ...  
  **Peer Dependencies:**
- node: ^12.17.0 || ^14.13 || >=16.0.0  
  **Keywords:** color, colour, colors, terminal, console, cli, string, str, ansi, style, styles, formatting, rgb, 256, chalk, shell, xterm, log, logging, command-line, text, tty, format, output, styling  
  **NPM Version:** 9.6.5  
  **Node Version Required:** ^12.17.0 || ^14.13 || >=16.0.0

Version History

v1.1.0

• Added support for reading dependencies from package.json by default
• Improved command-line interface
• Better error handling and reporting

![alt](img-1.png)
![alt](img-2.png)