How to list all licenses used in the maven project?

Question

I have a multi-module project that has many dependencies. I want to check which licenses he had at a certain moment, and see how many licenses have been added since then. Is there an easy way to do this?

I found these plugins:

• https://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-project-info-reports-plugin/license-mojo.html
• http://www.mojohaus.org/license-maven-plugin/examples/example-download-licenses.html

But not one of them gives me exactly what I want. After that I have to do a lot of post-processing. Is there a more direct way to see the list of licenses used in the maven project?

Answer 1

Diff'ing, for example, offers khmarbaise, is the most sensible approach. Place an order (or download) this project in different versions and run a license report for each version, save the output in file names based on the version, and then split them. This is a very human method. Alternatively, write a program that reads a list of “acceptable” licenses and reports (in our opinion, a small number) of exclusive, incompatible licenses. If you write a useful report, be sure to mention it here if others may find it useful.