Copyright Header

Features

• Add/remove a copyright headers recursively on source files
• Customize the syntax configuration for how to write out comments
• Built-in support for GPL3 and MIT licenses
• Supports custom licenes with --license-file argument
• ERB template support

Caveats

• Will only remove headers to files that have exactly the same header as the one we added
• Will only add headers to files which do not contain the pattern /[Cc]opyright|[Lc]icense/ in the first N lines

Requirements

• Ruby 1.9.2 (supported version)

Installation & Usage

# gem install copyright-header
# copyright-header --help

Add a GPL3 License header to a file:

copyright-header --add-path /tmp/test.rb --license GPL3 --dry-run

Remove the header created in the previous step (without --dry-run argument):

copyright-header --remove-path /tmp/test.rb --license GPL3 --dry-run

Command used to generate copyright headers for this script:

copyright-header  --license GPL3  --add lib/ --copyright-holder 'Erik Osterman <e@osterman.com>' --copyright-software 'Copyright Header' --copyright-software-description "A utility to manipulate copyright headers on source code files" --copyright-year 2012 --word-wrap 100 --output-dir ./

Paths can be either files or directories. It will recursively traverse the directory tree ignoring all dot files.

You can specify an alternative syntax configuration file using the --syntax argument.

Full list of supported arguments:

Usage: copyright-header options [file]
    -n, --dry-run                    Output the parsed files to STDOUT
    -o, --output-dir DIR             Use DIR as output directory
        --license-file FILE          Use FILE as header
        --license [GPL3|MIT]         Use LICENSE as header
        --copyright-software NAME    The common name for this piece of software (e.g. "Copyright Header")
        --copyright-software-description DESC
                                     The common name for this piece of software (e.g. "A utility to manipulate copyright headers on source code files")
        --copyright-holder NAME      The common name for this piece of software (e.g. "Erik Osterman <e@osterman.com>"). Repeat argument for multiple names.
        --copyright-year YEAR        The common name for this piece of software (e.g. "2012"). Repeat argument for multiple years.
    -w, --word-wrap LEN              Maximum number of characters per line for license (default: 80)
    -a, --add-path PATH              Recursively insert header in all files found in path
    -r, --remove-path PATH           Recursively remove header in all files found in path
    -c, --syntax FILE                Syntax configuration file
    -V, --version                    Display version information
    -h, --help                       Display this screen

Contact Information

Erik Osterman e@osterman.com http://www.osterman.com/