golic

README

🚀 Golic

A declarative tool for injecting and managing license headers in source code.

Golic automates the tedious task of ensuring every source file in your project has the correct license header. It’s built for developers who want a "set it and forget it" solution for compliance.

# Preview changes before applying
golic inject -c="2026 MyCompany ltd." --dry

📥 Installation

Install the binary using Go 1.16+:

go install github.com/Bugs5382/golic/cmd/golic@latest
golic version

⚙️ Configuration

Golic relies on two small files in your project root to define what to license and how to format it.

1. .licignore

Determines which files Golic should touch. It uses standard .gitignore syntax.

Pro Tip: Use "inverse rules" to be safe. Deny everything by default, then allow specific files:

# .licignore

# 1. Ignore everything
*

# 2. Allow specific files/patterns
!Dockerfile*
!Makefile
!*.go

# 3. Allow subdirectories
!*/

2. .golic.yaml

Contains license text and formatting rules. Golic merges your local file with its embedded master configuration by default.

# .golic.yaml 
golic:
  licenses:
    apacheX: |
      Copyright MyCompany
      License details go here...
      
  rules:
    "*.go.txt":
      prefix: "/*"
      suffix: "*/"
    "technitium/**/*.yaml":
      prefix: "{{/*"
      suffix: "/*}}"
    .mzm:
      prefix: "" # No indent/prefix; place text directly at top

🛠️ Usage

💉 Injecting Licenses

Once your config is ready, run:

golic inject -t apacheX

[!TIP] Always use the --dry flag first to see a preview of which files will be modified without actually changing them.

🔄 Updating or Removing

To update a license, you must remove the old one first:

1. Remove: golic remove -t apacheX
2. Update: Modify .golic.yaml
3. Re-inject: golic inject -t apacheX

🤖 CI/CD Integration

To fail a build if licenses are missing (e.g., a developer forgot to run Golic), use the -x (exit code) flag:

golic inject --dry -x -t apache2

🏗 Development

🛠 Build

To compile the project locally, execute:

make build

To remove build artifacts and clean your workspace:

make clean

If you are contributing to this project, you must first initialize the linting environment:

make lint-init

This command installs all necessary dependencies and tools for code analysis.

Once initialized, you can analyze the codebase by running:

make lint

To verify only the project licenses, use:

make license

🧪 Test

To execute the unit testing suite, run:

make test

📋 Command Reference

Command	Description
inject	Injects license headers based on templates.
remove	Removes license headers matching the config.
version	Prints current version.

Common Flags:

• -c, --copyright : Set the holder/year (Default: YYYY [Insert Company]). YYYY defaults to the current year.
• -d, --dry : Run without writing to files.
• -t, --template : Specify which license key to use from the config.
• -v, --verbose : Enable detailed trace logging.

🤝 Contributing

We welcome Pull Requests! Please follow these steps:

• ✅ Validation: Run make lint to verify code quality.
• 🧪 Testing: New features must include unit tests.
• ✍️ Security: All commits must be signed (GPG/SSH).

❤️ Acknowledgments

• AbsaOSS: For the original foundation of this project.
• Family: A special thanks to my wife, daughter, and son for their patience while I work in "geek mode."

📄 License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. See the LICENSE file for details.

Documentation

Index

• Variables

Variables

var DefaultConfig string