Package that verifies if other packages and libraries are open source

Nick10N · 2026-07-20 19:15:08

Hello, i have been searching for a package that can verify if the installed packages and libraries are licensed under open source and free software distribution guidelines licenses. I have been asking myself if something like this exist as Arch linux, by default, doesnt necessarily comply with GNU guidelines. Do you know if that exists?

dimich · 2026-07-20 19:40:34

Nick10N wrote:

if the installed packages and libraries are licensed under open source and free software distribution guidelines licenses.

If I understand question correctly,

$ expac "%n: %L"

lmn · 2026-07-20 19:47:21

You can inspect the licenses with pacman

LC_ALL=C pacman -Qi | awk '/^Name/{name=$3} /^License/ {print name "\t" $3}'

Then you can filter your packages accordingly. The GNU project has comments on a lot of licenses.

Edit: Added external link.

Last edited by lmn (2026-07-20 19:49:36)

dimich · 2026-07-20 19:57:32

lmn wrote:

LC_ALL=C pacman -Qi | awk '/^Name/{name=$3} /^License/ {print name "\t" $3}'

This will print only first word of licenses in the list.

Variant with sed prints full licenses list:

pacman -Qi | sed -n '/^Name/{s/^.*: \(.*\)$/\1/;h}; /^Licenses/{s/^.*: \(.*\)$/\1/;x;G; s/\n/: /;p}'

Last edited by dimich (2026-07-20 19:58:08)

seth · 2026-07-20 20:01:20

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 7#p2230487

Nick10N · 2026-07-21 01:20:58

Thanks very much for the help! I appreciate it!

I may say that this command does not give me any output

dimich wrote:

pacman -Qi | sed -n '/^Name/{s/^.*: \(.*\)$/\1/;h}; /^Licenses/{s/^.*: \(.*\)$/\1/;x;G; s/\n/: /;p}'

dimich · 2026-07-21 03:01:53

Nick10N wrote:

I may say that this command does not give me any output
pacman -Qi | sed -n '/^Name/{s/^.*: $.*$$/\1/;h}; /^Licenses/{s/^.*: $.*$$/\1/;x;G; s/\n/: /;p}'

Probably because of localization.

LC_ALL=C pacman ...

should work.

Arch Linux

#1 2026-07-20 19:15:08

Package that verifies if other packages and libraries are open source

#2 2026-07-20 19:40:34

Re: Package that verifies if other packages and libraries are open source

#3 2026-07-20 19:47:21

Re: Package that verifies if other packages and libraries are open source

#4 2026-07-20 19:57:32

Re: Package that verifies if other packages and libraries are open source

#5 2026-07-20 20:01:20

Re: Package that verifies if other packages and libraries are open source

#6 2026-07-21 01:20:58

Re: Package that verifies if other packages and libraries are open source

#7 2026-07-21 03:01:53

Re: Package that verifies if other packages and libraries are open source

Board footer