FOSSology vs REUSE Tool

FOSSology is an open-source system for examining software for license, copyright, and export-control information. Upload individual files or packages, then unpack and scan them with selected agents. Nomos looks for license indicators through phrases, regular expressions, and heuristics; Monk checks text against stored license texts or phrases supplied by users. Its web interface supports review of findings, license-text management, bulk recognition, aggregated file views, and reusing reviews for files with matching hashes. It can identify copyright statements and presents keyword-based findings that users can review for possible export-control relevance. Reports include SPDX 2.0 exports, Debian copyright files, hierarchical file lists with license identifiers, and Readme files with identified license and copyright details. A REST API supports CI/CD use, uploads, and scan triggers from other applications; the command line can retrieve SPDX files. Deployment options include Docker, Vagrant with VirtualBox, or source installation. It is free, with on-premise deployment options. One stated limit: it cannot determine which libraries produced a binary; binary analysis tools are needed for that task.

REUSE Tool helps software projects keep their own Free Software licensing information complete and machine-readable. Its command-line tools can download full license texts, add copyright and license details to file headers, and lint projects for problems. It can generate a software bill of materials with a command, while the REUSE API displays ongoing compliance status and can provide a badge and JSON output. Teams can run checks in CI/CD workflows such as Drone, Woodpecker CI, Forgejo Actions, GitHub Actions and Docker-based setups. A pre-commit hook can run linting at each Git commit and stop the commit if it reports an error. Installation options include Debian and Fedora packages, pipx, pip and source; Python 3.10 or newer is required. The tool is free, needs no registration and can be used offline. Its scope does not include checking whether a project complies with the licenses of its dependencies. The source code is GPL-3.0-or-later, documentation is CC-BY-SA-4.0, and some configuration and data files are CC0-1.0.