Installation

There are a few ways you can install ScanCode.

• Recommended standard install for everyone: Use a release download and install as an application
• Advanced installation options:

• pip install a Python PyPI package
• from source code using a git clone
• using Docker

Prerequisites

Before installing ScanCode make sure you have installed these prerequisites. The main one is to have Python installed version 3.6, 3.7, 3.8 or 3.9.

• For Linux(Ubuntu): sudo apt install python3.6-dev bzip2 xz-utils zlib1g libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev
• For MacOS: Install Python 3.x from https://www.python.org/
• For Windows: Install Python 3.x from https://www.python.org/ using the 64 bits amd64 variant
• For FreeBSD: (this needs to be documented)

Refer Prerequisites for detailed information on all different operating systems and Python versions.

Use a release download and install as an application

• Download and extract the latest ScanCode release from https://github.com/nexB/scancode-toolkit/releases/

• Open a terminal window (or command prompt on Windows) and then cd to the extracted ScanCode directory.

• Run this command to self-configure and display the initial command line help:

  • Linux/Mac : ./scancode --help
  • Windows : scancode --help

Advanced installation: pip install a Python PyPI package

• Create a virtual environment for Python 3.x and activate it:

  virtualenv -p python3 venv-scancode && source venv-scancode/bin/activate
  

• Run pip install scancode-toolkit[full]

Note that the [full] extra option is required to get a working installation except in some advanced use cases.

Advanced installation: using Docker

• Download the Source Code as an archive from the GitHub releases and unzip it, or via git clone.

• Build the docker image from the scancode-toolkit directory:

  docker build -t scancode-toolkit .
  

• Mount current working directory and run a scan the mounted folder:

  docker run -v $PWD/:/project scancode-toolkit -clpeui --json-pp /project/result.json /project
  

Note that the parameters before scancode-toolkit are used by docker and those after will be forwarded to scancode.

Advanced installation: from source code using a git clone

• Download the Source Code or Use Git Clone:

  git clone https://github.com/nexB/scancode-toolkit.git
  cd scancode-toolkit
  

• Run the configure script for development usage:

  • On Linux/Mac: ./configure --dev
  • On Windows: configure --dev

If this displays the help text, you are all set to start using ScanCode.