license

Print a license to stdout, using the defaults (auto-detected author name, and current year)

$ license [license_name]

$ license -o [path/to/file] [license_name]

$ license ls

$ license --name [author] --year [release_year] [license_name]

license [OPTIONS] [PACKAGE_NAME]

-a, --all
    Display licenses for all discoverable software components and installed packages.

-p, --package
    Show license details for a specific installed PACKAGE_NAME.

-s, --system
    Display the primary license information for the Linux operating system, typically the GNU General Public License (GPL) for the kernel.

-L, --list-types
    List all distinct software license types found on the system.

-t, --type
    Filter displayed licenses to only those matching a specific TYPE (e.g., 'GPLv2', 'MIT', 'BSD').

-v, --version
    Display the version of the license command itself.

-h, --help
    Show a help message and exit.

The license command is not a standard utility found in most Linux distributions. This analysis describes a hypothetical command designed to provide a unified interface for accessing and displaying software license information on a Linux system.

In typical Linux environments, license details for the operating system, kernel, and installed software packages are usually found within their respective documentation directories (e.g., `/usr/share/doc//copyright` or `/usr/share/licenses/`) or through package manager queries. A theoretical license command would aim to simplify this process, allowing users to quickly retrieve license texts, summarize license types, or list licenses for various components, ranging from the Linux kernel to individual installed applications.

The license command is not a standard component of common Linux distributions. The functionality, synopsis, and parameters described above are entirely hypothetical, illustrating what such a command might offer if it existed. In practice, users typically query package managers (like `dpkg`, `rpm`), inspect documentation directories (`/usr/share/doc`, `/usr/share/licenses`), or consult project-specific README/LICENSE files to find software license information.

On Linux systems, software license texts are frequently stored in:
1. `/usr/share/doc//copyright` (common on Debian/Ubuntu and derivatives)
2. `/usr/share/licenses//LICENSE` (common on Fedora/RHEL and derivatives)
3. Within the source code directories of individual applications or libraries.

These locations contain the full text of licenses like the GNU GPL, MIT, Apache, BSD, etc.

The concept of a unified command to access software license information has often been discussed or implemented via scripts within specific projects or distributions. However, a universally adopted, standalone `license` command does not exist in the core Linux utility set. The need for readily available license data grew with the proliferation of open-source software and the increasing importance of compliance, leading to package managers including license fields in their metadata and standardizing documentation locations.

dpkg(1), rpm(8), ls(1), cat(1), find(1)