.NET Core Solution: Get licenses from used NuGet packages

Posted on May 17, 2024 (Last modified on October 26, 2024) • 4 min read • 685 words

.NET License Visual Studio Software Development

How to get a txt or Excel file for all license of used Nuget package in your .NET Core Solution

.NET Core Solution: Get licenses from used NuGet packages — Photo by d.o. on Copilot Designer

Generating a License Report for NuGet Packages in Your .NET Core Solution

ToDo: Get all licenses from used NuGet Packages in the Visual Studio Solution. Create a license text file or Excel file with all found license and save all license as a separate Text File.

Let’s try …

Best solution so far: jump to Solution 5 or Solution 6

Solution 1: Get-Package

Open Visual Studio .NET Core Solution
Open Package Manager Console and execute:

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Get-Package | Select-Object Id,LicenseUrl

Output result (Nuget Package Name, License Url):

xunit.runner.visualstudio https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xunit/xunit/master/license.txt NSubstitute https://github.com/nsubstitute/NSubstitute/raw/master/LICENSE.txt Good… but the direct reference project NuGet package. Need also the License of all dlls.

Solution 2: PowerShell: Save license as text file

Try out with the PowerShell script. Save the code as DownloadNugetLicense.ps1 in the VS solution director.

Run the PowerShell Script with ./DownloadNugetLicense.ps1 in the Visual Studio Package Manager Console.

PowerShell Code:

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Split-Path -parent $dte.Solution.FileName | cd; New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path ".\licenses";
@( Get-Project -All | ? { $_.ProjectName } | % {
    Get-Package -ProjectName $_.ProjectName | ? { $_.LicenseUrl }
} ) | Sort-Object Id -Unique | % {
    $pkg = $_;
    Try {
        if ($pkg.Id -notlike 'microsoft*' -and $pkg.LicenseUrl.StartsWith('http')) {
            Write-Host ("Download license for nuget package " + $pkg.Id + " from " + $pkg.LicenseUrl);
            #Write-Host (ConvertTo-Json ($pkg));

            $licenseUrl = $pkg.LicenseUrl
            if ($licenseUrl.contains('github.com')) {
                $licenseUrl = $licenseUrl.replace("/blob/", "/raw/")
            }

            $extension = ".txt"
            if ($licenseUrl.EndsWith(".md")) {
                $extension = ".md"
            }

            (New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile($licenseUrl, (Join-Path (pwd) 'licenses\') + $pkg.Id + $extension);
        }
    }
    Catch [system.exception] {
        Write-Host ("Could not download license for " + $pkg.Id)
    }
}

Solution 3: PowerShell: All license in package manager output

Not perfect – I also need the license for the used Dlls inside any NuGet Package.

NuGet Package License

Id | LicenseUrl | License

PowerShell Code NuGet Package License

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Write-Host("---------------------");
Write-Host("NuGet Package License");
Write-Host("---------------------");
Write-Host("Id      |      LicenseUrl  |    License"); 
Write-Host("---------------------");
@( Get-Project -All | ? { $_.ProjectName } | % {
    Get-Package -ProjectName $_.ProjectName | ? { $_.LicenseUrl }
} ) | Sort-Object Id -Unique | % {
    $pkg = $_;
    $file = 
    Try {
        if ($pkg.Id -notlike 'microsoft*' -and $pkg.LicenseUrl.StartsWith('http')) {

            $licenseUrl = $pkg.LicenseUrl
            if ($licenseUrl.contains('github.com')) {
                $licenseUrl = $licenseUrl.replace("/blob/", "/raw/")
            }

            $extension = ".txt"
            if ($licenseUrl.EndsWith(".md")) {
                $extension = ".md"
            }

            $filePath = (Join-Path (pwd) 'licenses\') + $pkg.Id + $extension;

            $textLicense = Get-Content $filePath | Select-Object -First 1
            Write-Host($pkg.Id + "; " + $_.LicenseUrl + "; " + $textLicense);
        }
    }
    Catch [system.exception] {
    Write-Host ($error[0].Exception);
        Write-Host ("Could not read license for " + $pkg.Id)
    }
}

Solution 4: Visual Studio Tool » Package Licenses

Visual Studio 2017 Extension: List license of all NuGet packages inside the ‘packages’ folder of any Visual Studio solution. Refer license from the Nuget ProjectUrl / LicenseUrl in the package metadata. Download license and license text from GitHub, spdx.org.

Visual Studio Marketplace: Package Licenses

Package Folder

Package Folder not exist for the solution?

NuGet.Config

Create Nuget.Config for the Visual Studio solution:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<config>
    <add key="globalPackagesFolder" value=".\packages" />
</config>
</configuration>

Solution 5: Custom package licenses command line

Create your own license file output (Excel or TEXT) with the following .NET Core Console Project:

https://github.com/do-it-ger/DoitPackagesLicenses

Solution 6: .NET Nuget License Utility

A .net core tool to print the licenses of a project. This tool support .NET Core and .NET Standard projects.

https://github.com/tomchavakis/nuget-license

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