DotnetRefScan 3.1.3

DotnetRefScan

Reference scanner for Dotnet applications.

It loads used package references from your source code and package references from your license file and compares them to ensure your license file contains all used package references.

It supports automatic formatting of the Markdown license file (sorting, table layout adjustments) and can automatically also update & add package references to the license file including their license information (copyright / license type / repository URL).

Usage

Reference the library

Reference the library in your project via NuGet (https://www.nuget.org/packages/DotnetRefScan)

DotnetRefScan

Init the library

RefScan refScan = new RefScan("e.g. Solution or Project folder");

Optional parameters:

• searchOption
  • Configures the library to either search for references only in the current folder or its subfolders as well
• filter
  • Configures a Regex pattern for file filtering
• verifyLicenseInfo
  • Configures whether the package license info (copyright / license type / repository URL) should be verified and updated

Verify your license

You can simply let the library to compare your license against source code and verify whether the license contains all used package references. To do that, call:

var result = await refScan.VerifyLicense("License file name");

The returned object will show, whether the license file IsUpToDate and provides list of:

• UsedPackageReferences
• LicensePackageReferences
• Package references MissingInLicense
• Package references RedundantInLicense
• Package references WithInvalidLicense

Update and format your license

You can simply let the library to compare your license against source code and get the license file updated and formatted accordingly. To do that, call:

await refScan.UpdateLicense("License file name");

Customization

Used References Providers

You can modify the list of UsedReferencesProviders in order to add new or remove default providers which scan the source code for used package references.

The default provides scan:

• C# project files (*.csproj) for NuGet packages
• Libman files (libman.json) for front-end packages from jsdeliver, cdnjs etc.

Package License Info Provider

IPackageLicenseInfoProvider is responsible for loading package license information. For example NuGetPackageLicenseInfoProvider loads NuGet package information from NuGet feed API.

Each IUsedReferencesProvider can have its own IPackageLicenseInfoProvider. If you find the default providers not suitable for your needs, you can provide your own implementation easily.

License References Provider

The default LicenseReferencesProvider reads package references mentioned in the license file using Markdown format.

It expects the license file to have table-based package definition with "|" symbols as separators and specific columns. See /DotnetRefScan.Tests/TestData/TestLicense1.md for reference.

You can replace the default provider with your custom or re-configure the default provider by calling:

refScan.LicenseReferencesProvider = new MarkdownLicenseReferencesProvider(a, b, c, d, e, f, verifyLicenseInfo: true, markdownFormatter: new MarkdownFormatter());

Where:

• a, b, c, d, e, f specify column indexes of your license file table, which contain the package reference name, version and source, copyright, license type, repository url.
  • copyright, license type and repository url indexes are optional.
• verifyLicenseInfo specified whether to load the copyright, license type and repository url columns from the license file during the license verification.
• markdownFormatter specifies Markdown file formatter. If not provided, the default MarkdownFormatter will be used.

Filtering the package references

You can specify two filters which will be be used within the LoadLicenseReferences method during the license verification, so you don't need to write custom reference providers just to filter some references out of the result.

IsReferenceRequiredInLicense

This filter is used to specify what package references are not needed to be mentioned in the license.

The following code will not require any package starting with "Microsoft" or "System" to be referenced in the license file and the license will be still considered up-to-date:

refScan.IsReferenceRequiredInLicense = (r) => !r.Name.StartsWith("Microsoft") && !r.Name.StartsWith("System");

IsReferenceAcceptedToBeRedundantInLicense

This filter is used to specify what package references can be mentioned in the license even if they are not found by the UsedReferencesProviders in the source code. This might be useful if you reference some 3rd party packages for example by using some library-unsupported package manager or by simply downloading the files and putting them in your source code manually.

The following code will not report "CustomFont" reference in the license file as redundant and the license will be still considered up-to-date:

refScan.IsReferenceAcceptedToBeRedundantInLicense = (r) => r.Name == "CustomFont";

Recommendation

It is recommend you to include this library in your software tests, ideally to run it as part of your Pull Request checks, so it makes sure you don't merge in any package references not mentioned in your license file.

Other features

To list used package references from your source code:

var usedPackageReferences = await refScan.LoadUsedReferences();

To list package references mentioned in your license file:

var licensePackageReferences = await refScan.LoadLicenseReferences("License file name");

Release notes

2026-02-03 - 3.1.3

Fixes for package license info parallel loading.

2026-01-07 - 3.1.1

The C# project file used references provider stability, error handling and configurability improved.

2026-01-02 - 3.0.4

The library now allows to read license information for NuGet packages from NuGet API (copyright, license type, project url) and use this information for license verification and updates.

2025-12-17 - 2.3.0

The library now allows to get the license file automatically updated with the latest package versions and the license table to be automatically formatted.

2025-12-17 - 2.2.0

The library now allows to filter input files with the package references definition (e.g. .csproj) using a custom Func<string, bool> filter.

2025-01-14 - 2.1.0

The library now searches for only the latest version of a specific reference (if multiple versions used in the project) when verifying license.

2023/12/06 - 1.0.2

Initial version of the library

License

This library is released under MIT license. Feel free to use it as your wish.

Hope this library will help you to manage used package references in your projects easier and will make your license file be always up-to-date so you can be safe and out of any troubles with licensing.

Contribution

If you find any problems with this library or would like to contribute to it, do not hesitate to contact me via LinkedIn or propose new change by creating a new Pull Request within this repository.