Git Integration¶

license-maven-plugin-git extends the plugin with properties derived from the Git history of each file. This is particularly useful for automatically maintaining accurate copyright year ranges in your headers without manual updates.

Properties Added¶

Property	Description
`license.git.copyrightLastYear`	Year of the last commit that changed the file
`license.git.copyrightYears`	`inceptionYear–lastYear` range, or just `inceptionYear` if they are equal
`license.git.copyrightCreationYear`	Year of the first commit of the file
`license.git.copyrightExistenceYears`	Range from `copyrightCreationYear` to `copyrightLastYear`
`license.git.CreationAuthorName`	Name of the author of the first commit of the file
`license.git.CreationAuthorEmail`	Email of the author of the first commit of the file

Note

copyrightCreationYear, copyrightExistenceYears, CreationAuthorName, and CreationAuthorEmail require the full git history of each file. The plugin will warn when it detects a shallow repository if these are used.

Setup¶

Add license-maven-plugin-git as a dependency to the plugin:

<plugin>
  <groupId>com.mycila</groupId>
  <artifactId>license-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>5.0.0</version>
  <configuration>
    <licenseSets>
      <licenseSet>
        <inlineHeader><![CDATA[
Copyright ${license.git.copyrightYears} ${owner}

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0
]]></inlineHeader>
        <properties>
          <owner>Acme Corp</owner>
        </properties>
      </licenseSet>
    </licenseSets>
  </configuration>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.mycila</groupId>
      <artifactId>license-maven-plugin-git</artifactId>
      <version>5.0.0</version>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</plugin>

Template Usage¶

Use ${license.git.copyrightYears} in your inline header or classpath template:

Copyright ${license.git.copyrightYears} ${owner}

For a project with inceptionYear 1999 and a file last changed in 2024, this resolves to:

Copyright 1999-2024 Acme Corp

If the file was last changed in the same year as inceptionYear, no range is shown:

Copyright 1999 Acme Corp

Filtering Commits¶

Exclude specific commits from the last-change calculation (e.g., automated formatting commits) using their SHA-1 hashes:

<properties>
  <license.git.commitsToIgnore>abc123,def456</license.git.commitsToIgnore>
</properties>

Note

commitsToIgnore only affects copyrightLastYear — not the creation year.

Limiting History Depth¶

When you only need copyrightLastYear (not the creation-related properties), you can improve performance by limiting how deep in the history the plugin looks:

<properties>
  <license.git.maxCommitsLookup>1</license.git.maxCommitsLookup>
</properties>

A value of 1 gives the best performance but may be inaccurate if the most recent commit pre-dates earlier commits (e.g., after a rebase or squash).

Uncommitted Changes¶

When files have uncommitted changes, the plugin assumes they will be committed in the current year. This means copyrightLastYear may reflect the current year even before you commit. This can occasionally cause license:check to fail after a year boundary — run license:format and commit again to resolve.

Shallow Repository Handling¶

See SCM Integration — Shallow Clones for the available options (warnIfShallow, skipOnShallow, failOnShallow).