[Bug] Unhelpful error for misconfigured .licenserc.yaml file

[jsoref]

Search before asking

• I had searched in the issues and found no similar issues.

Apache SkyWalking Component

License Tools (apache/skywalking-eyes)

What happened

WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 

What you expected to happen

1. If there's a very finite list of available licenses, the list of available licenses should be mentioned
   • if the list is variable/dynamic, then a link to the available licenses should be provided (especially if there's a specific branch that's relevant...)
2. the specific license id being checked should be clearly identified -- if the id is '' then use 's around the empty string to clarify that it's an empty string
   • to the extent possible, the source of an empty string should be identified

How to reproduce

1. create a repository (with actions enabled...) with a workflow with steps similar to:

   steps:
     - name: Checkout
       uses: actions/checkout@v4
   
     - name: Fix License Header
       uses: apache/skywalking-eyes/header@v0.4.0
       with:
         mode: fix

2. create .licenserc.yaml file with:

   header:
     spdx-id: BSD-3-Clause
     copyright-owner: Unknown
     software-name: unknown
     content: |
       Copyright (c) Unknown
       Distributed under the terms of the Modified BSD License.
   
     paths-ignore:
       - '**/.*'

3. Add a file that skywalking will try to "fix".

4. Push the repository to GitHub

Anything else

INFO Loading configuration from file: .licenserc.yaml 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
INFO Totally checked 96 files, valid: 0, invalid: 4, ignored: 92, fixed: 4

Are you willing to submit a pull request to fix on your own?

• Yes I am willing to submit a pull request on my own!

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

[kezhenxu94]

BSD-3-Clause is supported, you wrote the configuration file wrong, it's header/license/spdx-id, not header/spdx-id, please read the doc carefully

https://github.com/apache/skywalking-eyes/blob/ee81ff786927ea6ffa48b1e29c48e5289f4753aa/README.md?plain=1#L596-L600

[jsoref]

Ah. I see. Sorry. I was trying to reduce a larger file to feed into something fairly unrelated -- I'm not trying to set up skywalking for use...

That said, the thrust of this ticket is not about whether or not bsd-3-clause is supported, but that the error reporting isn't great when the tool can't find what the user has (poorly) asked it to find.

When I went looking trying to find things, I found this directory which didn't have bsd-3-clause:
https://github.com/apache/skywalking-eyes/tree/main/assets/header-templates

OTOH, apparently it is present in this directory:
https://github.com/apache/skywalking-eyes/tree/main/assets/lcs-templates

But as the error message said header-templates/, it didn't occur to me to look in a directory named lcs-templates/, hence the request that the tool explain where it was looking and what/why it was looking for it.

[kezhenxu94]

Ah. I see. Sorry. I was trying to reduce a larger file to feed into something fairly unrelated -- I'm not trying to set up skywalking for use...

That said, the thrust of this ticket is not about whether or not bsd-3-clause is supported, but that the error reporting isn't great when the tool can't find what the user has (poorly) asked it to find.

When I went looking trying to find things, I found this directory which didn't have bsd-3-clause:
https://github.com/apache/skywalking-eyes/tree/main/assets/header-templates

OTOH, apparently it is present in this directory:
https://github.com/apache/skywalking-eyes/tree/main/assets/lcs-templates

But as the error message said header-templates/, it didn't occur to me to look in a directory named lcs-templates/, hence the request that the tool explain where it was looking and what/why it was looking for it.

OK sounds reasonable to me. Let me reopen the issue and polish the error logs later.

[kezhenxu94]

This turns out to be a misconfiguration, the config:

header:
  spdx-id: BSD-3-Clause
  copyright-owner: Unknown
  software-name: unknown
  content: |
    Copyright (c) Unknown
    Distributed under the terms of the Modified BSD License.

  paths-ignore:
    - '**/.*'

is wrong, it is missing the license section below header:

header:
  license:
    spdx-id: BSD-3-Clause
    copyright-owner: Unknown
    software-name: unknown
  content: |
    Copyright (c) Unknown
    Distributed under the terms of the Modified BSD License.
  paths-ignore:
    - '**/.*'

after adding it, the logs is clear:

~/workspace/skywalking-eyes ❯ go run cmd/license-eye/main.go h c                                                               
INFO Loading configuration from file: .licenserc.yaml                                                                          
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id BSD-3-Clause, open header-templates/BSD-3-Clause.txt: file does not exist
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id BSD-3-Clause, open header-templates/BSD-3-Clause.txt: file does not exist
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id BSD-3-Clause, open header-templates/BSD-3-Clause.txt: file does not exist
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id BSD-3-Clause, open header-templates/BSD-3-Clause.txt: file does not exist
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id BSD-3-Clause, open header-templates/BSD-3-Clause.txt: file does not exist
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id BSD-3-Clause, open header-templates/BSD-3-Clause.txt: file does not exist
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id BSD-3-Clause, open header-templates/BSD-3-Clause.txt: file does not exist
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id BSD-3-Clause, open header-templates/BSD-3-Clause.txt: file does not exist
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id BSD-3-Clause, open header-templates/BSD-3-Clause.txt: file does not exist
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id BSD-3-Clause, open header-templates/BSD-3-Clause.txt: file does not exist

[kezhenxu94]

Even with the wrong configuration, the logs look clear to me, the spdx-id is empty, meaning the spdx-id is not configured, you should check the configuration file if the config format is right:

INFO Loading configuration from file: .licenserc.yaml 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
WARNING failed to find a license template for spdx id , open header-templates/.txt: file does not exist 
INFO Totally checked 96 files, valid: 0, invalid: 4, ignored: 92, fixed: 4