PurlDB Documentation

PurlDB provides tools to create and update a database of package metadata keyed by PURL (Package URL) and an API for the PURL data. PurlDB is an AboutCode project.

PurlDB offers:

• An active, continuously updated reference for FOSS packages origin, information and licensing, aka. open code knowledge base.

• A code matching capability to identify and find similar code to existing indexed FOSS code using this knowledge base.

• Additional utilities to help assess the quality and integrity of software packages as used in the software supply chain.

Details of the Package URL specification are available here.

PURL is the official ECMA-427 standard.

Documentation overview

The overview below outlines how the documentation is structured to help you know where to look for certain things.

Getting started

Start here if you are new to PurlDB.

• Introduction

• Installation

• Installation with ScanCode.io

• Common tasks

• Usage

Tutorials

Learn via practical step-by-step guides.

• Tutorials

• Installation

• Code Matching pipeline

• Map deployed code back to source code aka. back2source

• Watch PURL for new Version

• Collect symbols and strings from a PURL aka. purl2sym

Code Matching Reference

Reference documentation for MatchCode features and customizations.

• Code Matching Reference

• Code Matching pipeline

Explanations

Consult the reference to understand PurlDB concepts.

• Maintaining an Up-to-Date PurlDB with PurlWatch

• Understanding the PurlDB REST API

• Symbol and String Collection

Misc

• License

• Funding

• Contributing to PurlDB

• Running tests

• Changelog

Something Missing?

If something is missing in the documentation or if you found some part confusing, please file an issue with your suggestions for improvement. Use the documentation issue label.

Your help makes PurlDB and MatchCode docs better, we love hearing from you!

Indices and tables

• Index

• Search Page