Black Duck Software’s KnowledgeBase is the most comprehensive code and license database in the industry. Black Duck™ Protex compares your source and binary code against the KnowledgeBase, to confirm the presence of known open source and/or third party components being used in your software development.
KnowledgeBase Contents
The KnowledgeBase detects open source and downloadable code from more than 3,500 sites and over 1,000 software vendors – including development kits, proprietary applications, and operating system component software from Linux, Windows, MacOS, and Solaris. In addition, the KnowledgeBase contains detailed data for over 1,200 open source and proprietary licenses (GPL, LGPL, Apache, etc.) including not only the full license text, but dozens of encoded attributes and obligations for each license; enabling fast and accurate analysis and automated license compatibility notifications.
Keeping the KnowledgeBase up-to-date
To keep this vital information as current and complete as possible for its customers, Black Duck continually adds to its master KnowledgeBase and synchronizes Protex users’ onsite KnowledgeBase copies with frequent and automatic web-delivered updates. Also, Black Duck’s KnowledgeBase team is available to respond to customer-initiated requests for additions and each customer’s own copy of the KnowledgeBase is uniquely extensible, enabling users to add specific owned or licensed code components and track or manage sensitive software assets.
Advanced Features
With the advent of GPLv3, Black Duck Software recently made enhancements to the structure of its master KnowledgeBase, providing an improved capability to handle more than one version of the same open source component at the same time. Accordingly, as licenses continue to migrate, the KnowledgeBase and the Protex interface now have extended capability to evaluate a project against two (or more) versions of the same code component to determine which version of the GPL is currently applicable. The bottom line is, not only will Black Duck’s customers continue to benefit from access to the most complete library of its kind available in the software world, but they will also be assured that the KnowledgeBase can be quickly and accurately updated to reflect code governed by GPLv3 as projects announce their adoption of the new license.
How can you find out more information?
For additional information about the Black Duck Protex platform, our company offers the following resources:
- Whitepaper - Best Practices for Managing Software Intellectual Property in an Open Source World
Code and License Database - Protex KnowledgeBase 
