If you include a detectable license in your repository, people who visit your repository will see it at the top of the repository page. To read the entire license file, click the license name.
Open source licenses enable others to freely use, change, and distribute the project in your repository. For more information on repository licenses, see "
Licensing a repository
."
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On GitHub.com, navigate to the main page of the repository.
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Above the list of files, select the
Add file
dropdown menu, then click
Create new file
.
Alternatively, you can click
in the file tree view on the left.
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In the file name field, type
LICENSE
or
LICENSE.md
(with all caps).
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Under the file name, click
Choose a license template
.
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On the left side of the page, under "Add a license to your project," review the available licenses, then select a license from the list.
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Click
Review and submit
.
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Click
Commit changes...
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In the "Commit message" field, type a short, meaningful commit message that describes the change you made to the file. You can attribute the commit to more than one author in the commit message. For more information, see "
Creating a commit with multiple authors
."
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Below the commit message fields, decide whether to add your commit to the current branch or to a new branch. If your current branch is the default branch, you should choose to create a new branch for your commit and then create a pull request. For more information, see "
Creating a pull request
."
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If you have more than one email address associated with your account on GitHub.com, click the email address drop-down menu and select the email address to use as the Git author email address. Only verified email addresses appear in this drop-down menu. If you enabled email address privacy, then a no-reply will be the default commit author email address. For more information about the exact form the no-reply email address can take, see "
Setting your commit email address
."
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Click
Commit changes
or
Propose changes
.
