Identifiers

Note, that the identifiers feature is currently in the experimental stage. I don’t have a Windows/Mac machine available, regularly. That’s why the os dependent features still take time.

Licensecxx allows to gather information about the system currently running the software. To use those features, link against the lcxx::identifiers target in your CMake configuration.

This will provide the following headers: - lcxx/identifiers/hardware.hpp - lcxx/identifiers/os.hpp

There two primary functions are given (arguments omitted): - lcxx::identifiers::<header-name>() (e.g. lcxx::identifiers::hardware()) - lcxx::identifiers::verify()

The type of information that will be collected depends on the chosen strategy. Sticking to the hardware example, the enum hw_ident_strat defines which information will be incorporated into the hardware identifier.

Passing the value hw_ident_strat::all will try to collect as much info about the machine and generate a single identifier object from that. This object contains a string containing all collect info and a hash-digest of that string.

This hash (or the respective string) can be included as a value into the license.

The lcxx::identifiers::verify function takes a hw_ident_strat and a hash value and will check whether those match, given the current underlying hardware.

Multiple identification strategies can be combined by using the operator|. Using hw_ident_strat::cpu_n_cores | hw_ident_strat::cpu_model_name will only collect the number of available CPU cores and the CPU model name.

The following code snipped would take a license object and push in the hardware identifier consisting of no. of CPU cores and its model name.

#include <lcxx/lcxx.hpp>
#include <lcxx/identifiers/hardware.hpp>

int main()
{
    using namespace lcxx;
    using hw_strat = identifiers::hw_ident_strat;

    license lic;
    auto [hash, text] = identifiers::hardware( hw_strat::cpu_n_cores | hw_strat::cpu_model_name );
    lic.push_content( "hardware", hash );

    // ... rest of the software
}

Hardware

The hardware header (lcxx/identifier/hardware.hpp) allows to collect information about the systems hardware, if the current user has the privileges to access that information.

The available strategies are listed by the hw_ident_strat enum and have the following meaning

Enumerator	Meaning
all	All available information is gathered. Any other additionally set strategy is ignored.
cpu	All information regarding the builtin CPU is gathered. Any other additionally, set CPU strategy is ignored.
cpu_n_cores	Try to collect the number physical CPU cores.
cpu_n_threads	Try to detect the number of available hardware threads.
cpu_max_frequency	Try to discover the maximum frequency in Hz of the builtin CPU.
cpu_vendor	Try to discover the vendor name of the CPU.
cpu_model_name	Try to discover the CPU’s model name.

Note, that multi-CPU setups are not supported. Such a setup may yield unexpected values for CPU related info.

Operating System

The OS header (lcxx/identifier/os.hpp) allows to collect information about the operating system and the current user, if the current user has the privileges to access that information.

The available strategies are listed by the os_ident_strat enum and have the following meaning

Enumerator	Meaning
all	All available information is gathered. Any other additionally set strategy is ignored.
os	All available information regarding the OS is gathered. Any other additionally set OS strategies are ignored.
user	All available information regarding the user is gathered. Any other additionally set user strategies are ignored.
os_name	Try to discover the OS name (e.g. Linux)
os_architecture	Try to discover the OS architecture
os_pc_name	Try to discover the OS PC name (or hostname)
user_name	Try to discover the currently logged in user’s name
user_uid	Try to discover the currently logged in user’s id
user_groups	Try to discover the groups the currently logged in user belongs to
user_gids	Try to discover the group ids the currently logged in user belongs to