UNIX and Linux licensing

Obtaining trial licenses

A trial license gives you full use of an Easysoft product for a limited period (usually 14 days).

How you obtain a trial license depends on whether the machine on which you intend to use the software is online or offline.

Obtaining trial licenses (online method)

If the machine on which you intend to use the software has a connection to the Internet (is online), work through these steps to obtain a trial license:

  1. Log onto your UNIX or Linux computer as the root user.

  2. Download and install the software if you have not already done so.

    The License Manager starts automatically during the installation.

  3. If the License Manager is not already running, change into the /usr/local/easysoft/license directory and then enter:

    ./licshell

    The License Manager displays a list of available Easysoft products.

  4. Choose the product you want to license.

    The License Manager retrieves the machine number for your machine and then prompts you for some contact information.

  5. Complete the Name, Company, Email, and Telephone fields.

  6. When the Ref prompt appears, press ENTER.

  7. When asked how you want to obtain the license, choose option 1, Automatically…​. After a few moments, a message displays that tells you the number of licenses that have been added.

  8. Choose option 0 to quit the License Manager.

  9. Enter y when asked if you want to apply the new licenses.

    The product is now licensed and you can begin using it.

Obtaining trial licenses (offline method)

If the machine on which you intend to use the software does not have a connection to the Internet (is offline), work through these steps to obtain a trial license:

  1. Log onto your UNIX or Linux machine as the root user.

  2. Download and install the software if you have not already done so.

    The License Manager starts automatically at the end of the install procedure.

  3. If the License Manager is not already running, change into the /usr/local/easysoft/license directory and then enter:

    ./licshell

    The License Manager displays a list of available Easysoft products.

  4. Choose the product you want to license.

    The License Manager retrieves the machine number for your machine and then prompts you for some contact information.

  5. Complete the Name, Company, Email, and Telephone fields.

  6. When the Ref prompt appears, press ENTER.

  7. When asked how you want to obtain the license, choose option 2, Write information to file.

    Your machine number is written to a file called license_request.txt.

  8. Choose option 0 to quit the License Manager.

  9. Now email the license_request.txt file to either:

    • autolicense@easysoft.com (your license key will be emailed to you automatically).

      -Or-

    • license@easysoft.com (a member of the Licensing Department will email the license key to you).

      If you cannot use email, supply the machine number in the license_request.txt file to us by phone.

  10. When you receive your license key, append them to the /usr/local/easysoft/license/licenses file, removing any LIC: prefixes.

    The license responder puts an attachment in its outgoing emails that allows Windows users to activate their licenses by double-clicking the attachment. If you read your email on a Windows computer, this attachment will be visible, but it will not work for licensing UNIX or Linux software.

The product is now licensed and you can begin using it.

Obtaining purchased licenses

Purchased licenses are available for either a fixed or unlimited number of concurrent database connections and give you permanent use of an Easysoft product.

How you obtain a purchased license depends on whether the machine on which you intend to use the software is online or offline.

Obtaining purchased licenses (online method)

If the machine on which you intend to use the software has a connection to the Internet (is online), work through these steps to obtain a purchased license:

  1. Log onto your UNIX or Linux machine as the root user.

  2. Download the software if you have not already done so.

  3. Obtain your authorization code by purchasing the software from the Easysoft web site (https://www.easysoft.com) or by contacting the Sales team (sales@easysoft.com).

    Your authorization code will be emailed to you.

  4. When you receive your authorization code, install the software if you have not already done so.

    The License Manager starts automatically during the installation.

  5. If the License Manager is not already running, change into the /usr/local/easysoft/license directory then enter:

    ./licshell

    The License Manager displays a list of available Easysoft products.

  6. Choose the product that you want to license.

    The License Manager retrieves the machine number for your machine and then prompts you for some contact information.

  7. Complete the Name, Company, Email, and Telephone fields.

    If you obtained your authorization code by using the Easysoft web site, the email address you enter here should be exactly the same as the one you entered on the web site.

  8. When the Ref prompt appears, enter in your authorization code and then press ENTER.

    If you have more than one authorization code, you must repeat this procedure (step 5 to step 10) to convert each authorization code into a license key.

  9. When asked how you want to obtain the license, choose option 1, Automatically…​.

    After a few moments, a message displays that tells you the number of licenses that have been added.

  10. Choose option 0 to quit the License Manager.

  11. Type y when asked if you want to apply the new licenses.

The product is now licensed and you can begin using it.

Obtaining purchased licenses (offline method)

If the machine on which you intend to use the software does not have a connection to the Internet (is offline), work through these steps to obtain a purchased license:

  1. Log on to your UNIX or Linux machine as the root user.

  2. Download the software if you have not already done so.

  3. Obtain your authorization code by purchasing the software from the Easysoft web site (https://www.easysoft.com) or by contacting the Sales team (sales@easysoft.com).

    Your authorization code will be emailed to you.

  4. When you receive your authorization code, install the software if you have not already done so.

    The License Manager starts automatically during the installation.

  5. If the License Manager is not already running, change into the /usr/local/easysoft/license directory, and then enter:

    ./licshell

    The License Manager displays a list of available Easysoft products.

  6. Choose the product that you want to license.

    The License Manager retrieves the machine number for your machine and then prompts you for some contact information.

  7. Complete the Name, Company, Email, and Telephone fields.

  8. When the Ref prompt appears, enter your authorization code and then press ENTER.

    If you have more than one authorization code, you must repeat this whole procedure (step 5 to step 12) to convert each authorization code into a license key.

  9. When asked how you want to obtain the license, choose option 2, Write information to file.

    Your machine number is written to a file called license_request.txt.

  10. Choose option 0 to quit the License Manager.

  11. Now email the license_request.txt file to either:

    autolicense@easysoft.com and your license key will be emailed to you automatically.

    -Or-

    license@easysoft.com and a member of the Licensing team will email the license keys to you.

    If you cannot use email, supply the machine number in the license_request.txt file to us by phone and a member of staff will forward your license key to you.

  12. When you receive your license key, append them to the /usr/local/easysoft/license/licenses file, removing any LIC: prefixes.

    The license responder puts an attachment in its outgoing emails that allows Windows users to activate their licenses by double-clicking the attachment. If you read your email on a Windows computer, this attachment will be visible, but it will not work for licensing UNIX or Linux software.

The product is now licensed and you can begin using it.

Removing a license

Occasionally you might want to remove a license (if the license has expired, for example).

To remove a license:

  1. Ensure that you are logged onto your UNIX or Linux computer as the root user.

  2. Change into the /usr/local/easysoft/license directory.

  3. Run ./licshell.

  4. Select option 1 to display the licenses on this machine.

    The licenses are listed in reverse order to their position in the licenses file. If any invalid licenses are found, the errors will be displayed out of sequence and you should resolve these errors before removing any licenses.

  5. Note where the unwanted license appears and enter 0 to quit the License Manager.

  6. Make a backup of the licenses file.

  7. Open the licenses file and remove the appropriate license line.

  8. Run ./licshell again and select option 1 to display the active licenses.

  9. If the correct license has been removed, enter 0 to quit the License Manager.

    -Or-

    If the wrong license has been removed, enter 0 to quit the License Manager, reinstate the original licenses file and then go back to step 3 and try again.

Preserving licenses when upgrading software

Licenses are stored in the /usr/local/easysoft/license/licenses file.

When an Easysoft product is removed from a computer, the license file is also removed, along with the other Easysoft directories.

Operating system upgrades or certain hardware changes (such as replacing the network card) also nullify licenses and require new ones to be requested.

To prevent this, store a backup copy of the license file on another machine, which can then be then be restored.

More about licensing

Licenses are stored in a file called /usr/local/easysoft/license/licenses, where each line is either a comment (#) or a license key for an Easysoft product.

However, the text IgnoreInvalid is sometimes included as the first non-comment line in the licenses file. This tells the licensing layer to check all licenses in the file, until it finds a valid license.

Viewing licenses

The License Manager lets you view existing licenses, but this does not allow you to view licenses added in the current License Manager session.

You must exit the License Manager and then rerun it to view any licenses applied in the current session.