diff --git a/makefiles/lint/license/common.mk b/makefiles/lint/license/common.mk
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2b42049
--- /dev/null
+++ b/makefiles/lint/license/common.mk
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+# -*- makefile -*-
+# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Copyright 2022-2023 Open Networking Foundation (ONF) and the ONF Contributors
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+##-------------------##
+##---]  GLOBALS  [---##
+##-------------------##
+
+##-------------------##
+##---]  TARGETS  [---##
+##-------------------##
+ifndef NO-LINT-REUSE
+  lint : lint-license
+endif
+
+## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+## Intent: Perform a lint check on makefile sources
+## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+lint-license:
+	reuse --root . lint
+
+## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+## Intent: Display command help
+## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+help-summary ::
+	@echo '  lint-reuse              License syntax checking'
+
+# [EOF]
diff --git a/makefiles/lint/license/include.mk b/makefiles/lint/license/include.mk
index a88f0ba..9830aeb 100644
--- a/makefiles/lint/license/include.mk
+++ b/makefiles/lint/license/include.mk
@@ -15,68 +15,21 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-JSON_FILES ?= $(error JSON_FILES= is required)
+ifndef mk-include--onf-lint-license#       # one-time loader
+ifndef NO-LINT-LICENSE
 
-.PHONY: lint-license
+$(if $(DEBUG),$(warning ENTER))
 
-## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
-## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
-lint : lint-license
+$(if $(USE_LINT_LICENSE)\
+  ,$(eval include $(ONF_MAKEDIR)/lint/license/voltha-system-tests/include.mk)\
+  ,$(eval include $(ONF_MAKEDIR)/lint/license/common.mk)\
+)
 
-lint-license-gargs += --recursive
+  mk-include--onf-lint-license := true
 
-# ignore: png, xlsx
-# will utf8 be excluded(?)
-lint-license-gargs += --binary-files=without-match
-lint-license-gargs += --files-without-match
+$(if $(DEBUG),$(warning LEAVE))
 
-# [TODO] license checking accepts either Copy or Apache.
-# [TODO] At least Copyright should be required (both?)
-lint-license-gargs += --extended-regexp
-lint-license-gargs += -e 'Copyright[[:space:]]+[[:digit:]]{4}'
-lint-license-gargs += -e 'Apache License'
-
-# [TODO] --strict, --strict-dates
-
-# TODO: Normalize into .venv for consistent filtering across projects.
-lint-license-gargs += --exclude-dir='.git'
-lint-license-gargs += --exclude-dir='vst_venv'
-lint-license-gargs += --exclude-dir='flog'
-
-lint-license-gargs += --exclude='*.json'
-lint-license-gargs += --exclude='*.md'
-lint-license-gargs += --exclude='*.pyc'
-lint-license-gargs += --exclude='*.xml'
-
-# [FILE(s)]
-lint-license-gargs += --exclude='VERSION'
-
-# [GIT]
-# lint-license-gargs += --exclude='.gitignore'
-# lint-license-gargs += --exclude='.gitreview'
-lint-license-gargs += --exclude='\.*'
-
-# [PYTHON]
-lint-license-gargs += --exclude='requirements.txt'
-
-# [WIP]
-lint-license-gargs += --exclude='patch'
-
-## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
-## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
-lint-license-new:
-	grep $(lint-license-gargs) $(dot)
-
-## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
-## Jenkins job checking logic.
-## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
-lint-license:
-	$(MAKEDIR)/lint/license/license-check.sh
-
-## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
-## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
-help::
-	@echo "  lint-license         Verify sources contain a license block."
-	@echo "  lint-license-new     Grep driven replacement logic."
+endif # NO-LINT-LICENSE
+endif # mk-include--onf-lint-license
 
 # [EOF]
diff --git a/makefiles/lint/license/license-check.sh b/makefiles/lint/license/license-check.sh
index bbf560e..1f692e9 100755
--- a/makefiles/lint/license/license-check.sh
+++ b/makefiles/lint/license/license-check.sh
@@ -49,6 +49,11 @@
 # Good regex -- no false positives.
 gargs+=('-e' 'Copyright[[:space:]]+[[:digit:]]{4}')
 
+declare -a excl=()
+excl+=('-name' '.git')
+excl+=('-o' '-name' '.venv')
+excl+=('-o' '-name' 'vst_venv')
+
 while IFS= read -r -d '' path
 do
     if ! grep -q "${gargs[@]}" "${path}";
@@ -56,7 +61,9 @@
 	echo "ERROR: $path does not contain License Header"
 	fail_licensecheck=1
     fi
-done < <(find . -name ".git" -prune -o -type f \
+done < <(find . \
+  \( "${excl[@]}" \) \
+  -prune -o -type f \
   ! -iname "*.png" \
   ! -name "*.asc" \
   ! -name "*.bat" \
diff --git a/makefiles/lint/license/reuse.mk b/makefiles/lint/license/reuse.mk
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5572bef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/makefiles/lint/license/reuse.mk
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+# -*- makefile -*-
+# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Copyright 2022-2023 Open Networking Foundation (ONF) and the ONF Contributors
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+##-------------------##
+##---]  GLOBALS  [---##
+##-------------------##
+
+##-------------------##
+##---]  TARGETS  [---##
+##-------------------##
+ifndef NO-LINT-REUSE
+  lint : lint-license
+endif
+
+## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+## Intent: Perform a lint check on makefile sources
+## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+lint-license:
+	reuse --root . lint
+
+## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+## Intent: Display command help
+## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+help-summary ::
+	@echo '  lint-reuse              License syntax checking"
+
+# [EOF]
diff --git a/makefiles/lint/license/voltha-system-tests/include.mk b/makefiles/lint/license/voltha-system-tests/include.mk
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..986e905
--- /dev/null
+++ b/makefiles/lint/license/voltha-system-tests/include.mk
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+# -*- makefile -*-
+# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Copyright 2022-2023 Open Networking Foundation (ONF) and the ONF Contributors
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+.PHONY: lint-license-vst
+
+## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+lint : lint-license-vst
+
+lint-license-gargs += --recursive
+
+# ignore: png, xlsx
+# will utf8 be excluded(?)
+lint-license-gargs += --binary-files=without-match
+lint-license-gargs += --files-without-match
+
+# [TODO] license checking accepts either Copy or Apache.
+# [TODO] At least Copyright should be required (both?)
+lint-license-gargs += --extended-regexp
+lint-license-gargs += -e 'Copyright[[:space:]]+[[:digit:]]{4}'
+lint-license-gargs += -e 'Apache License'
+
+# [TODO] --strict, --strict-dates
+
+# TODO: Normalize into .venv for consistent filtering across projects.
+lint-license-gargs += --exclude-dir='.git'
+lint-license-gargs += --exclude-dir='vst_venv'
+lint-license-gargs += --exclude-dir='flog'
+
+lint-license-gargs += --exclude='*.json'
+lint-license-gargs += --exclude='*.md'
+lint-license-gargs += --exclude='*.pyc'
+lint-license-gargs += --exclude='*.xml'
+
+# [FILE(s)]
+lint-license-gargs += --exclude='VERSION'
+
+# [GIT]
+# lint-license-gargs += --exclude='.gitignore'
+# lint-license-gargs += --exclude='.gitreview'
+lint-license-gargs += --exclude='\.*'
+
+# [PYTHON]
+lint-license-gargs += --exclude='requirements.txt'
+
+# [WIP]
+lint-license-gargs += --exclude='patch'
+
+## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+lint-license-new:
+	grep $(lint-license-gargs) $(dot)
+
+## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+## Jenkins job checking logic.
+## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+lint-license-vst:
+	$(MAKEDIR)/lint/license/license-check.sh
+
+## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+## -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+help::
+	@echo "  lint-license         Verify sources contain a license block."
+	@echo "  lint-license-new     Grep driven replacement logic."
+
+# [EOF]
diff --git a/makefiles/lint/license/voltha-system-tests/license-check.sh b/makefiles/lint/license/voltha-system-tests/license-check.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..ce63023
--- /dev/null
+++ b/makefiles/lint/license/voltha-system-tests/license-check.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,167 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Copyright 2022-2023 Open Networking Foundation (ONF) and the ONF Contributors
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+# licensecheck.sh
+# checks for copyright/license headers on files
+# excludes filename extensions where this check isn't pertinent
+
+# --strict
+# --strict-dates
+#    see https://github...
+
+## ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+## find: warning: ‘-name’ matches against basenames only, but the given pattern
+## contains a directory separator (‘/’), thus the expression will evaluate to
+## false all the time.  Did you mean ‘-wholename’?
+##
+## [TODO] find and fix plugin script, change --name to --path:
+##    find ! -name "*/docs/*" 
+## ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+## [TODO] see license/include.mk, grep -L will ignore binaries so no need to
+## explicitly filter images, spreadsheets, etc.  Files containing utf-8 are
+## the only question mark.
+## ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+echo "BLAH"
+exit 1
+
+set +e -u -o pipefail
+fail_licensecheck=0
+
+declare -a gargs=()
+gargs+=('--extended-regexp')
+
+# Evil regex -- scripts detecting pattern are excluded from checking.
+gargs+=('-e' 'Apache License')
+
+# Good regex -- no false positives.
+gargs+=('-e' 'Copyright[[:space:]]+[[:digit:]]{4}')
+
+while IFS= read -r -d '' path
+do
+    case "$path" in
+	*venv*) echo "GERR: $path"
+		exit 1
+		;;
+    esac
+    if ! grep -q "${gargs[@]}" "${path}";
+    then
+	echo "ERROR: $path does not contain License Header"
+	fail_licensecheck=1
+    fi
+done < <(find . \( -name ".git" -o -name '.venv' -o 'vst_venv' \) -prune -o -type f \
+  ! -iname "*.png" \
+  ! -name "*.asc" \
+  ! -name "*.bat" \
+  ! -name "*.bin" \
+  ! -name "*.cert" \
+  ! -name "*.cfg" \
+  ! -name "*.cnf" \
+  ! -name "*.conf" \
+  ! -name "*.cql" \
+  ! -name "*.crt" \
+  ! -name "*.csar" \
+  ! -name "*.csr" \
+  ! -name "*.csv" \
+  ! -name "*.ctmpl" \
+  ! -name "*.curl" \
+  ! -name "*.db" \
+  ! -name "*.der" \
+  ! -name "*.desc" \
+  ! -name "*.diff" \
+  ! -name "*.dnsmasq" \
+  ! -name "*.do" \
+  ! -name "*.docx" \
+  ! -name "*.eot" \
+  ! -name "*.gif" \
+  ! -name "*.gpg" \
+  ! -name "*.graffle" \
+  ! -name "*.ico" \
+  ! -name "*.iml" \
+  ! -name "*.in" \
+  ! -name "*.inc" \
+  ! -name "*.install" \
+  ! -name "*.j2" \
+  ! -name "*.jar" \
+  ! -name "*.jks" \
+  ! -name "*.jpg" \
+  ! -name "*.json" \
+  ! -name "*.jsonld" \
+  ! -name "*.JSON" \
+  ! -name "*.key" \
+  ! -name "*.list" \
+  ! -name "*.local" \
+  ! -path "*.lock" \
+  ! -name "*.log" \
+  ! -name "*.mak" \
+  ! -name "*.md" \
+  ! -name "*.MF" \
+  ! -name "*.oar" \
+  ! -name "*.p12" \
+  ! -name "*.patch" \
+  ! -name "*.pb.go" \
+  ! -name "*.pb.gw.go" \
+  ! -name "*.pdf" \
+  ! -name "*.pcap" \
+  ! -name "*.pem" \
+  ! -name "*.properties" \
+  ! -name "*.proto" \
+  ! -name "*.protoset" \
+  ! -name "*.pyc" \
+  ! -name "*.repo" \
+  ! -name "*.robot" \
+  ! -name "*.rst" \
+  ! -name "*.rules" \
+  ! -name "*.service" \
+  ! -name "*.svg" \
+  ! -name "*.swp" \
+  ! -name "*.tar" \
+  ! -name "*.tar.gz" \
+  ! -name "*.toml" \
+  ! -name "*.ttf" \
+  ! -name "*.txt" \
+  ! -name "*.woff" \
+  ! -name "*.xproto" \
+  ! -name "*.xtarget" \
+  ! -name "*ignore" \
+  ! -name "*rc" \
+  ! -name "*_pb2.py" \
+  ! -name "*_pb2_grpc.py" \
+  ! -name "Dockerfile" \
+  ! -name "Dockerfile.*" \
+  ! -name "go.mod" \
+  ! -name "go.sum" \
+  ! -name "README" \
+  ! -path "*/vendor/*" \
+  ! -path "*conf*" \
+  ! -path "*git*" \
+  ! -path "*swagger*" \
+  ! -path "*.drawio" \
+  ! -name "*.pb.h" \
+  ! -name "*.pb.cc" \
+  ! -path "*/docs/*" \
+  ! -name 'output.xml' \
+  ! -path "*/vst_venv/*" \
+  ! -name '*#*' \
+  ! -path '*scripts/flog/*' \
+  ! -name '*~' \
+  ! -name 'VERSION' \
+  ! -name 'patch' \
+  -print0 )
+
+exit ${fail_licensecheck}
diff --git a/makefiles/lint/license/voltha-system-tests/license-helper.sh b/makefiles/lint/license/voltha-system-tests/license-helper.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..0f690e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/makefiles/lint/license/voltha-system-tests/license-helper.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Copyright 2022-2023 Open Networking Foundation (ONF) and the ONF Contributors
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+declare -i status=$#
+
+while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
+    arg="$1"; shift
+    echo "ERROR: Detected missing license header: ${arg}"
+done
+
+if [ $status -ne 0 ]; then
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+/bin/true # set $?
+
+# [EOF]