diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 4d50c2ab..ffd38d7b 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ Visit https://aboutcode.org and https://github.com/nexB/ for support and downloa
 
 To install this package use::
 
-    pip install commoncode]
+    pip install commoncode
 
 
 To set up the development environment::
diff --git a/src/commoncode/resource.py b/src/commoncode/resource.py
index cbecaed6..fce1afd7 100644
--- a/src/commoncode/resource.py
+++ b/src/commoncode/resource.py
@@ -1015,6 +1015,9 @@ class Resource(object):
     # external data to serialize
     size = attr.ib(default=0, type=int, repr=TRACE)
 
+    # fingerprint attribute of the file it may be an optional attribute
+    fingerprint = attr.ib(default=None)
+
     # These attributes are re/computed for directories and files with children
     # they represent are the for the full descendants of a Resource
     size_count = attr.ib(default=0, type=int, repr=False)
diff --git a/tests/data/resource/virtual_codebase/fingerprint_attribute.json b/tests/data/resource/virtual_codebase/fingerprint_attribute.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..311daa97
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/data/resource/virtual_codebase/fingerprint_attribute.json
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+{
+    "scancode_notice": "Generated with ScanCode and provided on an \"AS IS\" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES\nOR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. No content created from\nScanCode should be considered or used as legal advice. Consult an Attorney\nfor any legal advice.\nScanCode is a free software code scanning tool from nexB Inc. and others.\nVisit https://github.com/nexB/scancode-toolkit/ for support and download.",
+    "scancode_version": "2.9.0b1.post32.fea65d35a",
+    "scancode_options": {
+      "input": "C:\\code\\nexb\\dev\\codebase01\\licenses\\apache_to_all_notable_lic\\apache_to_all_notable_lic_new",
+      "--copyright": true,
+      "--info": true,
+      "--json-pp": "C:\\code\\nexb\\dev\\deltacode\\tests\\data\\deltacode\\apache_to_all_notable_lic_new.json",
+      "--license": true,
+      "--package": true
+    },
+    "files_count": 2,
+    "files": [
+      {
+        "path": "apache_to_all_notable_lic_new",
+        "type": "directory",
+        "name": "apache_to_all_notable_lic_new",
+        "base_name": "apache_to_all_notable_lic_new",
+        "extension": "",
+        "size": 0,
+        "date": null,
+        "sha1": null,
+        "md5": null,
+        "mime_type": null,
+        "file_type": null,
+        "programming_language": null,
+        "is_binary": false,
+        "is_text": false,
+        "is_archive": false,
+        "is_media": false,
+        "is_source": false,
+        "is_script": false,
+        "licenses": [],
+        "copyrights": [],
+        "packages": [],
+        "files_count": 2,
+        "dirs_count": 0,
+        "size_count": 16471,
+        "scan_errors": []
+      },
+      {
+        "path": "apache_to_all_notable_lic_new/a1.py",
+        "type": "file",
+        "name": "a1.py",
+        "base_name": "a1",
+        "extension": ".py",
+        "size": 16271,
+        "date": "2018-03-16",
+        "sha1": "535b9966048ad50a9d5eb2f167c0a3013ee5cc6f",
+        "md5": "e5658fe520bbebaf6f3d4be2e2525ab6",
+        "fingerprint": "e30cf09443e7878dfed3288886e97542",
+        "mime_type": "text/plain",
+        "file_type": "UTF-8 Unicode text, with very long lines, with CRLF line terminators",
+        "programming_language": "Python",
+        "is_binary": false,
+        "is_text": true,
+        "is_archive": false,
+        "is_media": false,
+        "is_source": true,
+        "is_script": false,
+        "licenses": [],
+        "copyrights": [],
+        "packages": [],
+        "files_count": 0,
+        "dirs_count": 0,
+        "size_count": 0,
+        "scan_errors": []
+      },
+      {
+        "path": "apache_to_all_notable_lic_new/a2.py",
+        "type": "file",
+        "name": "a2.py",
+        "base_name": "a2",
+        "extension": ".py",
+        "size": 200,
+        "date": "2017-09-26",
+        "sha1": "310797523e47db8481aeb06f1634317285115091",
+        "md5": "19efdad483f68bc9997a5c1f7ba41b26",
+        "mime_type": "text/plain",
+        "file_type": "ASCII text, with CRLF line terminators",
+        "programming_language": "Python",
+        "is_binary": false,
+        "is_text": true,
+        "is_archive": false,
+        "is_media": false,
+        "is_source": true,
+        "is_script": false,
+        "licenses": [],
+        "copyrights": [],
+        "packages": [],
+        "files_count": 0,
+        "dirs_count": 0,
+        "size_count": 0,
+        "scan_errors": []
+      }
+    ]
+  }
+  
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/test_resource.py b/tests/test_resource.py
index 697646c6..253381e8 100644
--- a/tests/test_resource.py
+++ b/tests/test_resource.py
@@ -1323,6 +1323,14 @@ def test_VirtualCodebase_create_from_multiple_scans(self):
         ]
         assert expected == results
 
+    def test_VirtualCodebase_account_fingerprint_attribute(self):
+        test_file = self.get_test_loc("resource/virtual_codebase/fingerprint_attribute.json")
+        codebase = VirtualCodebase(test_file)
+        resources_fingerprint = [resource.fingerprint for resource in codebase.walk()]
+        assert "e30cf09443e7878dfed3288886e97542" in resources_fingerprint
+        assert None in resources_fingerprint
+        assert resources_fingerprint.count(None) == 2
+
 
 class TestResource(FileBasedTesting):
     test_data_dir = join(dirname(__file__), 'data')