bug-gnulib
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

gnulib copyright method


From: Karl Berry
Subject: gnulib copyright method
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2011 00:46:42 GMT

    https://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/manual/html_node/Copyright.html

which says

    The source files always say "GPL", but the real license
    specification is in the module description file.

.. which is highly anomalous.  I'm not aware of any other project
anywhere which deliberately puts incomplete licensing in the source
files.  (Thankfully.)

As I recall, this situation came about to placate projects which were
using gnulib without using gnulib-tool, notably coreutils and others
that Paul E and Jim M were working on.  In the years since then, all
those projects (to my knowledge) have started using gnulib-tool.

Even if there is still a gnulib-using project or two not using
gnulib-tool, clarifying the issue of "what's the real copyright" for
once and for all seems much more important to me.  Especially for
gnulib, which is otherwise so pedantically careful about everything.

So how about normalizing gnulib to have the actual license in the source
files?

k



reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]