License details for bash-4.2

[Jonathan Nieder]

Hi,

Adrian Bunk wrote:

> /usr/share/doc/bash/copyright says:
[...]
> the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
> Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later
[...]
> The source files say:
[...]
>    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
>    the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
>    (at your option) any later version.
[...]

Thanks for reporting it.  It seems like a good time to update the
copyright file anyway.  Looking over bash 4.2, I have a few questions:

lib/malloc/i386-alloca.s lib/malloc/x386-alloca.s

        These seem to be copyright 1989, 1990 the FSF but have no
        explicit license notice.  Do you know if they are meant to be
        under the GPL?

po/Makefile.in.in

        This is from the gettext project and I should probably ask them about
        the terms.  The version currently used is
        © 1995-1997, 2000-2003 by Ulrich Drepper and says:

         This file can be copied and used freely without restrictions.  It can
         be used in projects which are not available under the GNU General 
Public
         License but which still want to provide support for the GNU gettext
         functionality.
         Please note that the actual code of GNU gettext is covered by the GNU
         General Public License and is *not* in the public domain.

        which doesn't seem to give permission to modify the file.

po/af.po po/ca.po po/et.po po/pt_BR.po po/ro.po po/tr.po
Various tests under tests/*

        © 1991-2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
        © 2005 Glen Fowler

        Is GPL-3+ intended?

Various files under examples/functions/*

        No license notice I can find for most of them.

examples/functions/pathfuncs

        © 1991 Simon J. Gerraty.  License notice says

         This file is provided in the hope that it will
         be of use.  There is absolutely NO WARRANTY.
         Permission to copy, redistribute or otherwise
         use this file is hereby granted provided that
         the above copyright notice and this notice are
         left intact.

        which doesn't include explicit permission to modify the file
        (maybe that's okay).

examples/scripts.v2/*

         This collection of scripts was originally written for ksh-88 by
         John DuBois <spcecdt@armory.com>.  The conversion to bash v2
         syntax was done by Chet Ramey.
         
         These scripts are as-is; there is no copyright associated with
         any of them.  They exist simply as examples of bash scripting.

        That sounds promisingly like "public domain", but the
        examples/scripts.v2/PERMISSION file only includes permission for
        Chet to adapt and bundle the files with a particular version
        of bash (and not, for example, for me to modify them).

examples/scripts/*

        No license notice I can find.  Based on manifest files I
        suspect there is an examples/scripts/README that was left out
        by mistake ages ago (unfortunately no version of bash in
        bkuhn's archive includes such a README).

examples/scripts/bcsh.sh

        © Chris Robertson, December 1985

         This software may be used for any purpose provided the original
         copyright notice and this notice are affixed thereto.  No warranties of
         any kind whatsoever are provided with this software, and it is hereby
         understood that the author is not liable for any damagages arising
         from the use of this software.

        Doesn't seem to give permission to modify.

examples/startup-files/*

        Mostly from Chet Ramey and Brian Fox (so probably copyright
        was assigned to the FSF).  Couldn't find a license notice.

lib/readline/examples/excallback.c

        © 1999 Jeff Solomon
        No license notice I can find.

support/bash.xbm

        © 1992 Simon Marshall

         If you like it, you're welcome to it...

        Doesn't seem to give clear permission to modify.

doc/bash.* doc/bashbug.* doc/builtins.* doc/rbash.*

        What is the license?

examples/complete/bashcc-1.0.1.tar.gz

        © 2002, Richard S. Smith.

         This package may be freely copied, mirrored, modified, etc.  My only
         request is that this README file remain intact and be distributed
         along with any modified version.

        Does this mean there's not permission to modify the README,
        for example to add to the version history when making
        modifications?

ABOUT-NLS CHANGES CRWU/README CRWU/mh-folder-comp CRWU/sh-redir-hack
INSTALL NOTES POSIX RBASH builtins/psize.sh doc/INTRO
doc/README examples/complete/complete* examples/loadables/*
examples/misc/aliasconv* examples/misc/cshtobash
examples/misc/suncmd.termcap lib/readline/ChangeLog
lib/readline/README lib/tilde/README
po/Rules-quot po/en@boldquot.header po/en@quot.header
po/insert-header.sin po/remove-potcdate.sin

        I can't find license notices for these.  That's probably not
        too important but it would be nice to clarify what the terms
        are.

aclocal.m4 configure po/bash.pot po/*.gmo cross-build/*.cache

        Generated files/configure scripts --> not a big deal.

AUTHORS CRWU/PLATFORMS MANIFEST MANIFEST.doc Y2K doc/htmlpost.sh
doc/infopost.sh examples/INDEX.* lib/glob/doc/Makefile
lib/glob/doc/glob.texi lib/glob/ndir.h lib/intl/ChangeLog
lib/intl/VERSION lib/readline/STANDALONE
po/LINGUAS po/README po/boldquot.sed support/SYMLINKS

        These files are probably too trivial for copyright, anyway.

I'll be happy to follow-up with individual copyright holders but
thought I should ask here first in case there is information available
that could save the trouble.

Thanks and regards,
Jonathan