Re: DEP5: Making "Files: *" non-optional
On Mon, Sep 13 2010, Lars Wirzenius wrote:
> On ma, 2010-09-13 at 09:06 -0700, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
>> Currently, one only needs to list the copyrights in the package,
>> without specifying which file each copyright applies to. How is that
>> specified in DEP5 format? Implying that all copyright notices apply to
>> all files would be an untruth. (Or are we expanding the requirements
>> for copyright files to map copyright notices to files in the source
>> package?)
>
> There is a consensus, as far as I can see, to allow the first (header)
> paragraph to have Copyright and License fields that will apply to the
> package as a whole, rather than to each file. This is an upcoming change
> that is in the pipeline (but I don't want to make all changes at
> once).
As far as I know, I don't have a single package for which a
copyright field applies 6to all files in the source package (I might
have missed one, but I think not). I don't think I have a copyright
notice that applies to a package as a whole, but I am not a lawyer. If
a source package is an aggregated work, with bits of the package coming
from different sources and authors, not all copyright notices apply to
the whole package.
In such a case, how can I not have, umm, the first paragraph? :-)
>
>> I would suggest that a missing files: field in the headers
>> implies that no statement is being made about which files the copyright
>> notice applies to, instead f implying it applies to all files.
> On the other hand, this means a paragraph where the Files field is
> missing by mistake will be interpreted wrongly. I find putting the
> information in the header paragraph to be cleaner, but I admit it is a
> subtle point. It's better to be explicit when possible, to allow errors
> to be noticed easier.
Can we explicitly specify a way of saying that we wish to make
no statement mapping a copyright or license field to any file? Say, by
saying
File: UNSPECIFIED
or something?
manoj
--
Quantity is no substitute for quality, but its the only one we've got.
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@acm.org> <http://www.golden-gryphon.com/>
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