Re: DEP5 Copyright Question

[Nikolaus Rath <Nikolaus@rath.org>]

Steve Langasek <vorlon@debian.org> writes:
> On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 02:54:53PM -0400, Nikolaus Rath wrote:
>> I understand that a DEP5 copyright file lists licenses and copyrights
>> for files in the debian source package directory, rather than for files
>> that are installed by the generated .deb.
>
>> Does that mean that files that are *generated* during execution of
>> debian/rules (e.g. rendered documentation) do not need to be included in
>> the copyright file?
>
>> If they have to be included: isn't that slightly inconsistent? If one
>> wants to have the copyright for all *installed* files (rather than all
>> shipped files), shouldn't the files then also be listed relative to the
>> system root (rather than the source package directory)?
>
> DEP5 does not require per-file recording of copyright and license
> information, it merely provides a facility for doing so where this is
> interesting or relevant.
>
> I don't personally think it's interesting or relevant to record in
> debian/copyright the license of generated files, and there is certainly
> nothing in Policy that requires you to do this.  Why do you ask?


My sponsor requested me to add debian/copyright entries for files in the
generated HTML documentation. The documentation is generated by Sphinx,
and Sphinx adds some templates and js libraries which are then covered
(at least that's what I believe) by the Sphinx license rather then the
license of the documentation source files.

On one hand it makes sense to me that /usr/share/[package]/copyright
should contains information about all files in [package]. But on the
other hand it doesn't make sense to me to add something like
"debian/tmp/..." into my copyright file...


Best,

   -Nikolaus

-- 
 »Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a Banana.«

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