On Wednesday, September 3, 2025 2:56:15 AM Mountain Standard Time Simon Josefsson wrote: > Hi > > While working on Tarsnap's that embeds a copy of 'libarchive' I noticed > a discrepency in the BSD-2-Clause boiler plate of libarchive. > > Compare https://sources.debian.org/src/libarchive/3.7.4-4/libarchive/ archive.h > > ... > * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright > * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. > * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright > ... > > with > > https://sources.debian.org/src/libarchive/3.7.4-4/libarchive/ archive_write_dis > k_private.h > > ... > * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright > * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer > * in this position and unchanged. > * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright > ... > > Note the added line with 'in this position and unchanged'. > > I don't see this mentioned in debian/copyright which I assume is a > problem that ought to be fixed: > > https://sources.debian.org/src/libarchive/3.7.4-4/debian/copyright > > The license seems similar in spirit to the BSD-2-Clause-first-lines > license: > > https://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-2-Clause-first-lines.html > > The only classification of this variant that I can find is this one: > > https://scancode-licensedb.aboutcode.org/bsd-unchanged > > The FSF, OSI, and SPDX does not appear to recognize/discuss this > variant, or at least I cannot find it on their sites. > > Questions: > > 1) Is the license DFSG-compliant? > > 2) Must the license text including that sentence be mentioned in > debian/copyright? > > 3) Is it correct to use a 'BSD-2-Clause' keyword that expanded to a pure > BSD-2-Clause license text (i.e., without the sentence), or must a new > stanza (e.g., 'BSD-2-Clause-unchanged') be used that expands to the > appropriate blurb include the missing sentence? > > I'm guessing Yes, Yes, and BSD-2-Clause-unchanged, but that would just > be my opinion. I agree with you in all three cases: Yes, Yes, and BSD-2-Clause-unchanged (or whatever you feel like calling it). Thank you for being so diligent in checking the license text. -- Soren Stoutner soren@debian.org
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