Bug#681616: lintian: False positive: unused-license-paragraph.. when two licenses are given and described in different places
Hi Martin,
It seems I forgot to CC you on this. In short, I believe this is not a
bug in Lintian, but rather a bug in the DEP-5 copyright file in
question. See below for the rationale (or the bug log for #681616).
~Niels
On 2013-09-05 13:39, Niels Thykier wrote:
> On 2013-09-05 12:24, Dominik George wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>>> It is my understanding that:
>>>
>>> """
>>> Files: A
>>> Copyright: ...
>>> License: X or Y
>>>
>>> License: X
>>> $LICENSE_TEXT_FOR_X
>>>
>>> License: Y
>>> $LICENSE_TEXT_FOR_Y
>>> """
>>>
>>> Works as intended.
>>
>> actually, it doesn't.
>
> Your sample copyright file does not follow the above pattern. Namely,
> your case has text under the "License: X or Y", which is presumed to be
> the full text of the License. I.e. your case does:
>
> """
> Files: A
> Copyright: ...
> License: X or Y
> blah
> """
>
> Rather than
>
> """
> Files: A
> Copyright: ...
> License: X or Y
> """
>
>> I am not aware of a package in the distribution,
>> but mirabilos (Cc) and I stumbled upon this issue while preparing some
>> packages for upload. I am attaching the relevant debian/copyright file
>> for your reference. (Please note that the BTS mangles linebreaks in
>> plaintext attachments in false accordance with MIME).
>>
>
> Thanks for the reference; it was quite helpful in finding the issue. :)
>
>> Maybe it is not allowed to give a descriptive paragraph in the Files:
>> section, like we did?
>>
>> -nik
>>
>
> I think that is the problem, from [1]:
>
> """
> If there are no remaining lines, [...]. Otherwise, this field should
> either include the full text of the license(s) or include a pointer to
> the license file under /usr/share/common-licenses. [...]
> """
>
> So, my reading of that is that all content of the License-field (after
> the first line) is the "full text" of the license (or a pointer to the
> license in /usr/share/common-licenses). The remark you have in your
> file should probably be moved to another field (e.g. Comment). You need
> not prefix it with "X-" as I recall.
>
> ~Niels
>
> [1]
> http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/#license-field
>
>
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