Bug#737559: copyright-format: author != copyright, add an author field?
severity 737559 wishlist
user debian-policy@packages.debian.org
usertags 737559 = normative issue
quit
Hi Daniel,
Daniel Pocock wrote:
> Author and copyright holder are not always the same person/entity.
[...]
> License: GPL2
> Copyright: 2014, Acme, Inc http://acme.example.org
> Author: Bob, http://example.org/bob
Sure. A few thoughts:
- I don't think debian/copyright needs to list everyone who
contributed to the code --- to me, the copyright holders and some
contact information for upstream seem more important, and the
detailed authorship information can go elsewhere (e.g., a README or
THANKS file, or the changelog). But policy's more ambiguous about
that. See http://bugs.debian.org/678607.
- The above is already valid syntax, since custom fields can be added
to any paragraph. Feel free to try it and let us know how it goes.
(copyright-format sayeth:
No prefixing is necessary or desired, but please avoid names
similar to standard ones so that mistakes are easier to catch.
Future versions of the debian/copyright specification will
attempt to avoid conflicting specifications for widely used
extra fields.
)
- Response when this last came up[1]:
This is nice in spirit, but I would personnally not feel like
maintaining a contributor list, because there is mostly only
blame to get in case it is inaccurate, so I would only use the
field to point at a contributors file.
This is the kind of field that I would prefer to see tested in
real life before being standardised in DEP-5.
So, I think this is a reasonable idea, and if more than two or so
packages start using the field then it's probably worth documenting in
policy to allow tools to start to consume it if they like.
Thanks,
Jonathan
[1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2010/07/msg00088.html
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