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Re: DEP5: Making "Files: *" non-optional

On Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 08:59:34AM -0700, Manoj Srivastava wrote:

On Mon, Sep 13 2010, Lars Wirzenius wrote:


The current DEP5 draft says:

 * **`Files`**
   * Required for all but the first paragraph.
     If omitted from the first paragraph,
     this is equivalent to a value of '*'.
   * Syntax: white space separated list
   * List of patterns indicating files covered by the license
     and copyright specified in this paragraph.  See "File patterns" below.

Does anyone oppose if I remove the "If omitted..." sentence? I see no
reason to make the format unnecessarily complicated by having it
optional. In other words, I propose to make the "Files:" field mandatory
in all paragraphs except the first (header) one, where it is not allowed
at all.


       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.


Is this question any different from what I responded to on August 13th?

Here is, I believe, an example of what you ask for:

Copyright: 2009, John Doe
License: GPL-2
 Verbatim license from source bla bla with reference to common-licenses
With Lars' proposal (and allowed now too, but not mandated) it would look like this: 

Files: *
Copyright: 2009, John Doe
License: GPL-2
 Verbatim license from source bla bla with reference to common-licenses




       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.


Hmm.  Interesting indeed!
Yes, this is actually one thing that I silently found relief in when the ability to drop the "Files: *" line for first (non-header) section was introduced: Until then I felt slightly awkward about stating that _all_ files had a certain license, when in fact I knew for sure that only some of them explicitly stated copyright and licensing. 


 - Jonas

--
 * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
 * Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/

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