Re: On the license audit for Debian's TeX-related packages
Norbert Preining <preining@logic.at> wrote:
> There are two areas:
> - actual checking the licenses:
> This is about updating the TeX Catalogue with correct/verified license
> information. Normally it looks like this: Choose a package, get the
> stuff from the nearest CTAN archive, check all the files for license
> statements, MANIFEST files, etc etc etc. If you are sure what is the
> license, update the TeX Catalogue entry for this package.
>
> Since teTeX and TeX Live for Debian uses the information from the
> TeX Catalogue for License information this will end up finally in the
> respective Debian packages.
> required or acquired knowledge:
> - license checking, some basic knowledge about licenses
> - basic svn stuff, updating the TeX Catalogue uses
> svn or sending the stuff to us.
I would add here:
- some basic knowledge about the way (La)TeX packages
pack their stuff in dtx files and generate input files
and documentation from that
because this is needed to verify whether all files in a directory are
actually covered by the respective license.
The list of tasks is easy to describe here:
- Add tpm files to tetex-base's debian/tpm/ directory until all files
are covered
- check licenses until no tpm in TeXlive has "unverified" status
> - improve the scripts in teTeX and TeX Live in Debian which generate a
> license document from the installed files and the information in the
> TeX Catalogue. This need some work, but currently neither Frank nor
> me has time to invest much time into tpm2licenses script, which is
> currently doing the work
> required or acquired knowledge
> - perl scripting
> - debian packaging
We should also try to make a list of tasks here. One that comes to my
mind is: Allow special-cases for the tpm files which contain things from
different CTAN packages, like the psnfss tpm files.
> Ok, loads of things I have written. If you find something interesting
> for you, just tell us, we will be happy to see any support in any area.
> If you haven't seen anything of interest, maybe something else might be
> of interest (Debian packaging stuff, automatic test systems, ...), just
> let us know.
Better documentation of the technical aspects of texlive package
building, license checking etc. might also be a nice side effect: Once
you've understood it, write it down.
Regards, Frank
--
Dr. Frank Küster
Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer (teTeX/TeXLive)
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